Sonadezi Corporation as manager of Bien Hoa 1 Industrial Park in the southern province of Dong Nai will soon relocate all industrial manufacturers there to turn the estate into a commercial-service-urban complex, the company said.
Sonadezi Corporation as manager of Bien Hoa 1 Industrial Park in the southern province of Dong Nai will soon relocate all industrial manufacturers there to turn the estate into a commercial-service-urban complex, the company said.
Sonadezi will in the middle of this year start work on the project to convert the zone at a total cost of some VND14.7 trillion, or roughly US$700 million, said Chu Thanh Son, deputy general director of Sonadezi.
Son told the Daily that the project on converting the function of Bien Hoa 1 IP has won backing from the provincial government, but it is still being weighed by the Ministry of Planning and Investment in terms of incentives to support the relocation of companies in the zone.
There are a total of 110 enterprises in operation in Bien Hoa 1 IP with their daily wastewater volume amounting to more than 9,000 cubic meters. Total industrial waste volume in Bien Hoa 1 IP is around 5,300 tons monthly including 64 tons of toxic wastes, said Tran Van Tu, chairman of Dong Nai Province’s People’s Council.
Nearly 20 million residents in Dong Nai, HCMC, Binh Duong and Ba Ria-Vung Tau are using the water of the Dong Nai River for daily activities and production while the river water has been polluted heavily. Therefore, the local government has always been obsessed with the project of relocating manufacturers in Bien Hoa 1 IP to save the Dong Nai River from pollution, Tu said.
Sonadezi has made plans to convert the IP into the urban-service-trading area since 2013, Son said. However, he noted, the plan has been delayed as companies in the facility want to get greater assistance including the arrangement for new locations for their factories and tax reduction due to arising losses caused by the relocation.
All specific supporting mechanisms for the function conversion project have been submitted to the Prime Minister for approval by the authorities of the southern province of Dong Nai, Son said.
In particular, for enterprises that will have to relocate their factories, Dong Nai has proposed the application of 100% tax exemption for imported machinery and equipment and corporate income tax exemption for four years and a 50% reduction of the same tax for another nine years.
Besides, the province has also suggested giving soft loans to such enterprises.
A recent survey conducted by Sonadezi indicates that only 15% of the industrial tenants agree to relocate while up to 44% disagree to do so. Many firms when asked expressed their concerns about arising expenses for the relocation to Long Dien IP or other facilities 20-60 kilometers from the present IP in the context that they are suffering financial constraints.
Sonadezi now is operating 11 industrial parks in Dong Nai and another one in the neighboring coastal province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau. The total area of IPs under Sonadezi’s management in Dong Nai is about 3,000 hectares, representing 35% of the total area of IPs in the province and creating jobs for 181,000 workers out of 366,000 employees at such local facilities.
(Source:SGT)
