Hai Long Industrial - Urban - Service Park Creating Foundation for Overall Success of Thai Binh Economic Zone

Chosen as one of eight product sponsors for the detailed planning project with a 1-to-2,000 scale in Thai Binh Economic Zone, with its capacity, experience and seriousness, Bao Minh Industrial Park Infrastructure Investment Joint Stock Company completed the planning project for 390.41-ha Hai Long Industrial - Urban - Service Park, which was expected to be a pioneering, dynamic and effective project. Mr. Nguyen Van Kiem, General Director of Bao Minh Industrial Park Infrastructure Investment Joint Stock Company, said to Vietnam Business Forum’s reporter: “Bao Minh prepared necessary conditions and always made efforts for the project to be launched at the earliest to bring success to investors and to Thai Binh Economic Zone as a whole.”

The year 2020 marks the 10-year operation of Bao Minh Industrial Park. Could you please tell us about the remarkable activities of Bao Minh in Nam Dinh province?

After 10 years of operation, Bao Minh has not only achieved good business results but also succeeded in building a model industrial park in Nam Dinh province and the whole country.

First of all, Bao Minh Industrial Park was planned and invested with a synchronous infrastructure like internal traffic, water supply plant, wastewater treatment facility and social housing to form an ecologically green industrial park in the north.

Bao Minh is strongly attractive to investors and it produced more-than-expected results. It took from 2010 to 2017 for Bao Minh Industrial Park to lease out 100% of the rentable area to 14 projects (including 12 FDI projects with a total registered capital of US$434 million and two DDI projects with VND1,800 billion of investment capital). Products made by tenants in the industrial park are quite diverse and mainly exported to the United States, the European Union (EU), South Korea and China.

Another highlight is effective infrastructure management and environmental protection. Bao Minh Industrial Park currently has two classes of wastewater treatment. Tenants invested in wastewater collection and treatment systems to meet general regulatory standards and regulations, as well as criteria agreed with the Industrial Zone Authority. Bao Minh Industrial Park also invested in an advanced technology wastewater treatment plant with a daily processing capacity of 20,000 cubic meters, with the output meeting Grade A QCVN 40: 2011/BTNMT. Wastewater quality is controlled from an online monitoring station, automatically connected to the Center for Environmental Monitoring and Analysis under the Department of Natural Resources and Environment, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment for around-the-clock monitoring. In the past 10 years, no untreated industrial water droplets from the industrial zone have been discharged into the environment and Bao Minh did not let any environmental incidents occur. Therefore, outside the fence of the industrial zone, people still use water for production and livelihoods. International experts who came to survey and research the industrial park confirmed that Bao Minh Industrial Park is one of a few industrial zones in Vietnam that has well implemented environmental protection solutions.

Bao Minh was chosen as one of eight product sponsors for the detailed planning project of Hai Long Industrial - Urban - Service Park on a 1-to-2,000 scale in Thai Binh Economic Zone. How did Bao Minh research and prepare for the project implementation?

In 2017, the Prime Minister established Thai Binh Economic Zone (according to Decision 36/2017/QD-TTg dated July 29, 2017), opening a new opportunity for the local economy to accelerate. After two years of preparation, the master plan on construction of Thai Binh Economic Zone to 2040, with a vision to 2050 was approved by the Prime Minister (Decision 1486/QD-TTg dated October 28, 2019) to create a legal basis for zoning sections and attracting investment projects. Dozens of enterprises registered to engage in the Thai Binh Economic Zone Planning Project.

Bao Minh's leadership soon realized great potential for the development of Thai Binh Economic Zone like location and resources. Recently, the coastal traffic route that links six provinces (Quang Ninh, Hai Phong, Thai Binh, Nam Dinh, Ninh Binh and Thanh Hoa) was recently launched. We also forecast that Vietnam will have great advantages in investment attraction in 2020-2022 when free trade agreements with the EU and ASEAN are “ripe” and global FDI flows will be redirected to Vietnam. This is a golden opportunity for industrial zone infrastructure developers. Thai Binh Economic Zone is also planned to have up to 7,000 ha for industrial facilities. Given those huge advantages, Bao Minh decided to invest in Thai Binh Economic Zone.

Bao Minh contacted and worked with local authorities, especially with the Thai Binh Economic Zones Authority, and proved its professional business, financial capacity, and serious research to the Standing Committee of Thai Binh Provincial Party Committee to be selected one of eight product sponsors for the Hai Long Industrial - Urban - Service Park Project on a 1-to-2,000 scale. Since it was allowed to conduct the research (from May 2019) to April 2020, Bao Minh completed the whole process of surveying, researching and planning the project and reporting it to the Standing Committee of the Thai Binh Provincial Party Committee twice. The project was also approved by the Department of Construction. The company is exchanging professional opinions with the Ministry of Construction as prescribed.

As one of eight project sponsors, we found that the planning of Hai Long Industrial - Urban - Service Park matches the overall development orientation of Thai Binh Economic Zone. We can confidently affirm that Bao Minh has enough grounds to carry out the project effectively and pave the way for the overall success of the economic zone.

Bao Minh has been completing its planning documents and completing the feasibility study while waiting for the project approval. During this time, we have completed research on local social factors and economic conditions to shape investment steps. According to Bao Minh, VND3,000 billion is a significant investment value arranged for site clearance and infrastructure investment. The company actively connected partners to carry out environmental protection solutions, wastewater treatment center, water supply facilities and energy networks to get prepared for the launch of the project at the earliest when Bao Minh gets the investment decision.

Could you please tell us the project highlights and its contributions to the growth of Thai Binh economy in the future?

To make a simple comparison, Bao Minh invested US$50 million in Nam Dinh province and attracted more than US$ 600 million of investment capital from secondary investors, which employ 12,000 workers and paid a lot of money to the local budget in addition to hundreds of millions of product value each year. Hai Long Industrial - Urban - Service Park Project in Thai Binh Economic Zone has three times more investment capital than in Nam Dinh province and the added value is thus many times higher. Infrastructure enterprises are building a runway for other businesses and the economy to take off. Bao Minh does not put on a beautiful cloak for the project, but makes inner beauty because the project brings multiple benefits and contributes greatly to society.

In the development orientation to 2030, Bao Minh will prioritize maximum resources for Nam Dinh and Thai Binh provinces because these localities currently have low industrial production value. The success of Bao Minh I is a good premise for Bao Minh II to develop and draw more investors into Thai Binh Economic Zone.

How do you assess the investment and business environment of Thai Binh province? Does Bao Minh have any suggestions to provincial authorities to enhance the effect of investment attraction into Thai Binh Economic Zone?

The investment and business climate in Thai Binh province has been more open in recent years. The province also always pays attention to expanding cooperation and carrying out investment promotion in domestic and foreign provinces to attract resources for development. However, currently, Thai Binh province does not have many big businesses and projects to link production chains and generate spillover effects on investment attraction.

In order to improve the business environment and increase the appeal of the investment environment, we expect the province to speed up the construction of coastal traffic networks to change the current geographical landscape with surrounding localities. The province also needs to soon introduce preferential mechanisms and policies to attract investment in the economic zone and projects in Thai Binh province. In addition, the province needs to quickly select and carry out motivational projects out of eight projects. This is very important. The choice of the first project is as important as you start a chess game. The first right move will decide the whole game.

Thank you very much!

Source: Vietnam Business Forum