Phu Tho an emerging destination for foreign investors

Phu Ha Industrial Park in Phu Tho province (Photo: tinnhanhchungkhoan.vn)

Phu Tho - The northern province of Phu Tho is emerging as an attractive destination for both local and foreign investors thanks to its uniform infrastructure, open policies, and safe business climate.

The province has attracted 103 investment projects over the last five years, including 53 FDI projects, in the four operational industrial parks (IPs) of Thuy Van, Trung Ha, Phu Ha, and Cam Khe. The number of workers at the IPs has surged, growing from just 28,000 in 2015 to 42,000 in 2020, for an increase of over 3,000 each year on average.

The four IPs are now home to 172 projects in total, including 79 FDI projects, with total registered investment of 1.67 billion USD. Most investors hail from the Republic of Korea (RoK), China, or Japan, and have primarily poured capital into electronics, mechanics, textiles and garments, packaging, food processing, agricultural and forestry products, construction materials, and cattle feed.

A number of hi-tech, large-scale FDI projects have landed in the province, for example the Namuga Phu Tho, JNTC Vina, Almus Vina electronic component manufacturing projects, and the Hanyang Digitech Vina semiconductor component project, all from the RoK.

Established last year at the Phu Ha IP, Hanyang Digitech Vina is engaged in producing memory devices such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM) used in personal computers as well as memory modules used in servers. The 45-million USD project is capable of producing 25 million single items each year and expects this to reach 100 million by the end of 2023. Main customers include global tech giants Microsoft, Facebook, Google, HP, and Dell.

Choi Dong Hyeon, CEO of Hanyang Digitech Vina, said the company decided to shift its production base to Vietnam because of the country’s political stability and open investment environment. Phu Tho, in particular, offers various support policies and ample workers, he said, adding that local IPs have good infrastructure and easy road access that make for the convenient transportation of goods.

Phu Ha IP expects to welcome 16 more FDI projects in the near future, on a combined area of about 100 ha and with registered capital of up to 400 million USD. The new projects will create around 10,000 to 12,000 jobs.

FDI inflows have fuelled Phu Tho’s industrial production, which has been valued at more than 20 trillion VND this year, nearly 20-fold higher than in 2015, with greater shares going to processing and manufacturing and supporting industries. Export revenue of the industrial sector doubled to 1.35 billion USD in 2020 compared to 630 million USD five years ago.

The province’s Index of Industrial Production (IIP) has increased 9.8 percent annually, with processing and manufacturing posting an avereage 10.9 percent growth rate per year.

Phu Tho is bracing itself for a new wave of FDI flows into Vietnam caused by the on-going trend of relocation of global production bases.

It has been speeding up the construction of infrastructure at new IPs and upgrading those in operation, especially regarding power and water supply, wastewater treatment, and telecommunications, according to Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Bui Van Quang.

He also noted that, in the near future, Phu Tho will break ground at three new IPs - Phu Ninh (100 ha), Tam Nong (350 ha), and Ha Hoa (400 ha), to meet increasing demand among investors. The IPs will be conveniently connected to the Hanoi - Lao Cai Expressway and National Highway No 2.

Phu Tho also plans to further streamline and improve administrative procedures relating to investment, land acquisitions, and basic construction, while developing exclusive financial mechanisms to remove bottlenecks in site clearance, he added.