Singapore's Sembcorp to build industrial park in northern Vietnamese border province

The Ministry of Planning and Investment has submitted a plan for the Vietnam-Singapore Industrial Park (VSIP) project in the northern province of Lang Son to the Prime Minister for approval.

In August 2022, VSIP Group, a leading industrial park and township developer in Vietnam, signed a memorandum of understanding with Lang Son province for the construction of the facility, also known as Huu Lung Industrial Park, with an investment of VND6.36 trillion ($271.3 million).

Lang Son province, which borders China, allowed VSIP to survey the project site in March 2021. The 600-hectare industrial park, which will employ 42,000 people, is located in Ho Son and Hoa Thang communes, Huu Lung district.

It features 428 hectares for factories and warehouses, 10 hectares for technical facilities, seven hectares for administrative purposes, 86 hectares for traffic infrastructure, and 69 hectares for forestation.

VSIP Group, a joint venture between Sembcorp Development and Becamex IDC, has developed 12 industrial parks to date. The IPs are located in Bac Ninh, Hai Phong and Hai Duong in the north; Nghe An, Quang Tri and Quang Ngai in the central region; and Binh Duong and Can Tho in the south.

During the Singapore visit of Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh in February, the Vietnamese government presented Sembcorp and Becamex with an investment license to develop the 500-hectare VSIP II in Nghe An province. The license is an expansion of the successful 750-hectare VSIP Nghe An I established in 2015.

Last October, Sembcorp received an investment license to develop a 293.7-hectare industrial park in Can Tho city, its first in Vietnam's Mekong Delta.

In January, Sembcorp announced it would build the third VSIP in Binh Duong province as a zero-emissions industrial park, the first of its kind in the country.

Lang Son's index of industrial production (IIP) rose 4.98% in the first quarter of this year, according to local data. Growth was driven by an increase of 6.92% in the manufacturing-processing sector, 3.53% in electricity production and distribution, and 1.94% in the mining sector.

Some key products in the period included 156,010 tons of coal, up 3.2% year-on-year; 295,590 tons of cement, up 12.4%; and 240.6 million kWh of electricity, up 4.5%.