Domestic and international industrial parks and related stakeholders shared experiences implementing smart and sustainable industrial park models and proposed policy solutions to transition Vietnamese industrial parks from traditional models to smart and sustainable ones at the Vietnam Industrial Park Forum held in Ho Chi Minh City on December 19.

Organised by the Vietnam Industrial Zone Portal, the event themed “The Era of Advancement for Vietnam Industrial Parks” attracted the participation of 300 senior leaders and 35 presentations.

It served as a platform for nationwide industrial parks to share long-term visions, exchange practical experiences, propose initiatives, and recommend urgent solutions to enhance the competitiveness of Vietnamese industrial parks regionally and globally, focusing resources on investment promotion and attracting high-quality FDI.

It connected industrial parks with investors and financial organisations to fund sustainable projects, foster cooperation between government agencies, local authorities, and international organisations with industrial parks and manufacturers, promote sustainable industrial growth and meet the common standards of major global investors.

Speaking at the forum, Nguyen Chi Toan, Vice Chairman of the Vietnam Industrial Real Estate Association, said in the context of the implementation of the National Strategy on Green Growth, the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs 2030), and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP26), the transition from traditional industrial parks to green industrial parks and ecological industrial parks is an inevitable development.

The development of green industrial parks aligns with the nation’s growth ambitions and the global green transition towards Net-Zero through activities to improve production efficiency, reduce energy consumption and develop green spaces in industrial parks, Toan said.

Green industrial parks are often assessed based on international standards such as the world’s leading green building assessment standard LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), ISO 14001: Environmental management system, ISO 50001: Energy management system, and BCA Green Mark certification.

The 1.3 billion USD, 44ha factory of LEGO Group in the Vietnam – Singapore Industrial Park III in Binh Duong province, which is designed to be the group’s most sustainable in the world, is one of the new factories in the country that meets green and sustainable standards, he said.

Nguyen Dong Trung, Deputy Director of the Department of Foreign Affairs under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that Vietnam remains an attractive destination for global investment flows.

Total registered foreign direct investment (FDI) in Vietnam reached nearly 31.4 billion USD in the first eleven months of the year, up 1% over the same period in 2023.

FDI inflows into Vietnam are led by high-value industries such as processing, electronics, auto components, semiconductors and green technology, he said.

The country has seen a transition from attracting traditional manufacturing projects, taking advantage of low labor costs, to attracting investment flows into high-tech, specialised, and high-production capacity, he said.

At the forum, experts discussed policies and laws, infrastructure transformation for sustainable development, and promoting FDI, financial markets, labor and employment, and ESG practices in industrial parks.

Given the increasingly severe and pervasive impacts of climate change on global environments, economies, and societies, the transition to a low-carbon economy is highlighted not merely as an environmental imperative, but also as a significant economic opportunity, experts said.

The digital revolution, with artificial intelligence (AI) at its core, is widely recognised by scholars and experts as a key driver shaping the future global landscape, they said.

The country had 416 industrial parks established in 61 cities and provinces with a total industrial land area of around 89,000 hectares by 2023, according to the Ministry of Planning and Investment, of which, 296 industrial parks have come into operation./.