Taiwanese export zone bucks Vietnam blues HO CHI MINH CITY - Just about every foreign investor dreads Vietnam's notorious bureaucracy. But the Tan Thuan Export Processing Zone in Ho Chi Minh City has turned that headache into a profitable business opportunity. Yun-Ti Young, vice president of the Taiwanese joint venture with this southern city's authorities, said on Tuesday there was growing interest in the 300 hectare (741 acre) facility. He said the EPZ could snare investment licences in two weeks for foreign firms and reckons it would shield them from some 80 percent of the country's routine bureaucracy. Tan Thuan also has its own power station, 2,000 telephone lines and direct access to port facilities and a large pool of skilled labour in the former Saigon. Young said 151 mainly wholly-owned foreign companies had obtained investment licences to set up in the EPZ with 89 of those already in production and eight currently building factories. Taiwan firms account for the greatest proportion of foreign companies in the zone at 71, followed by 52 Japanese firms, eight from Hong Kong, five from South Korea and four from Vietnam. Companies from Singapore, the United States, France, Germany, Malaysia and Australia are also active in the area. Most are in manufacturing but further details were not immediately available. The venture between Taiwan's Central Trading & Development Corporation and the investment arm of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee was making a return on its $89 million investment, Young said, declining to give details. It is regarded by industry executives and exporters as the most successful of several EPZs in Vietnam. ``At Tan Thuan we have created an environment for investors to set up and focus on their production and forget about the red tape. This is basically a one-stop shop for export investment licences,'' Young said in an interview. Communist-ruled Vietnam's bureaucracy is often cited as a key obstacle for foreign firms. The process of moving from a business idea, to securing land and an investment licence can sometimes take between 12 months and three years. Asked if Vietnam was a difficult place to do business, Young said the country was in a period of transition but that economic reforms were moving in the right direction. Total pledges from the 151 committed companies which come mainly from Taiwan and Japan amounted to more than $600 million, and some $500 million had already been disbursed by those operating in the zone, Young said. He said 54 of the companies in the zone had increased their investment or expanded their factory site. Only one has pulled out since the first firm entered in 1993. The zone had bucked the Asian economic crisis, with business picking up in the first quarter of the year when nine new investors signed up, he added. Young said he was convinced Vietnam could follow the Taiwanese model of building export-processing zones, then industrial zones before finally moving into high-technology. Last week Tan Thuan launched the design phase of a software park. Two foreign software firms already operate in the zone. ``We see development of a software industry as a natural progression because the Vietnamese are very smart and have a firm grasp of computers,'' Young said. The EPZ employs about 20,000 people and the companies inside have already taken up 60 percent of the available land. Reuters - April 27, 1999.