MPI accelerate building new decree to promote economic zones

On the ministry’s website, it said the issue of new decree will be an important step to create a framework for the development of new IZs model which were already making an appearance such as industrial-urban-service zones and eco-industrial zones.

The new decree was expected to remove inconsistencies in recently-issued legal documents, such as the Law on Investment and Decree 118/2015/ND-CP, which changed the procedure of investing in industrial and economic zones, and to improve competitiveness in attracting investment.

Mr.Tran Duy Dong, Director of Economic Zone Management Department under the MPI, said that the decree would contain more attractive incentives to draw investment and simplify procedures. For example, the duration for the incentive of 10 percent corporate tax rate on projects in EZs was proposed to increase from the current 15 years to 30 years.

According to Mr.Tran Huy Dong, the incentive would be offered to large scale projects which invest in technical infrastructure or using high technology.

The latest statistics of Economic Zone Management Department showed that there were 324 IZs and 16 EZs nationwide, as of the end of November, with areas of 91,800ha and 815,000ha, respectively. Of which, Thai Binh EZ in northern Thai Binh province and Ninh Co EZ in northern Nam Dinh province were still in the planning stage. The department also reported that 220 IZs were operational, with occupancy rate of 73 percent.

IZs attracted more than 730 foreign-invested projects this year, with total registered capital of 11.2 billion USD while total domestic investments in IZs was 705.6 trillion VND in nearly 6,500 projects. So far, IZs across the country attracted nearly 7,000 foreign-invested projects, worth 110.2 billion USD, more than 60 percent of which was disbursed.

According to Mr.Tran Huy Dong, the new models of IZs would help enhance the competitiveness of IZs through diversifying investments, reducing production costs and promoting efficient use of resources but they needed mechanism for development.

Regarding EZs, as of November, EZs attracted 155 trillion VND (6.9 billion USD) worth of investments in developing the technical infrastructure system, of which foreign investments accounted for some 16 percent.

EZs have attracted 354 foreign-invested projects up till November, with total registered capital of 42 billion USD, plus more than 1,070 domestic projects worth 347.9 trillion.