HCMC running out of industrial land: industry insiders

"HCMC hasn’t had a new industrial park in a long time, while the land resource and the number of industrial parks in neighboring provinces are much superior," Hua Quoc Hung, head of HCMC Export Processing and Industrial Zones Authority (HEPZA) said at a conference Saturday.

Hung said from 2010 to 2015, HCMC was still ahead of other provinces and cities in terms of industrial parks and land available for further development. However, from 2016 until now, the city's industrial land resource has been narrowing steadily.

"At the moment, in industrial parks and export processing zones, there are only about 300 hectares of land that can be leased and exploited. The city has about 5,800 hectares of industrial land," Hung said.

Comparing the city's industrial land resource with some neighboring localities, Hung said that Tay Ninh currently has 11,000 hectares of industrial land with five industrial zones, Binh Duong has 18,000 hectares with 32 industrial parks, while Dong Nai has 10,222 hectares with 28. The industrial attractiveness indicators of these provinces have begun to surpass that of HCMC, Hung said.

He said that there were areas in the city that can be used, but legal hassles were preventing their development. It was a waste of resources, he added.

The HEPZA leader also said that a key task prioritized by the agency this year is to focus on advising the city to propose that the government establish a new industrial park named Pham Van Hai in Binh Chanh District over an area of 668 hectares.

The proposed Pham Van Hai Industrial Park would support high-tech applications, focusing on attracting investment in electricity, electronics, automation, start-ups, high-tech industry and environmentally friendly supporting industries that are not labor-intensive.

In addition, HEPZA will also advise the city to gradually renovate industrial parks and export processing zones. Currently, some areas have been through more than half a cycle of use. Several factories and enterprises established decades ago have become obsolete.

The city currently has established 19 out of 23 planned export processing zones and industrial parks with a total area of more than 4,500 hectares

Of the four industrial parks that are yet to be established, three have been in the planning stage for 13 years - Bau Dung (175 hectares), Phuoc Hiep (200 hectares) and Xuan Thoi Thuong (300 hectares).