High-tech park contributes to HCM City economy

Thirteen years after it opened, the SaiGon Hi-tech Park (SHTP) has achieved total sales of 13.6 billion USD, including 13.5 billion USD in export value.

Since the first company was licensed at the SHTP in September 2005, HCM City has issued licences to 101 additional companies with a combined investment of 4.9 billion USD, of which FDI accounted for over 4 billion USD.

SHTP's products now make up 94 percent of HCM City's hi-tech products, according to Le Hoai Quoc, head of the SHTP Management Board.

As of September 2015, 82 investment projects in the park remained valid, with total registered capital of 4.38 billion USD. These include 46 operational projects, 10 under construction, and 16 which have been licensed in 2015.

Two projects were delayed while the others are under preparation.

Quoc said the SHTP enterprises and factories have created over 22,000 jobs, with 100 percent of them being skilled workers.

The average export value of SHTP's hi-tech products in the period 2011- 2014 and the first nine months of 2015 accounted for over 90 percent of the city's exports of hi-tech products.

SHTP's export turnover also rose from 5 percent of the city's total exports in 2011 to 14.19 percent in 2014 and 18 percent in the first nine months of the year.

"These figures indicate the significant contribution of SHTP to HCM City's socio-economic development, through the park's mobilisation of foreign direct investment for the city," Quoc was quoted as saying in the Sai Gon Giai Phong (Liberated Saigon) newspaper.

"It is the value of infrastructure facilities and support industries, not the lower land rental price, that is the most important factor for tenants to SHTP," he said.

Quoc said this point of view was demonstrated with the huge investments in the SHTP, including the license granted to the 1 billion USD project of the Intel Group in 2006 and the investment certificate awarded to the 1.4 billion USD project of the Samsung Group in 2014. These huge projects have helped attract investment in the support industry.

He said the Government and the city's authority should issue policies to support domestic scientific and technological enterprises in manufacturing products that meet the criteria of FDI projects.

To help scientific and technological enterprises develop, the Government should grant tax incentives and issue policies to help them access preferential loans from commercial banks, Quoc said.-VNA