HCM CITY   --  More foreign-invested enterprises are expected to relocate or open in the Southern Focal Economic Zone in the last quarter of 2018.

Ajinomoto Việt Nam, which has been in the country for 27 years, has two manufacturing plants at the Biên Hoà Industrial Park No.1 and Long Thành Industrial Park, both in Đồng Nai Province.

With five supply centres and 2,400 employees across the country, the company supplies local customers with spices, food products, beverages and biological fertilisers.

The company has invested in research and development activities to create new products suited to Vietnamese customers.

Keiji Kaneko, general director and president of Ajinomoto Việt Nam, said the company would build a new plant to make food products on an 8-hectare area in the Long Thành IP.

The company is also considering a plan to increase investment in biological fertilisers.

Many other FDI companies also plan to expand their business activities in Việt Nam.

In June last year, Bosch announced an investment of US$47 million for its plant in Đồng Nai Province, following its investments of $23 million in 2015 and $22 million in 2016.

These investments brought the total investment of Bosch in Việt Nam to $380 million, according to the Vietnam Investment Review newspaper.

Meanwhile, the Singapore-headquartered OPV Pharmaceutical Joint-Stock company has announced further investment of $47.7 million for its plant in Biên Hoà Industrial Park No 2 in Đồng Nai Province, bringing the company’s total investments at the plant to $70 million.

Nguyễn Thanh Trúc, director of Bình Dương Province’s Department of Planning and Investment, said the province attracted FDI flows of $1.3 billion in the first nine months of the year.

“The coming Asian Economic Forum gathered some 700 businesspeople from Việt Nam and over the world to Bình Dương Province. This helped lure more investment,” Trúc said.

Bình Dương authorities will soon grant investment licenses to new FDI projects, according to Trúc.

Lê Hoài Quốc, the head of the management board of the Sài Gòn Hi-Tech Park, said that more multinationals were seeking investment in Việt Nam.

After 16 years of operation, the park has received FDI of $5.4 billion from multinationals and international hi-tech firms such as Intel, Samsung and Nidec.

A number of large FDI projects will be licensed for projects at the park in the near future.

The project for Nidec’s Research and Development Centre, for example, is awaiting licensing approval from HCM City authorities.

Nidec has invested in five plants at the park, with total investment of about $500 million.

An American firm has applied for a project to manufacture a rechargeable battery for Tesla electric motorcycles.

The Tesla electric motorcycle project has total investment of about $500 million, according to a spokesperson for the hi-tech park. —VNS