Bac Giang (VNA) – The northern province of BacGiang plans to focus on developing industrial parks and clusters to welcome anew wave of investment to the locality, according to Director of the provincialDepartment of Industry and Trade Tran Quang Tan.

Tan said that from now until the end of 2020, the provincewill prepare necessary conditions, especially in infrastructure and humanresources as well as land, in anticipation of foreign investment, especiallyfrom multi-national groups.

The province will complete dossiers and submit to the PrimeMinister for making decisions on several investment proposals, including aproject to build infrastructure for the Vietnam-Republic of Korea industrialpark, along with the addition of two industrial-urban-service areas of YenSon-Bac Lung and Yen Lu into the national master planning on industrial parks developmentto 2020.

At the same time, Bac Giang will concentrate on speeding upthe implementation of projects, especially those on construction ofinfrastructure in industrial parks and clusters of Hoa Phu, Quang Chau, andSong Khe-Noi Hoang, thus creating a land fund for investment attraction.

Within 2020, the Bac Giang Department of Industrial andTrade will advise the province on the building of planning for industrial parksand clusters, and integrating them into the province’s planning, Tan said.

The official elaborated that in the period from 2021 to 2030,16 industrial parks will be formed, adding 5,044 hectares to the total area of industrialparks in the province. Meanwhile, 22 industrial clusters will be formed or expandedwith total area of 1,321 hectares, making the province ready in terms of“clean” land for receiving investment projects, creating a momentum foreconomic development.

Bac Giang will also work to ensure that the expansion ofindustrial parks and clusters is made in association with the protection ofsecurity and defence, as well as the protection of ecological environment andfood safety.

Meanwhile, industrial areas will have synchronous infrastructurein terms of electricity and water supply, transportation, andtelecommunications, along with the construction of urban, service and tradeareas as well as housing for workers and other social infrastructure systemssuch as health care and education.

In industrial parks, the province will encourage companieswith high and green technologies in electricity, electronics,telecommunications equipment, precision engineering, and support industry.

In industrial clusters, Bac Giang will call for small andmedium-scale projects in production, which use local workers, with priority onprojects in food and agricultural product processing.

In the time ahead, Bac Giang will also focus on speeding upthe construction of the Bac Giang city logistics centre, thus making itcoherent with the development of industrial parks and clusters and optimisingthe flow of goods and currency, reducing cost and enhancing goods value. Thiswill help improve the supply chain and expand multi-form transportation, enhancingthe locality’s attraction to investors.

Currently, Bac Giang has 1,322 hectares of industrial parksand 1,384 hectares of industrial clusters.

The province has attracted 1,269 domestically-investedprojects worth over 88 trillion VND (3.79 billion USD at current exchange rate),along with 461 foreign-invested projects with combined capital of more than 6.1billion USD.

Despite the impacts by the COVID-19 pandemic, in the firstsix months of 2020, Bac Giang enjoyed a 9.2 percent year-on-year growth inindustrial production to 115 trillion VND, fulfilling 41.8 percent of thelocality’s target for the whole year.

In the period, production of the State-owned sector grew 10percent, while that of the non-State sector fell 2.6 percent, and FDI firmsrose 11.6 percent. Businesses enjoying increase in production included FuhongPrecision Component with 704 billion VND, Vina Cell Technology with 962 billionVND, and Sjtech VN with 1.16 trillion VND./.