Overview of industrial parks and economic zones in Vietnam

After 30 years of development, the current situation of many industrial parks / industrial zones in Vietnam needs to be comprehensively re-evaluated in terms of development and contribution to the development of economy as well as the industrialization and modernization of Vietnam.

Therefore, on November 20^th, 2020, the Ministry of Planning and Investment held a workshop in Ho Chi Minh City to report and to summarize 30 years of construction and development of industrial parks, industrial zones and economic zones, in which Deputy Minister Tran Duy Dong (Mr.) was chairman.

Attending the workshop, from the side of the Ministry of Planning and Investment, there were members including General Director of the Department of Management of Economic Zones Nguyen Thi Bich Ngoc (Mrs.), along with representatives of a number of units under this Ministry. From the side of other Central Committees, Ministries and Branches, there are representatives including Mr. Phung Van Hung - Standing member of the National Assembly's Economic Committee and representatives of the Ministries of Industry and Trade, Justice, Finance, Construction, Natural Resources and Environment. From the local side, there are leaders of the management boards of export processing zones, industrial parks and economic zones of provinces and municipalities.

Speaking at the opening of the workshop, Mr. Tran Duy Dong said that after 30 years since Tan Thuan Export Processing Zone - the first export processing zone, Vietnam has gained achievements in the development of industrial and economic zones.

Up to now, there have been 369 industrial parks or industrial zones established nationwide with total area of nearly 114 thousand hectares; 26 border-gate economic zones established with total area of about 766 thousand hectares and 18 coastal economic zones established with total land and water surface area of nearly 853 thousand hectares.

Industrial zones/ industrial parks and economic zones have made great contributions to Vietnam's growth and development achievements through gaining foreign direct investment capital, arousing and improving efficiency of domestic resources use, supplementing essential capital source into the total social investment capital, increasing export turnover, contributing to the expansion of international markets, changing the structure of exports, contributing significantly to budget revenue and creating so many jobs.

In addition to the above-mentioned contributions, the formation and development of industrial parks and economic zones have had considerable effects on other areas of Vietnam economy, including promoting economy restructure, speeding up the process of industrialization and modernization of the country, strongly developing the industry, gradually bringing Vietnam to join the global production chain and value chain; developing urban infrastructure, promoting manufacturing linkages and regional linkages; encouraging environment protection and expanding foreign relations. The development of the model of industrial parks and economic zones has proactively contributed to perfecting institutions, improving the business investment environment, and encouraging the reform of administrative procedures.

Deputy Minister Tran Duy Dong supposed that despite achieving the above important results, the development of industrial zones / industrial parks and economic zones over past time also revealed some limitations such as industrial park development planning not yet showing its strategic and overall vision. In some places, the planning and development of industrial parks and economic zones are not in track with the development needs and the ability of attracting investment.

At the same time, the concentration of industrial parks in some localities makes pressure on technical and social infrastructure in the area around industrial park; the development model of industrial parks and economic zones is still slow to innovate; the quality and efficiency of investment attraction and land use efficiency in industrial parks and economic zones are still not high; industrial parks and economic zones have not developed sustainably in terms of economy, environment and society; supporting investment in development of technical and social infrastructure inside and outside industrial parks is still low compared to demand.

Countries around the world, especially developing countries, continue to consider industrial parks and economic zones effective models for industrial development and investment attraction. Traditional park models that are export-oriented and financial incentives relied are being drastically transformed to improve competitiveness based on advanced management models; industrial cooperation and symbiosis for efficient use of raw materials, energy, resources, and shared services.

In addition, the 4.0 Industrial Revolution promotes the transformation of production models, business cooperation, and global value chains; methods of operating, organizing and mobilizing resources of enterprises, which will be transforming enterprises from simple digitization to innovative-forms enterprises based on a combination of various technologies, which are supposed to affect the development model and orientation of industrial parks and economic zones in Vietnam in coming time.

The workshop was organized to look back on the development of industrial parks / industrial zones and economic zones over past 30 years, which leads to comprehensively assessing the achieved results, limitations, weaknesses and proposing suitable solutions.

In addition to the presentations at the Workshop, the delegates focused on discussing and evaluating the achieved results, shortcomings and lessons learned in the development of industrial parks and economic zones in the locality. At the same time, they assessed the shortcomings and limitations of the development of industrial parks and economic zones recently and the basic causes including issues related to state management of industrial parks (policy formulation, planning development, legal framework for the development of industrial parks and economic zones, model of organizational apparatus of the focal agency for state management of industrial parks and economic zones); coordination among Ministries, Branches and Localities; development model of industrial parks, economic zones) and competitiveness of attracting investment to industrial parks and economic zones in Vietnam compared to other countries (investment preferential policies, labor, procedures, etc.).

Based on the content discussed at this Workshop, the Ministry of Planning and Investment will investigate and finalize a draft Report on summarizing 30 years of construction and development of industrial parks / industrial zones and economic zones based the Government Decision to submit to the Prime Minister for consideration and decision.