Hanoi pledges to facilitate investors at Hoa Lac Hi-tech Park

Hanoi continues to boost administrative reforms and take various measures synchronously for an improved business environment to better support investors, especially those in Hoa Lac Hi-tech Park. 

Chairman of the Hanoi People’s Committee Tran Sy Thanh at the dialogue held at Hoa Lac Hi-tech Park on May 10. Photo: VGP

Chairman of the Hanoi People’s Committee Tran Sy Thanh made the statement at a dialogue held on May 10 with nearly 100 businesses working in Vietnam’s first and largest hi-tech park, which accommodates dozens of leading domestic and foreign firms.

The event disseminates new legal regulations on high-tech parks and updates attendees on Hoa Lac High-Tech Park’s operating status, development direction, and the transfer of management rights from the Ministry of Science and Technology to the city People’s Committee.

Authorities in Hanoi and the Hoa Lac High-Tech Park Management Board, in particular, directly addressed and resolved investor challenges in the park by adhering to the principles of clear roles, duties, deadlines as well as results.

The goal is to help establish an environment that is welcoming, transparent, and creative for business and investment. This will give Hanoi more space to develop appropriate mechanisms and policies for Hoa Lac High-Tech Park.

In this regard, it will quickly establish itself as a major hub for high-tech research, development, and testing as well as production and innovation for the capital and surrounding areas. In the future, it will also serve as the hub of the satellite urban area west of Hanoi.

Other ideas raised at the dialogue are related to slow site clearance, insufficient accommodation for workers, power outages, and poor signals.

Vo Nguyen Phong, Director of the Hanoi Department of Construction, said about 75 ha of land, or 7.5% of the total land is set aside for housing.

Sharing at the dialogue, Vice Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Thi Bich Ngoc highlighted the role of policies in attracting investment in hi-tech parks amid fierce competition among regional rivals, especially road and infrastructure, which remain the bottlenecks.

“Conducting discussions to remove obstacles and facilitate operations of companies working in Hoa Lac High-Tech Park, reaffirming the city’s steadfast dedication to supporting businesses for the shared development of Hanoi and the entire nation,” said Tran Sy Thanh. 

Part of the dialogue. Photo: Baodautu

Hoa Lac Hi-tech Park in snapshot

Established in 1998 on an area of 1,586 ha in Thach That and Quoc Oai districts of Hanoi, Hoa Lac Hi-tech Park is designed to become a hi-tech hub for research, testing, and production of new materials and technologies to speed up the country’s industrialization and modernization and to be a role model for others of its kind nationwide. 

According to Le Thanh Son, Deputy Head of the Management Board of Hoa Lac Hi-tech Park, the zone has 109 investment projects, including 87% of domestic projects and 23% of foreign ones, with a total investment of VND115 trillion (US$4.5 billion). Of the total projects, 74 specialize in technologies and hi-tech products, 33 in information technology and telecommunications, 19 in automation, 13 in new materials, and nine in biotechnology.

The park is also home to an innovation ecosystem with the operations of the National Innovation Center (NIC) and high-quality training center with some big universities working there, including FPT University, Vietnam National University – Hanoi (VNU Hanoi), Vietnam-Japan University, Van Lang University, among others.

A multitude of housing and commercial service projects are currently under construction, in addition to the numerous social infrastructure projects (schools, restaurants, convenience stores,…) that are already operational. The projects there have created more than 14,000 jobs. They generated revenues of VND30 trillion ($1.2 billion).

Typical names working there are Viettel, FPT, South Korea-invested Hanwha Aero Engines

At present, about 24,000 people working and studying in the park. Half of the 10,000 hi-tech personnel are IT engineers.

It is designed to become a science and technology city with innovation and smart solutions specializing in research and development, testing, inoculation, and training from 2030.

Solutions for the park’s development

To speed up the development of Hoa Lac Hi-tech Park, Hanoi has planned to complete site clearance in the park within this year, and invest in infrastructure, housing, and scenery to offer a better working environment.  

In particular, Hanoi has asked its functional agencies to have special mechanisms to speed up the development of the park. Specifically, the city has added regulations related to Hoa Lac Hi-tech Park to draft a revised Capital Law, which is scheduled to be submitted to the National Assembly’s 17th session in May.

At the event, Mayor Tran Sy Thanh requested the Ministry of Science and Technology to soon submit adjusted Resolution 74/2017/ND-CP on special mechanisms applied for Hoa Lac Hi-tech Park while resuming the operation of the Intellectual Property Office in the park to support research and development (R&D) there.

He asked the city’s task force to tackle problems facing businesses and investors while suggesting solutions for each issue. The Management Board of Hoa Lac Hi-tech Park is tasked with working with the city’s Department of Planning and Investment and relevant agencies to solve problems in a quick manner.  

Specifically, Thanh underlined the need to view Hoa Lac Hi-Tech Park as “a green technology district” of the city rather than as a piece of land on which to erect factories and workshops.

“This is regarded as the 31st administrative division (Hanoi has 30 districts). Instead of being a public service unit, the management apparatus needs to be respectable, comprehensive, and capable of performing all management tasks. Only then will the issues of site clearance, investment in facilities... be resolved,” the city’s mayor stressed.

Since Hoa Lac Hi-Tech Park is intended to be a multimillion-person city, it will have adequate infrastructure for housing, healthcare, and education, he added.