The HCM City People’s Committee wants changes made to a proposal to convert industrial parks and export processing zones into eco-industrial and high-tech zones by 2025.

Earlier, the HCM City Industrial Parks and Export Processing Zones Authority (HEPZA) had submitted the plan for the committee's approval with the aim of gradually weeding out labour-intensive firms and those using outdated technologies in Industrial Parks (IPs) and Export Processing Zones (EPZs).

It has instructed HEPZA to clarify certain requirements related to investment in high technologies by businesses.

HEPZA should encourage enterprises in existing industrial zones to convert their businesses into eco-services and ecological urban areas, it said.

It needs to come up with solutions for moving enterprises from their current IPs to new ones after their land lease expires and do not want to convert their businesses, it said.

It also needs to identify lands on its borders with neighbouring provinces and in underdeveloped areas or near the city’s gateways for developing new industrial parks in future, it said.

HEPZA plans to pilot the programme at four IPs: Tan Thuan EPZ in District 7, Tan Binh IP in Tan Binh district, Hiep Phuoc IP in Nha Be district, and Cat Lai IP in Thu Duc city.

It also wants to build two new industrial zones in Binh Chanh district, the 320ha Le Minh Xuan 2 Industrial Park and 670ha Pham Van Hai Industrial Park, to house clean, advanced and high-tech industries.

Recently, the Ministry of Planning and Investment, in collaboration with the UN Industrial Development Organisation and the Management Board of IPs and EPZs, held a seminar in the city to discuss how to turn IPs and EPZs into eco-industrial parks (EIPs).

This is among the activities within the framework of the project on establishing EIPs in Vietnam following the Global Eco-Industrial Parks Programme (GEIPP), in which Hiep Phuoc IP is selected to be the first in HCM City to pilot the model.

Speaking at the event, Pham Thanh Truc, deputy head of Management Board of IPs and EPZs in the city, said that after 30 years of construction and development, IPs and EPZs in the city have gained certain achievements, making positive contributions to the industrialisation and modernisation of the country. However, there remain certain limit ations.

Sharing the same view, Nguyen Tram Anh, an expert from the Ministry of Planning and Investment, said that the limit ations in the development of IPs today are the lack of linkages between businesses in the zone; inefficient use of resources; unsecured energy and water; and their negative impacts on the natural environment and living environment of near-by residents.

She affirmed that the trend of shifting from traditional IPs to EIPs is inevitable.

The city has 17 IPs, EPZs and high-tech parks covering a total area of more than 3,800 hectares. It targets having 23 ‘green’ high-tech EPZs and IPs with 6,000ha./.