Sticking to the highway axis, 4 major localities in the Northeast "join hands" to break through

Stick to the highway, develop together

Four localities including Hai Phong, Quang Ninh, Hung Yen and Hai Duong, together with the Vietnam Federation of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), jointly organized the forum "Linking the development of industrial parks (IPs) along the Eastern Expressway axis" on the afternoon of August 31 in Hai Phong.

This is one of a series of programs to realize the "Eastern Expressway Economic Connection Cooperation Agreement", signed on July 28, 2022 between VCCI and the above 4 provinces and cities. Accordingly, these 4 localities have agreed to jointly develop the economy on the basis of promoting the potential and advantages of each locality, increasing the growth rate and forming a growth pole in the Red River Delta region.

Leaders of 4 provinces and cities visited the exhibition booths of enterprises.

Economic linkage will expand the development space, both in breadth and depth, for the four localities. From there, it will create a dynamic economic development area, with a large international seaport (in Hai Phong), land and sea border gates to the world's largest market, China (in Quang Ninh), international airports (Hai Phong, Quang Ninh), abundant human resources (in Hai Duong, Hung Yen) and a large and potential economic development space (Hai Duong, Hung Yen).

At the forum, Mr. Pham Tan Cong, Chairman of VCCI, said that the four localities along the Eastern Expressway axis currently have 87 economic zones and industrial parks.

Of which, Hai Phong has Dinh Vu - Cat Hai economic zone and 25 industrial parks, with a total area of 12,702 hectares. Hai Duong has 24 industrial parks with a total area of about 4,508 hectares. Quang Ninh has 5 economic zones (including 3 border economic zones, 2 coastal economic zones) and 16 industrial parks, with a total area of about 388,671 hectares. Hung Yen has 17 industrial parks with an area of 4,395.43 hectares.

It is worth mentioning that the industrial parks in the four provinces and cities of the Eastern expressway axis are employing a large number of workers, contributing strongly to the budget revenue and economic restructuring of the localities.

Still lacking large-scale industrial zones

However, VCCI Chairman Pham Tan Cong said that the development of industrial parks in recent times has also revealed some limitations, and has not clearly demonstrated a strategic and overall vision.

The development speed of industrial parks is still slow, the occupancy rate of many industrial parks is still low, the ability to provide industrial services and technical infrastructure of some industrial parks is still limited. Most industrial parks have difficulty in attracting investors to develop large-scale, professional industrial parks, and lack initiative in attracting secondary investors.

The leaders of the Hai Duong Province Industrial Park Management Board want to strengthen cooperation with the Northeastern provinces and cities to promote investment attraction.

According to the industrial development plan in the provinces and cities along the Eastern Expressway axis, the number of industrial parks in the four provinces and cities is expected to double by 2030, to 139, an increase of 60 industrial parks. Currently, the new industrial parks are 45-50% full.

This will be a big challenge in organizing the implementation of planning to ensure effective exploitation of land resources.

At the forum, Chairman of Hai Phong City People's Committee Nguyen Van Tung assessed that investment attraction of the four localities was relatively good but there was still a large gap compared to major economic centers; service quality and professionalism were not uniform, and had not yet formed a complete logistics chain.

Regarding the direction of cooperation between localities in the coming time, Mr. Bruno Jaspaet, General Director of DEEP C Industrial Park Complex, commented: The formation of the Eastern Expressway system has brought many advantages, creating conditions for businesses to develop. In the coming time, DEEP C will continue to invest in Lach Huyen (Hai Phong).

"We expect that with the current connection, the infrastructure will be increasingly improved and there will be more initiatives similar to the Eastern Expressway axis," said Mr. Bruno Jaspaet.

Many delegates and experts also recommended adding preferential financial policies such as tax exemption and reduction, land rent, and priority credit loans for industrial parks, ecological zones, and ecological enterprises to encourage enterprises to carry out the conversion and build new industrial park models themselves.

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