The HCM City Export Processing Zones and Industrial Parks Authority (Hepza) hopes to attract new investment worth US$900 million this year.

More than 60 per cent is targeted in four technology-oriented industries — food processing, chemical-rubber, mechanical, and information technology and supporting.

A Hepza report said new investment in the city’s industrial parks and export processing zones last year topped $840 million, an increase of 68 per cent over 2016, most of it in those four industries.

As of last year, there were 1,495 projects in the IPs and EPZs with a combined capital of nearly $10 billion.

Dao Xuan Duc, deputy head of Hepza, said simplification of administrative procedures related to investment, labour and construction in the city including Hepza helped attract investments last year.

“Investors and enterprises have seen progress in [streamlining] procedures, so they continued their investment and many of them increased their investment.”

Investment by domestic companies was higher than foreign direct investment last year, he said, describing it as a “new thing.”

This year Hepza would continue to reform administrative procedures, he promised.

Hepza is working with the city’s Department of Science and Technology to deploy IT in investment and information management, he said.

The city plans to set up a facility in Binh Chanh District mostly for start-ups, he said.

Also this year, Hepza will continue to provide assistance to companies in the city’s industrial parks and export processing zones like introducing them to a city programme that helps them invest in various sectors and pointing to labour sources.

It will co-operate with relevant agencies to resolve strikes in time to avoid adverse effects on the investment environment.

It will also safeguard the benefits of workers in industrial parks and export processing zones. —VNS