Hi-tech parks in charming development

“It’s the  right time for Saigon Hi-Tech Park (SHTP) to focus on choosing qualified and hi-tech projects investing in SHTP after 10 years of attracting investment,” said Ho Chi Minh City-based Saigon Hi-tech Park’s managing director Le Hoai Quoc.

According to Quoc, because SHPT had limited land of 913 hectares, it needed to push the hi-tech park model based on knowledge and technology.

“In the next step of development, we will prioritise those investors who have highly added values and mainly use Vietnamese talents to help local people to approach advanced knowledge through foreign investment projects,” said Quoc.

Within the first 10 months of last year, SHTP attracted nine new projects.

Quoc said: “SHTP endeavours to do investment promotion and targets high value-added projects. We want to build up an intensive research park based on research and development (R&D) activities as a source of their innovativeness and competitiveness”.

In a similar development, Hoa Lac Hi-Tech Park after 14 years of establishment and development will also attempt to transform its hi-tech model from resource-based to knowledge-based one.

Nguyen Quan, Minister of Science and Technology, said last month at his visit to Hoa Lac Hi-tech Park that R&D should be the heart of Hoa Lac Hi-tech Park and expected the park would widen the R&D area.

The first hi-tech park in April issued letters of invitation for consulting services Hoa Lac Science and Technology City Development Project which is expected to put into service in April 2016.

Under this project, basic infrastructure will be built for an integrated science and industrial technology centre in Hoa Lac Hi-tech Park that provides research, development, education and training in the Hoa Lac area.
Apiwat Ratanawaraha, assistant professor of Department of Urban and Region Planning, Chulalongkom University, Thailand said all middle-income countries in the region had technology and innovation parks of some sorts.

Most of them were open to any technology sectors such as Vietnam’s Saigon Hi-tech Park and Hoa Lac Hi-tech Park.

“But some of the parks are sector-specific such as biotech parks in Malaysia, software park in Thailand. Even Myanmar now has an ICT/software park,” said Ratanawareha.

Le Phan Hoang Chieu, director of SHTP Laboratories, said that such hi-tech clusters were often based on strong partnership and collaboration amongst research groups of universities, research laboratories of SHTP and enterprises.

“Universities have many scientific researches for technology transfers and strong human resource, while research laboratories of SHTP own many research facilities and active clues for technology transfer and enterprises need new technology for production and business requirements,” said Chieu at last week 16th Asian Science Parks Association (Aspa) conference at Ho Chi Minh City.