Hòa Phú Industrial Zone in the northern province of Bắc Giang. The province will concentrate on speeding up the implementation of projects, especially those on construction of infrastructure in industrial parks and clusters of Hòa Phú, Quang Châu, and Song Khê-Nội Hoàng. -- Photo baobacgiang.com.vn

BẮC GIANG – The northern province of Bắc Giang plans to focus on developing industrial parks and clusters to welcome a new wave of investment to the locality, according to Director of the provincial Department of Industry and Trade Trần Quang Tấn.

Tấn said that from now until the end of 2020, the province would prepare necessary conditions, especially in infrastructure and human resources, as well as land, in anticipation of foreign investment, especially from multi-national groups.

The province would complete dossiers and submit to the Prime Minister for decisions on several investment proposals, including a project to build infrastructure for the Việt Nam-Republic of Korea industrial park, along with the addition of two industrial-urban-service areas of Yên Sơn-Bắc Lũng and Yên Lũ into the national master plan on industrial parks development to 2020.

At the same time, Bắc Giang would concentrate on speeding up the implementation of projects, especially those on the construction of infrastructure in industrial parks and clusters of Hòa Phú, Quang Châu, and Song Khê-Nội Hoàng, thus creating a land fund for investment attraction.

In 2020, the Bắc Giang Department of Industrial and Trade would advise the province on the building of planning for industrial parks and clusters, and integrating them into the province’s planning, Tấn said.

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

Bắc Giang would also work to ensure the expansion of industrial parks and clusters is made in association with the protection of security and defence, as well as the protection of the ecological environment and food safety.

Meanwhile, industrial areas would have synchronous infrastructure in terms of electricity and water supply, transportation, and telecommunications, along with the construction of urban, service and trade areas as well as housing for workers and other social infrastructure systems such as healthcare and education.

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

In industrial clusters, Bắc Giang would call for small and medium-scale projects in production, which use local workers, with priority on projects in food and agricultural product processing.

Bắc Giang would also focus on speeding up the construction of the Bắc Giang city logistics centre, thus making it coherent with the development of industrial parks and clusters and optimising the flow of goods and currency, reducing cost and enhancing goods value. This would help improve the supply chain and expand multi-form transportation, enhancing the locality’s attraction to investors.

Currently, Bắc Giang has 1,322 hectares of industrial parks and 1,384 hectares of industrial clusters.

The province has attracted 1,269 domestically-invested projects worth over VNĐ88 trillion (US$3.79 billion), along with 461 foreign-invested projects with combined capital of more than $6.1 billion.

Despite the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, in the first six months of 2020, Bắc Giang enjoyed a 9.2 per cent year-on-year growth in industrial production to VNĐ115 trillion, fulfilling 41.8 per cent of the locality’s target for the whole year.

In the period, production of the State-owned sector grew 10 per cent, while that of the non-State sector fell 2.6 per cent, and FDI firms rose 11.6 per cent. Businesses enjoying increase in production included Fuhong Precision Component with VNĐ704 billion, Vina Cell Technology with VNĐ962 billion, and Sjtech VN with VNĐ1.16 trillion. – VNS