News: The Business Times - 14 January 2010
Local govt support critical to success of VSIP: PM Lee
He is confident joint project will receive strong backing, become a showcase
By LEE U-WEN
IN HAI PHONG CITY, VIETNAM
WHERE swathes of barren land and vast padi fields now lie, in the years to come will be shopping malls, a top-class financial centre, hotels, medical centres, schools and high-rise homes.
This is just a flavour of what the massive 1,600-hectare Vietnam-Singapore Industrial Park (VSIP) in Hai Phong City - the third-largest city in Vietnam and located some 90km from the capital, Hanoi - will have to offer when completed in 10 years.
Speaking at the groundbreaking ceremony yesterday, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said that the success of this VSIP - the fourth such project between the two countries - would 'depend ever more critically' on the support of the Vietnamese government to provide good infrastructure, clear rules and favourable incentives to encourage investments.
'I am confident that the project will receive strong backing and grow into an exceptional development showcase in Vietnam,' said Mr Lee, adding that the integrated township and industrial park was a 'concrete symbol of (the) excellent bilateral cooperation' between Singapore and Vietnam. The project is a collaboration between Vietnam's state-owned Becamex IDC Corporation and Singapore's Sembcorp Industrial Parks.
The Hai Phong VSIP - which will cater to an expected 150,000-resident population by the time the project is done - has a total investment capital of US$100.4 million for the first phase of development, covering 611 ha and comprising the business park, industrial zone, commercial and residential plots.
The first VSIP was launched in 1996 in Binh Duong in the south of Vietnam. A second township was added in that same province soon after, followed by a third in Bac Ninh in the north.
'Together, they have attracted investments worth over US$2.5 billion, and now house 380 companies from more than 20 countries and employing over 60,000 workers,' said Mr Lee. 'In this way, the VSIPs have played a small part in Vietnam's growth and transformation.'
VSIP Hai Phong co-chairman Low Sin Leng, who is also the executive chairman of Sembcorp Industrial Park, said: 'The people of Vietnam must feel proud that this is their Hai Phong project but with a bit of Singapore influence and style, and at the same time, a new Vietnamese standard.'
In his speech, Vietnam Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said that his country's government 'highly values' the contributions of Singaporean businesses in Vietnam. 'It is our policy to offer a favourable business climate to all foreign investors, including those from Singapore.'
Singapore ranks among the top five investors in Vietnam, and ranks consistently as one of Vietnam's biggest trading partners. Bilateral trade increased by about 24 per cent a year from 2006 to 2008, and stood at US$12 billion in 2008.
- end of BT article