Ba Ria-Vung Tau to abolish 12 industrial clusters

Ba Ria-Vung Tau illustration photo

In the zoning plan, Ba Ria-Vung Tau has 29 industrial clusters totaling 1,443 hectares, said Tran Thi Huong, director of the department. But only 17 of them have found developers so far, with five getting off the ground, she noted.

The infrastructure construction pace at these industrial clusters is slow, falling far behind schedule, the department said.

Investors have halted expansion projects or new ones as demand of tenants is in decline. Developers of the industrial clusters have also been grappling with financial constraints, which have affected site-clearance compensation for the families affected by their projects. Cost overruns sparked by the hefty increase of land rents from the original levels have also forced several developers to give up their projects.

The department, therefore, insisted the 12 planned industrial clusters unattractive to investors should be eliminated to avoid causing negative impacts on local residents in the project sites. Five of the 12 clusters are in Tan Thanh District, five in Chau Duc District, one in Ba Ria City and one in Dat Do District.

Their removal will not affect the province’s industrial investment and development plan, the department said. To encourage industrial cluster project owners to continue their projects, local experts requested the province to subsidize land rents if their facilities could create products meeting local demand and attract potential industries to the province in the long term.

As of February 2013, total investment capital of 17 industrial clusters that already found investors was some VND565 billion. Five of them already started infrastructure construction at a total cost of around VND549 billion, with Hac Dich 1, Boomin Vina and Ngai Giao having six secondary projects in operation with a combined cost of around VND2.6 trillion, creating jobs for about 4,000 workers.