Fostering IPs with ecological standards

In order to prepare material facilities to receive more and more quality FDI inflows, Binh Duong is making a provincial plan with vision to 2050, which is expected to further invest in building new industrial parks (IPs) and expanding the old ones towards higher standards, with sustainable environmental factors ensured,  contributing to promoting the development of IPs meeting ecological standards.

Competition for sustainable development

In the first six months of 2023, Binh Duong's FDI attraction reached more than US$967 million, ranking fourth in the country. As of June 30, 2023, the whole  province has had 4,121 investment projects from 65 countries and territories with total registered capital of over US$ 40 billion. Binh Duong is currently ranked second nationwide in terms of FDI attraction after Ho Chi Minh city. This shows that in addition to the improved investment environment, the province’s IPs and traffic infrastructure system with connection is increasingly promoting its advantages and attracting investors, thereby greatly contributing to fulfilling the local economic growth target.

Binh Duong's industrial parks have a synchronous infrastructure system at production and business requirements of domestic and foreign enterprises. In picture: A corner of VSIP I

Binh Duong has bent on attracting projects with high technology content. According to Nguyen Trung Tin, Head of provincial IPs Management Board, the current land fund of IPs in the province has reached a fairly high occupancy rate. Binh Duong is speeding up the implementation and investment in the construction of IPs infrastructure under the plan.

The outstanding advantage of Binh Duong compared to other localities is the transport infrastructure, the infrastructure of industrial zones with inter-regional connectivity, meeting the production and business requirements of domestic and foreign enterprises. Currently, the province is focusing on well preparing conditions, satisfying the needs of investors in order to enhance cooperation efficiency; tap opportunities from the 4th industrial revolution to be proactive to welcome new FDI inflows. Province-based IPs are aiming at attracting investment in depth, sustainable development. Mr. Tin affirmed that at present, investors have very high demands on the quality of infrastructure and services in the IPs. In order to "attract" quality investment projects, Binh Duong's IPs must be also upgraded to higher standards, increasing competitiveness for sustainable development.

Towards higher standards

The 10th session of the 10^th provincial People's Council for the 2021-2026 tenure has just approved two projects of VSIP III in the phase 2 and Cay Truong IP. Accordingly, the project of construction at the scale of 1/2000  for VSIP III in the phase covers 803 hectares and the general construction project at the scale of 1/5000 for Cay Truong IP has 700 hectares. These two Ips are the multi-industry concentrated ones, with priority given to exploiting high-tech industries.

Earlier, VSIP III had a construction project for the phase 1 with an area of ​​​​over 196 hectares and attracted a number of large corporations. Noticeably, the IP has Denish LEGO Group's  children's toy factory project, with total investment of more than US$ 1.3 billion. And the project to build a jewelry manufacturing facility of Denmark’s Pandora Group with investment capital of more than US$160 million.

In the period of 2020-2025, with orientations on developing sustainable IPs under  the "3 in 1" model of industrial park - urban area - service area, Binh Duong has continued mobilizing all investment resources to build a synchronous and modern infrastructure system in association with industrial - service - urban development, contributing to creating a driving force to attract more quality investment capital inflows from domestic and foreign economic sectors to the locality.

Pham Ngoc Thuan, General Director of Becamex IDC said that in the current period, market demand poses new challenges for enterprises such as production cost efficiency, responsibility to the community and carbon reduction targets. Investors, especially FDI enterprises, must meet stricter requirements for clean products (from raw materials to production and supply stages), with clear origins to be accepted into the global value chain and increase competitiveness. Therefore, in the direction of further innovating the development model of Becamex IDC, the smart - eco-industrial park is considered as one of the important and inevitable new-style ecosystems of the era to complement the existing industrial-urban-service model.

Stemming from the desire to build up a new ecosystem - Smart - Ecological Industrial Park, since February 2023, Becamex IDC has cooperated with the World Bank to carry out a pre-feasibility study project on opportunities to develop eco-industrial parks under the Government’s Decree No. 35/2022/ND-CP under the international ecological IP framework for Bau Bang Industrial - Urban - Service Park.

The research on development of an ecological IP in Binh Duong is expected to bring many benefits, including knowledge enrichment, FDI attraction and cost saving. By establishing an internationally recognized eco-IP, Binh Duong not only gains valuable insight and performance monitoring, but also becomes an attractive destination for leading investors and FDI. In addition, the implementation of eco-IP helps to reduce production costs, improve decarbonization rating, and the competitiveness of both investors and IPs.

Reported by Ngoc Thanh-Translated by Kim Tin