The Saigon Hi-tech Park (SHTP) in Ho Chi Minh City (HCM City) is becoming an attractive destination for leading global investors.

Attracting giant investment projects

Ho Chi Minh City has attracted investors in high-tech industries. By April 2016, the SHTP had attracted 94 projects including many projects of the world’s leading groups such as Intel, Samsung, Sonio, Nidec, Jabil and the Fulbright university project.

The SHTP’s exports soared from US$1 billion in 2011 to more than US$4 billion in 2015. So far, businesses in the park have turned over US$16.1 billion worth of exports. Each employee in the SHTP has generated a value which is 9.8-fold higher than other industrial parks and export processing zones, while one hectare of land in the SHTP has generated US$14 million worth of exports.

According to Lee Sangsu, General Director of the Samsung Electronics HCMC CE Complex Co., Ltd., after construction is completed, the Samsung Electronics HCMC CE Complex project in the SHTP will become one of Samsung’s largest household electronics factories in the world generating billions of US dollars worth of revenues and about 7,000 jobs by 2020.

Tae Gyu Kim, General Director of the Daihan Climate Control Co., Ltd. which has a US$112 million refrigeration components project, said that by employing Vietnam’s high-quality human resources and providing technical training via their factories in Thailand and the Republic of Korea, the company’s factory in Vietnam is expected to become operational in the shortest possible time.

Establishing a high-tech business chain

With support from its subsidiaries such as the R&D Center, the Training Center and the Business Nurturing Center, the SHTP intends to attract investors in semi-conductive integrated circuit technology, information technology and telecommunications, automation and precision engineering.

Ho Chi Minh City Export Processing and Industrial Zones Authority Director Le Hoai Quoc said that investment projects in the SHTP have created conditions favorable for the development of support industries in Ho Chi Minh City. This is an opportunity to motivate the establishment of a domestic supply chain, build competitiveness of domestic businesses which join the global supply chain.

Le Hoai Quoc also underlined the requirement for businesses to commit to building and developing a domestic supply chain in order to receive a license to invest in the SHTP to supply products to Samsung. Specifically, South Korean businesses must commit to provide support for and transfer technology to Vietnamese businesses in order to create a domestic supply chain for Samsung in Vietnam in the next 5-7 years and to have plans on manpower training and technology transfer to Vietnamese businesses.

As for now, a number of Vietnamese businesses have invested in high-tech projects in an aim to supply products to enterprises in the SHTP. Outstanding businesses of this kind include the Phuoc Thanh Company which produces plastic ware and accessories with total registered capital of more than US$70 million and currently supplies their products for Samsung. South Korea’s Intops Company will provide full support for Phuoc Thanh in terms of choosing business lines, buying equipment and machinery, transferring technology and checking product quality to meet Samsung’s standards. They also committed to make Phuoc Thanh able to directly supply their products to Samsung without Intops in the next three years.

Source: VEN