Nguyen Van Be, Chairman of the Business Association in Industrial Park in HCM City

What are the new points of Decree 35 compared to the previous regulations, sir?

In general, Decree 35 of the Government regulating the management of IZs and EZs is a breakthrough in economic policy, promptly removing bottlenecks, inadequacies, and overlaps in economic policy mechanisms, administrative procedures, and in the management of IZs and EZs.

Over the past three years, more than half of cumbersome administrative procedures and business conditions have been eliminated. However, there are still many problems and inadequacies in investment, business, import and export. Decree 35 of the Government will certainly create positive changes in hundreds of IZs and EZs nationwide, creating a strong attraction in investment, especially foreign investment.

Enterprises increase their investment capital in HCM City Hi-Tech Park

Within the framework of the investment promotion conference, the Management Board of HCM City Industrial Park awarded certificates of investment adjustment to three projects with an additional investment capital of more than US$841 million and VND180 billion.

Specifically, the project of Samsung Electronics HCMC CE Complex Co., Ltd. adjusted to increase the investment capital by more than US$841 million (increasing the accumulated investment capital to more than US$2,841 billion).

This is a factory manufacturing household electronic products including smart TVs, LED TVs and high-resolution monitors, printers, medical equipment, and other household products; in which, there will be a Research and Development Center for advanced technical applications for Samsung Group's electronic factories, and a testing laboratory in the fields of electronics and telecommunications.

HCM City Industrial Park Management Board also awarded the certificate of adjustment to increase investment capital for Hoa Binh Innovation Center project by VND150 billion (accumulated investment capital of VND900 billion), and awarded the certificate of adjustment to increase by VND30 billion for the project of Vietnam pharmaceutical and chemical factory (accumulated to VND300 billion).

In your opinion, how do the additional provisions in Decree 35 positively affect the development of IZs and EZs?

We believe that Decree 35 is not perfect, but there are solutions to many key issues, creating an open legal framework. It also has a number of policies to facilitate business development and investment.

For example, in Chapter 2, Article 9, IZs and EZs must reserve at least five hectares or 3% of industrial land for small and medium enterprises, supporting industrial enterprises, and innovation enterprises. Or Chapter 6, Article 28 mentions issues including environmental resources, assigning authority to the Management Boards of the zones to issue EIA (environmental impact assessment) to enterprises in the zone on the matter of certifying the origin of goods, and local adjustment of the zones to the approved planning.

For the Management Boards of IZs and EZs, which are assigned and authorized specific tasks, the work is almost "one-stop" but more specific than before. Many issues are mentioned by Decree 35 and have solutions and specific regulations such as export processing enterprises, on-site export methods in industrial zones, there are service enterprises, specialized industrial enterprises in export processing zones, and issues of converting agricultural land to industry, worker accommodation and housing.

Through Decree 35, does the association need any further recommendations, sir?

Of course, Decree 35 cannot be a "magic wand" to solve everything. We think that authorities at all levels and even the Management Board of IZs and EZs must have political determination, and boldly grasp the implementation, especially the stage of decentralization, delegation of authority, assignment of tasks, and authorization.

In the long term, it is necessary to summarize and form a "Law on management of IZs - EZs". The law will be a stable and sustainable legal basis for more than 400 coastal and border gate IZs - EZs nationwide.

After 30 years of construction and development of EZs and IZs, up to now, HCM City has formed 18 EZs, IZs, and high-tech zones, of which many zones have existed for 20, 25, and 30 years. Therefore, it is recommended that the Government extend for another 20 years, especially zones that are "transforming" to develop 4.0 technology.

Additionally, the city has just filled up 2,700 hectares of industrial plants and over 7,000 hectares that have been planned for industrial land but have not been allocated. Therefore, this is an urgent issue to receive investment that needs to be resolved quickly.

Thank you, sir!