Phuc Long IP: investors’ ideal location

Phuc Long IP offers many advantages to investors, including ready-to-use facilities and a convenient location

Japanese investors are exploring investment opportunitities at Phuc Long Industrial Park

Opportunities arise

Among the investor community, Long An province is seen as an ideal landing place for a new wave of investment. Long An has been a leading destination for investment into the Mekong Delta for many years. This increased investment has been developing the local economy.

In relation to other provinces in the region, Long An does not have the best investment flow, but it has room for bigger growth.

The province has many advantages in human and land resources, especially in conditions which help Long An to develop both industry and agriculture in a sustainable manner. Long An offers an open environment for investors, and is ranked highly in the Provincial Competitiveness Index. Provincial policies and administrative procedures have been continuously improved, with a team of active leaders who accompany businesses in tackling any problems.

Now Long An is shifting from a market defined by its potential to a more competitive market, one with a rapidly improving infrastructure and location connecting Ho Chi Minh City with other Mekong Delta provinces. The province now is home to four national roads and one expressway. In the future, many other transport projects will also be built, including two railway routes and ring roads No3 and 4 of Ho Chi Minh City.

Phuc Long Industrial Park - an attractive destination for investment

The park has recently become one of the most outstanding destinations for investment in Long An province. Many foreign investors have chosen the park as a base for their factories to enter the Vietnamese market, and as a staging point to enter the ASEAN market.

Among these include Yu Yuang Vietnam Textile factory, which has invested $58 million in a textile and dyeing project. Licensed in 2014, this project will be put into operation ahead of the entry into force of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement. The factory is the largest foreign-invested project in Phuc Long. When fully operational, it will offer production capacity of more than 16,000 tonnes of fabric per year, which will be sold in both domestic and export markets.

In a recent talk with VIR, Hsieh Ming Der, director of Yu Yuang Vietnam, said that his group believes in the potential of the Vietnamese market - the investment environment of Vietnam in general and Long An province in particular. The reason this firm chose Phuc Long for its factory was because of the park’s convenient location and good infrastructure system.

Phuc Long is not only attractive for large-scale investors, but also for small- and medium-sized ones.

To accommodate the new investment wave from small- and medium-sized Japanese enterprises, Phuc Long has devised a format of ready-built factories for lease. With this format, the park has already attracted many 100 per cent foreign-invested small- and medium-sized investors from Asia and Europe.

Among these investors are SAN-EI VN specialises in metal pressing and design; Koei Kiko Vietnam working in metal framing and valve production; Cellutane Vietnam, a sofa manufacturer; Ushiwaka MG, a producer of machinery appliances and support accessories for cars; and Halvo Vietnam, a water purification company.

According to Yoshimoto Shingo, director of SAN-EI VN, apart from a strategic venue, Phuc Long Industrial Park has a good landscape and top-tier services, including legal and administrative support to deal with business procedures.

“The park’s owners always listen to the tenant’s needs in providing facilities and services at the best level. We at SAN-EI VN are always offered prompt and qualified legal support, tailored to our development strategy, from the park’s owner,” Shingo said.

A representative from Pilosio Asia Pacific, another tenant at the park, said that the company has also been well-supported by the park’s owner. Pilosio Asia Pacific started leasing 4,000 square metres of a ready-built factory in May 2015, with an initial registered capital investment of $1.5 million.

“The facilities here are good. We have just exported our first batch of goods. By the end of 2017, we will expand our operations to increase our capacity to 5,000 tonnes per year,” said the representative. “This investment is also key to our movement to shift production activities from Italy to Vietnam to meet the increasing market.”

Phuc Long has so far attracted 27 investment projects. Of these, 13 are with foreign direct investment, with total investment capital of $62 million. Fourteen are domestic companies, registered at more than VND600 billion ($26.9 million).

With a occupancy rate of more than 62 per cent, Phuc Long was among the top three industrial parks in investment attraction in Long An province last year.

Ready to welcome investors

One of the biggest advantages the park offers is that all facilities are ready for immediate investment.

Phuc Long has an ideal and strategic placement. Located right at the centre of Ben Luc town in Long An province, the park is a bridge between Ho Chi Minh City and the Mekong Delta provinces. This unique location offers the most comfortable, quick, and low-cost situation for companies trading in the region. Moreover, Phuc Long is also located next to key transport facilities such as National Road 1A, Vo Van Kiet boulevard, ring roads around Ho Chi Minh City, and the expressways of Trung Luong-Ho Chi Minh City, Ben Luc-Long Thanh, and Ben Luc-Hiep Phuoc.

The park also has convenient access to Bourbon port (three kilometres), Hiep Phuoc port (18km), Cat Lai port (25km), Tan Son Nhat International Airport (22km), and the soon-to-be-built Long Thanh International Airport (61km). The park is also 22km far from Long An International Port which will become operational in 2017.

In its first phase of 80 hectares, Phuc Long Industrial Park is invested with VND625 billion ($28 million).

According to Mai Tri Hieu, director of Phuc Long Construction and Investment Company - the owner of Phuc Long - the park has been fully invested with infrastructure systems for power and water supply, internal transport networks, and a fire prevention system. The park is also equipped with a wastewater treatment system with a capacity of 1,300 cubic metres per day.

“All of these ready-to-use facilities mean we are ready to welcome investors right now,” Hieu said.

Having already paid the leasing tax and duties for the project’s entire lifespan of 50 years, the park is ready for processing all administrative procedures.

“For investors who want to be supported with financial packages, banks are ready to serve. Moreover, we have reserved a land lot of seven hectares for investors to lease in their first phase, to explore the market before making a bigger investment into Vietnam,” Hieu said.

The park also offers other support facilities, such as a condominium for workers, Phuc Long Mart, a sport playground, office space for lease, accommodation for experts, and customs and logistics services.

The park owners also offer support on legal procedures for investors, to help them save time and cost for investment processes, from preparing and submitting investment certificates to putting their factories into operation. Last month, Phuc Long Industrial Park put its automatic environmental monitoring station into operation, to transfer wastewater data to the Long An Department for Natural Resources and Environment. Hazardous waste, industrial waste, and household waste are collected by professional collectors under strict regulations. Environmental controls are tightly enforced.

In addition, work is near finishing on the Phuc Long power station, which consists of two turbines with a capacity of 126 megavolt amperes, to transfer power via the 110 kilovol Phu Lam-My Tho transmission line. Together with the two other power stations already in use, Phuc Long power station will have sufficient capacity to power the whole park.

Phuc Long IP is now preparing for the implementation of a second phase of more than 300ha in the very near future.