Industrial parks (IPs) and economic zones (EZs) in Viet Nam had attracted more than US$110 billion from foreign investment by the end of June.— Photo baobacninh

The figure was announced at a meeting of the Steering Committee on economic zones and industrial parks development chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai on Monday.

The country currently has 289 IPs sitting on 81,000ha and 15 coastal EZs occupying some 698,000ha, plus 28 border economic zones.

All in all, some 4,665 foreign direct investment (FDI) projects totally worth $70 billion were operating in IPs, while the coastal EZs had attracted some $40 billion and that of the border EZs, $700 million.

In the first six months of 2013 alone, total aggregated registered capital was reported at $7.9 billion, accounting for more than 80 per cent of the new investment capital.

In the same period, IPs and EZs attracted more than VND14.9 trillion ($713.9 million) from Vietnamese investors. Also, Vietnamese entrepreneurs operating in these IPs and EZs had invested more than VND900 trillion ($42.8 billion) in 6,000 projects.

In the reviewed period, these IPs and EZs had earned nearly $38 billion in revenue, (an increase of 16 per cent year-on- year) and $23 billion in export turnover - contributing 45 per cent to the nation's export turnover.

Meanwhile, they have contributed almost VND30 trillion ($1.4 billion) to the state budget - an increase of 26 per cent year-on-year.

Currently, more than 2.1 million people are working in these IPs and EZs.

The meeting reached concensus on the need to adjust development of land planning and policies to attract more large-scale investment projects.

Policies on corporate income tax and export tariffs applied to the EZs required particular attention, participants said.

Addressing the meeting, Deputy PM Hai expressed high appreciation of the notable achievements recorded in the IPs and EZs over the past six months. "The high growth rate coupled with big revenues and high export turnovers recorded by the IPs and EZs demonstrate their important role in our national economic development," said Hai.

He added: "There are many things that still need to be addressed, including the low occupancy rate in the IPs and EZs, data relating to information development and employers' management.

"Crucially, we should come up with mechanisms to attract more IT projects - a catlyst for the strong development of supporting industries," he stressed.

He asked each member of the Steering Committee to look closely at problems facing each project, IP and EZ to find tailored solutions.

He ordered the Ministry of Planning and Investment to write a detailed report on the bottleneck issues relating to land and special treatments lodged by the IPs and EZs management board and project owners and submit it to the committee for consideration.

Hai also asked committee members to give concise instructions on environment management to operating enterprises, as well as on the construction of dormitories for workers. — VNS