Horasis – golden opportunities in Binh Duong

Horasis 2018 brings together over 400 senior executives and CEOs from more than 60 countries and 400 leaders from leading Vietnamese corporations to discuss and provide solutions, visions, new business models, and supporting startup enterprises and solutions for smart cities.

Investment opportunities

At Horasis 2018 domestic enterprises have the opportunity to interact with a network of senior partners, founders, CEOs, and leaders from leading Asian, regional, and global companies. This helps the search for development partnerships, strengthening trade promotion and investment co-operation with partners.

FDI enterprises and international participants presented on November 25 at the Binh Duong Conference and Exhibition Centre to attend at Horasis 2018.

Frank-Jürgen Richter, president of Horasis Organisation, expressed hope that Horasis 2018 will help highlight Binh Duong on the global investment map.

“Binh Duong wants to attract more foreign direct investment (FDI) and our forum will serve as a platform to demonstrate the province's potential," said Richter. He added that Binh Duong and Vietnam are becoming attractive targets for foreign investors and international co-operation.

Participants visited the model of New City Binh Duong at the Horasis 2018.

For many years, Binh Duong has been an “outstanding destination" in attracting investment, especially FDI.

By the end of October 2018, there were 3,472 foreign-invested projects with the total capital of $31.7 billion registered in Binh Duong. With these results, Binh Duong ranks third after Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi in attracting FDI.

Many foreign-invested enterprises have brought about new technologies and modern manufacturing equipment to projects in Binh Duong province

The province has not been focusing only on quantity, Binh Duong has been renovating solutions in investment attraction and inviting global brands to invest in its projects. During 2016 and 2020, Binh Duong targets attracting more than $7 billion in FDI. With the results achieved so far, Binh Duong stands is more than likely to exceed this goal.

According to experts, to attract foreign investment while ensuring sustainable development, one very important issue was the need to link foreign investment capital with high-technologies in the locality. This needs to be accompanied by the added values and environmentally friendly standards which require a limited workforce and at the same time diffuse them in industrial parks and complexes. Domestic investment capital will be encouraged in the supporting industries, aiming at gradually joining the global value chain of multinational corporations.

Binh Duong smart city

According to experts, the deeper integration of Binh Duong into the international market, including the hosting of the WTA and the Horasis Asia Forum, will provide ample opportunities to expand international co-operation.

At the same time, this also offers a stable foundation for Binh Duong to realise the plan of comprehensive socioeconomic development and building out a smart city.

"With the determination of Binh Duong’s leadership to build a smart city, all interaction and activities of member delegations attending Horasis will benefit all the parties, especially discussions on Artificial Intelligence and Industry 4.0, with the constant development of education combined with doing business and innovation,” said a source from Horasis.

Some participants with great experience in smart cities shared know-how to bring this concept into reality. According to estimates by the United Nations, by 2050, 75 per cent of the global population will migrate to big cities, therefore the establishment of standard city templates is extremely needed.

According to Frank-Jürgen Richter, building smart cities is absolutely necessary and Binh Duong is well on its way to becoming a member of the Intelligent Community Forum (ICF). The province has been also actively co-operating with the Dutch city of Eindhoven in its strategy to turn Binh Duong into a smart city. At this forum, delegates will be ready to discuss with the Vietnamese partners the concept of "smart city."

Mai Hung Dung, vice chairman of the Binh Duong People's Committee, said that the province will learn valuable experiences at the Horasis Asia Forum to implement its project of building a smart city.

“Horasis Asia 2018 is the opportunity for corporations and enterprises over the world to learn more about Binh Duong and a great opportunity for Binh Duong to approach advanced technology and management experience gathered all across the world,” Dung said.

Binh Duong is aiming to attract more investors with expertise in science and technology. Binh Duong also wants to attract more investors with smarter technologies to work in more efficient and intelligent industrial parks in the near future.

Pham Hong Hai, general director of HSBC Vietnam, commented that following the success of the World Association of Urban Science (WTA) in Binh Duong, Horasis is an opportunity for Binh Duong to promote its advantages and incentives to attract more investors for the smart city project.

Meanwhile, Truong Gia Binh, chairman of FPT Corporation, acknowledged that at this forum Vietnamese businesses will not only learn about business models and governance in the Fourth Industrial Revolution, but also have the opportunity to connect and co-operate with other world-leading corporations to do something completely new.

Especially, Binh Duong will open a discussion in the forum entitled "Investment Opportunities in Binh Duong" to exchange points of view, connect partners, and introduce the potential and investment opportunities of the province to the outside world.

Priority sectors include high-tech industries, supporting industries, information technology, electricity, electronics, mechanical engineering, as well as investment in trade development, services, construction investment, infrastructure development, and human resources development.