Long An province signs 9 investment certificates, 10 MoUs with investors

Long An province, an industrial hub in southern Vietnam, is attracting a new wave of investment as authorities handed over nine investment certificates and signed 10 memoranda of understanding with private investors.

At a conference held in the province Tuesday to announce the master plan until 2030, with vision extended to 2050, provincial officials announced their latest policies and granted nine investment certificates to different business projects.

They also signed MoUs with 10 investors covering several areas including infrastructure and urban development, manufacturing, environmental protection, social housing, high-tech agriculture and entertainment.

Nine of these projects have a total registered capital of about VND40.4 trillion ($1.71 billion). Among them is a $188 million manufacturing plant of Suntory Pepsico Vietnam in Duc Hoa district.

The beverage giant now operates factories in HCMC, Can Tho city, Quang Nam, Bac Ninh, and Dong Nai provinces. The last factory that it opened in the central province of Quang Nam in June 2017 has an annual capacity of 850 million liters. It cost $56 million to build.

Japan’s refrigerated warehousing business company Yokorei received an investment certificate for its subsidiary to build a $52 million refrigerated warehouse in the province’s Ben Luc district.

Another certificate went to Japan-invested Aeon Vietnam Co. Ltd. to build a mall in Tan An town, Long An's capital, with an investment of VND1.08 trillion ($45 million). This will be Japanese retail giant’s first mall in the province.

MV-Neptune Co. Ltd., a Japanese logistics firm, has obtained an investment certificate for a $45 million logistics site project inside the Nam Thuan Logistics Park. The park is located within the Nam Thuan Industrial Park in Duc Hoa district.

Texas-based project development company Energy Capital Vietnam (ECV) has become a new investor in the province as part of a consortium which includes Saigontel, Allotrope Partners (an international clean energy advisory firm specializing in emerging markets and technologies), Chart Industries (listed on the New York Stock Exchange as GTLS), and Babcock & Wilcock (a global clean power production firm).

The consortium has signed an MoU with Long An to study the development of a carbon-neutral industrial park under a circular economy model meeting European and U.S. standards.

David Lewis, chairman and CEO of ECV, said building green industrial parks with net-zero emissions will be a breakthrough for Long An in particular and Vietnam in general, enabling it to attract more U.S. and European investors.

“ECV will in the immediate future develop a green industrial park model in Tan Tap and Nam Tan Tap industrial parks,” he said.

“These green developments are attracting the attention of international lenders such as the World Bank Group,” he added.

HCMC-based Phu My Hung Development Corp. signed an MoU with Long An to study the development of urban, commercial and service areas of international standards in the province.

The corporation was established in 1993 as a partnership between Taiwanese urban developer CT&D (now Phu My Hung Asia Holdings) and HCMC’s state-run urban developer Phu My Hung Development. It is best known for developing the upmarket Phu My Hung township in HCMC’s District 7.

Vingroup, Vietnam’s largest private conglomerate, signed an MoU on developing resort and entertainment complex projects in the future.

BIM Group, another Vietnamese private conglomerate, inked an agreement Tuesday to study real estate, renewable energy, and agri-food projects in the province.

Vietnamese firm Hoan Cau Long An Co. signed an MoU to invest in industrial park infrastructure.

South Korea’s Samsung Engineering Co., Ltd. signed an MoU with the province to invest in environmental protection solutions; while state-run Korea Land and Housing Corporation (LH) will study social housing developments.

Vietnamese firm Green Royal Investment and Trade JSC will also study the feasibility of industrial park development projects in Long An.

The Japanese Consulate General in HCMC and the province’s Department of Planning and Investment will co-organize an investment promotion conference in Long An on Friday.

Long An's latest development plan envisages its emergence as a key growth driver in the Mekong Delta and a leading industrial locality in the country.

To date, Long An has attracted more than $10 billion worth of foreign direct investment (FDI), the province’s Party chief Nguyen Van Duoc said Tuesday.

This year’s first half attracted more than $472 million in registered FDI for 74 projects in Long An. This included more than $408 million registered for 39 new projects, 15 projects and $162 million higher than the same period last year, respectively.

Meanwhile, 35 existing projects have increased their charter capital by more than $64 million.

Last year, the southern province posted an 8.46% growth in gross regional domestic product and contributed VND22 trillion ($930 million)) to the state budget.