Accordingly, the law would set orientations for the development of EZs and IPs in line with regional and provincial planning.

In addition, incentives would be given to investments in EZs and IPs located in localities with challenging socio-economic conditions.

The law would also establish regulations on conditions for investments in the infrastructure systems of EZs and IPs and policies to promote sectoral linkage at EZs and IPs.

Specifically, the ministry proposed policies to promote the development of new EZ and IP models and new functional areas in EZs.

Lê Thành Quân, Director of the ministry’s EZ Management Department, said that the existing policies on EZs and IPs of Việt Nam lacked stability and consistency, and failed to create breakthroughs for the contributions of EZs and IPs to the country’s socio-economic development.

Regulations on managing EZs and IPs were currently stipulated in a decree which was proven to be limited because the operation of EZs and IPs was related to many other sectors such as planning, investment, enterprises, land, construction, environment, housing, and labour, which affected the efficiency of investment attraction, production, and business in EZs and IPs.

Upgrading the regulations on EZs and IPs became necessary to promote the development of EZs and IPs in a direction towards innovation and efficiency.

Over the past three decades, EZs and IPs saw significant developments and contributed largely to the country’s socio-economic development, but the facts showed that there were still bottlenecks which must be removed to create breakthrough development for EZs and IPs, according to the ministry.

The planning of many EZs and IPs was not based on the real demand, investment attraction orientation, and ability, as well as local competitive advantages and resources, which resulted in inefficiency, he pointed out.

The ministry’s statistics showed that as of December 2022, there were 407 IPs throughout the country, including four export processing zones (EPZs), covering a total area of 128,684ha. Of them, 292 IPs were operational with an occupancy rate of nearly 72 per cent.

Additionally, there were 26 border EZs in 21 provinces and cities with a total area of 766,000ha, and 18 coastal EZs in 17 provinces and cities with a total land and water area of 871,523ha.

IPs and EZs attracted nearly 10,400 domestic projects and 11,200 foreign-invested projects as of December 2022, with a total investment of VNĐ2.54 quadrillion (US$105 billion) and $231 billion, respectively, creating 3.9 million jobs and contributing 50 per cent to the country’s exports.

The draft law was expected to be discussed at the on-going 15th National Assembly’s sixth meeting and passed at the seventh meeting in May 2024. — VNS