A series of agreements for the construction of large-scale projects in Hoa Lac hi-tech industrial zone (IZ) were recently inked between investors and the management board of the IZ.
The most noteworthy is an agreement with Vietnam's largest IT firm, Finance Promotion Technology Corporation (FPT), said Nguyen Van Lang, Head of the Management Board of Hoa Lac Hi-tech IZ. The new deal will see FPT build a software facility and an information technology university within the compound.
The government has assigned FPT to manage the development of the IZ, enabling Hoa Lac to speed up infrastructure construction and attract other major investors.
The Hanoi Telecom Joint Stock Company (Hanoi Telecom) has also decided to build a new complex, including an IT research and training center.
The country's biggest shipbuilding company, Vietnam Shipbuilding Industry Group (Vinashin) will also invest in the science park, planning to house its national research and design lab within the complex.
Other projects to get under away include a center for research, development and training of financial information technology to be built by the IT and Financial Statistics Department under the Finance Ministry, and a biomedical research facility to be operated by the Hanoi Hygiene and Epidemiology Institute.
When fully operational the hi-tech IZ will employ close to 50,000 workers and earn hundreds of millions of USD in export value yearly.
Noble Vietnam, an electronic parts maker, was the first company to move into the new park, with initial investment of nearly US$5 million. After its first year of operations, Noble had exported US$1.6 million of products, and is set to start the 2nd phase of its project with a further US$10 million investment. The company expects to recruit about 800 workers.
Hoa Lac IZ has been earmarked as a key project for the country's development. It was built following a Vietnam-Japan joint declaration, with Japanese planning support.
However, since the IZ was designed a decade ago, the IZ Management Board has only completed part of the first phase of infrastructure construction, and only six investment projects have been licensed in the IZ with a total capital of more than US$7.1 million.
In an effort to speed up the pace of construction, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung recently urged Ha Tay province officials to focus on ratcheting up infrastructure work. The PM asked for the completion of construction of main roads, external walls, water supply and drainage systems in the IZ by 2008. (VNA)
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