Workers process canned meat at a company in the southern province of Long An. The province continues to maintain top position in the Mekong Delta in attracting investment into its industrial zones. — VNA/VNS Photo Kim Phuong

HCM CITY — Long An Province continues to maintain its top position in the Mekong Delta in attracting investment into its industrial zones.

In the year to date, as many as 61 projects, including 24 by foreign investors worth more than US$174 million have been licensed in the province, Phan Thanh Phi, head of the Long An Economic Zone Management Board, said.

At a conference on 15 years of developing industrial parks in Long An last week, he said domestic firms had invested VND2.13 trillion ($101.4 million) and leased 60ha of land and 40,000ha of factories.

Seventy per cent of projects were Japanese.

Long An Province has 28 industrial parks covering a combined area of 10,200ha, whose infrastructure totally cost $77 million and VND34 trillion ($1.6 billion).

They had attracted 766 projects worth $1.7 billion and VND27.6 trillion ($1.3 billion).

Of them 360 had already begun operating, and the rest were preparing to build factories.

According to the Long An Economic Zone Management Board, which did a study, the development of industrial parks faces challenges like low occupancy rate, pollution, and inconsistency in investment policies. — VNS