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The Vietnam News

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President Nathan visits Vietnam Singapore industrial park

The Vietnam Singapore Industrial Park in Ho Chi Minh City has seen its tenants increase by over 150 percent since it began operations in 1999. President SR Nathan was briefed by officials on Saturday on the status of the joint venture between Sembcorp Industries and state-owned enterprise Becamex. They say the VSIP has already sold 90 percent of its first phase and 60 percent of its second to companies in the ASEAN region and beyond.

The Industrial Park which was set up during the Asian economic crisis was expected to go belly up as customers were unwilling to pay the price for a first-rate Industrial park. But VSIP owners came up with a new plan - building an economy park to complement its plans for a mega park. The economy park used local materials and designs for factories and buildings but followed international standards in building. It offered a highly skilled workforce in addition to a Singaporean management team to sell the park. And with the province's Deputy Governor and other local officials on its management board, the VSIP was able to get two out of three applications by companies to set up business here approved in a matter of days.

"We take a pro-active role in helping tenants resolve problems. I think after a while they feel its a very important factor to come to VSIP. They feel that they are assisted whatever their problems in the park or in the country in solving for them the customs problem, investment, licence problem, so on and so forth," said Lai Chun Loong, Executive Chairman, Vietnam Singapore Industrial Park. The park, which offers tenants floor space at US$38 per square metre is $10 cheaper than those in Ho Chi Minh City. President Nathan toured the park on Saturday and visited the Vietnam Singapore Technical Training Centre which supplies much of the workforce to the park. The centre, a joint Singapore-Vietnam government project, has trained over 285 workers and its aim is to train 670 by the end of next year. On Friday, the President met with the Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City's People's Committee Vo Viet Thanh at the Reunification Palace.

As industrial parks like these, symbolic of ASEAN's Foreign Direct investments, get a foothold in the Vietnamese economy, analysts say the markets there are set to boom and will continue to do so once Vietnam ratifies the US-Vietnam Bilateral trade agreement later this year.

Channel NewsAsia - February 10, 2001.