New home for southern firms

The new industrial cluster will address the growing need for quality industrial parks in the southern region

The southern economic hub is to add one more industrial cluster to its stock, looking to quench the city’s increasing thirst for industrial production venues.

Ho Chi Minh City Municipal People’s Committee recently granted Saigon Industrial Corporation an investment certificate for developing infrastructure at the city’s latest Da Phuoc Industrial Cluster in Binh Chanh district’s Da Phuoc commune.

Da Phuoc commune currently accommodates the $400 million solid waste treatment plant by the Vietnam Solid Waste Management Company Limited. The project covers 127ha and has been by far the city’s largest waste management complex with daily capacity of 2,500-3,000 tonnes.

The 117 hectare industrial cluster, to be operational in 2013, will feature 75ha of industrial land with 50ha in the first phase and 25ha for the second one and areas for resettlement, public infrastructure, social welfare, workers’ accommodation and green areas.

Managed by the city’s Department of Industry and Trade’s Industrial Clusters Management Authority, the new industrial cluster will be prioritised for mechanical, chemical, electronic-information technology and food processing projects. Of which, the authority will put more focus on high-tech, clean and high value-added export commodity production projects.

Businesses to be settled down in the cluster will have 50 year operation licence from the date of signing land lease contracts.

Formerly known as Ben Thanh Tobacco Company, Saigon Industrial Corporation was established in 2006 and has now been operating in a wide range of businesses.

Its business interests range from the plantation of raw materials in the fields of tobacco, rubber and other industrial tree crops, manufacturing and packaging, real estate developments, investment and trading consultancies and industrial property.

The firm is also the infrastructure developer of the 300ha northwest Cu Chi Industrial Zone in Ho Chi Minh City, the 100ha Thanh Phu Industrial Zone and 700ha Can Giuoc Industrial Zone in southern Long An province, 30ha Toc Tien II and 30ha Kim Long industrial parks in southern Ba Ria-Vung Tau province.

According to Ho Chi Minh City Export Processing and Industrial Zones Management Authority, as of June 2010, the city had three export processing zones and 10 industrial parks with 1,187 on-going projects capitalised at some $4.9 billion.

There were 477 foreign-invested projects with the total investment capital of $2.8 billion and 710 domestic ones with $2.1 billion of total investment fund.