Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Pham Dai Duong, Head of Hoa Lac Hi-Tech Park Management Board (Hanoi) answered VnExpress about the prosperity in attracting investment in Hoa Lac Hi-tech Park and the period Expectation on the model of national high-tech park development.
Flourishes but not as expected
- The CNC zone model was built by the Government 20 years ago with the expectation of creating "Silicon Valleys". So far, the results achieved from this model across the country like sir?
- It is true that the model of the CNC area started with the establishment of the HHTP (1998) and then Ho Chi Minh City (2002) and Da Nang (2010). In addition to these national high-tech parks, some localities also set up agriculture, high-tech biology zones, concentrated information technology zones ...
Despite being initiated for 20 years, the actual implementation has been over 10 years because we spend a lot of time learning experiences, building models, perfecting the legal basis. Must to affirm, the current model is right. The government has directed and the areas have persisted in pursuing the model.
Up to now, CNC zones at both national and local levels have initially made significant contributions to help Vietnam access to new technologies to transfer and apply in practice, attract well-known investors on the world.
Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Pham Dai Duong. Photo: Le Loan.
- Are these results commensurate with expectations and investment costs pouring into technology zones?
Of course, the Government's expectation is huge when deciding to establish high-tech zones. In fact, at this time, expectations have not been achieved due to many objective and subjective reasons. However, the initial results have also contributed to the overall development of the country's economy.
- In recent years, the image of Hoa Lac High-Tech Park is the suspension projects of abandoned land, delayed ground clearance, drip disbursement ... What did the Ministry do to improve this negative impression?
In addition to objective reasons, Hoa Lac has to faces slow ground clearance, limited infrastructure investment, incomplete policies, overlapping investment incentives and unfavorable investment attraction ...
To make change, over the years, the Ministry of Science and Technology has directed the Hoa Lac Management Board to concentrate all resources to solve these difficulties.
Up to now, the issues have basically been resolved. The premises have been cleared and legal documents have been completed. The laws on land, construction, investment, environment, taxation and implementation guidelines contain specific content. In particular, the releasing of Decree 74/2017 of the Government with many incentives has removed difficulties for Khu Hoa Lac.
The infrastructure is being invested with Japanese ODA and will be completed in the first quarter of 2019, helping to create a modern and synchronized infrastructure system.
At the same time, the Management Board also reviews the projects to ensure timely progress, avoiding land waste. Projects that are behind schedule or unable to deploy have been withdrawn and reduced the size of land.
The Management Board also called for infrastructure investment such as housing, schools, restaurants, hotels ... The Hanoi People's Committee has arranged bus routes between the city center and Hoa Lac.
- How did this change help Hoa Lac prosper, sir?
Investors are more confident in the model of Khu Hoa Lac. Recently, Nidec Japan has successfully registered two projects with a total capital of 400 million USD in the total of five committed projects of 1 billion USD. A number of Japanese and Korean companies have submitted applications to invest in Hoa Lac Area.
On June 17, at the Hanoi 2018 Conference - Investment and Development Cooperation of Hanoi City, Hoa Lac Management Board will award investment certificates to these businesses.
In the first 5 months of this year, four projects were licensed with a total capital of nearly VND 11,000 billion on an area of 15.4 hectares, an average of USD 31.5 million of investment per hectare of land. Compared to previous years (USD 19 million in 2017 and USD 13 million in 2016), the average investment capital per hectare of Hoa Lac land increased rapidly.
Up to now, the total number of valid projects is 83 projects with a total registered capital of about US $ 3.4 billion on an area of nearly 370 hectares.
Overview of HHTP. Photo: HHTP-MB of Hoa Lac.
- What is the occupancy rate of Khu Hoa Lac?
- Currently, one third of the Hoa Lac Area has been filled. This figure seems not much compare with 20 years of formation and development. However, we are not too eager to attract investment with the goal of filling, but focusing on attracting businesses with technological capacity, finance, quick disbursement and bringing socio-economic efficiency.
The goal of establishing Hoa Lac is not only to attract investment, but also to develop science and technology potential in the North in particular and the whole country in general.
In fact, this goal has achieved positive results. Many universities and research institutes supported by the governments of Japan, Korea, and France have been being implemented such as Vietnam-Korea Science and Technology Institute (V-KIST), Research Centers of Nissan Techno Company ...
A number of big Vietnamese enterprises have invested in the role of leading technology to reach international standards such as FPT Software, Viettel, VNPT Technology ...
Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc and Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam heard a report on investment attraction in Hoa Lac. Photo: Le Loan.
Differences to attract
- What is the difference of Hoa Lac compared to other industrial parks and CNC zones that make investors accept "pay money"?
- First of all, the previous obstacles have been removed. Thang Long Boulevard went into operation to help the distance from the center of Hanoi to Hoa Lac only 20 minutes.
A smart plan to transform Hoa Lac is not only an ordinary industrial park but a true city of science and technology, satellite of Hanoi. The plan has built a combination of functional areas to create a closed loop from training human resources to deploying and commercializing products. This way of building creates communities for scientists, researchers and businesses.
I think that synchronous and modern infrastructure planning is a plus point in investors' eyes.
However, that is the basic infrastructure and not enough for them. Therefore, we are building more infrastructure such as houses, schools, hospitals, restaurants, supply chains of high quality human resources ... If we do this well, Hoa Lac will have more plus points.
Along with that, the specific mechanism issued in 2017 has solved all problems regarding the policy and authority of the Management Board to the investor preferences. This mechanism has begun to take effect, minimizing the time for administrative procedures and costs for investors.
- With this change, in your imagination, when would Vietnam has "Silicon Valley" on a global level?
- With the current trend, in the context of the development of science and technology, industrial revolution 4.0, surely the demand for domestic technology development will be very large. However, in order to realize a global level "Silicon Valley" in Vietnam, I think there is still a lot of work to be done and requires the drastic determination of the Government, ministries and localities.
I believe that, with the current determination of the Government, a "Silicon Valley" will appear in Vietnam in the near future.
HHTP has built a digital bank for scientific and technological information with about 10,000 experts, 22,500 topics and projects of all levels, 3,500 patents, 900 technology applying enterprises; 400 laboratories to support technology transfer and business incubation ...
