The Dong Nai province People's Committee has approved in principle the establishment of a hi-tech park, expected to cost 75 million USD, in Long Thanh district.

The project's investor, Amata Vietnam Company, said the park will strive to attract Japanese and European investors who are interested in hi-tech industries.

Amata Vietnam also plans to pump further investment into two other residential area and service projects, worth a combined of 270 million USD, its general director Huynh Ngoc Phien told Dau Tu newspaper.

The company's plan is in line with the provincial tendency to attract more foreign direct investment (FDI) in hi-tech and support industries, according to its Department of Planning and Investment.

The province, meanwhile, will gradually limit labour-intensive projects with low value, especially in textiles, footwear and wood processing, while suspending the granting of investment licences to projects with a high risk of environmental pollution, the department said.

It has set a target of drawing 900 million USD in FDI this year, 28 million USD less than that of the previous year, said the department's deputy director Phan Minh Thanh.

He attributed the weaker goal to the continuous influence of the global economic downturn and provincial-level priority projects in hi-tech and support industries, which were mainly small-scale ones with low investment capital.

In the current difficult context, the department will join hands with the provincial Industrial Zone Authority to review licensed projects to ensure the capital disbursement, he said.

Last year, the province revoked licences of 48 sluggish projects with capital totalling 261 million USD, marking a 37 percent year-on-year increase in terms of project quantity.

The latest addition has brought the total number of slow-moving projects experiencing licence withdrawal to 280.

As of December, the province was home to 972 projects, capitalising at 19.3 billion USD. However, 28 of them worth 2.13 billion USD were yet to start as scheduled./.