The Government will soon release a decree to tighten management and increase economic effectiveness of economic zones (EZ), industrial zones (IZ) and industrial clusters (IC), a senior official has said.

"All activities to expand, readjust master plan and establish new EZs, IZs, and ICs will temporarily be stopped," said Vu Dai Thang, head of the Ministry of Planning and Investment's Economic Zones Management Board.

It was necessary now to review activities of EZs, IZs, ICs and find solutions for those that were not working effectively, wasting land and polluting the environment, he added.

Withdrawing the business licence, changing investors, narrowing areas or rejecting EZs, IZs and ICs are among the solutions being considered.

In the next step, only a few advantaged and effective EZs will be developed under the 2020 plan, others will be narrowed or readjusted based on real demand to avoid waste.

The year 2012 is going to be a tough year, and "this year will be a good chance for us to carefully review all EZs, IZs and ICs to make them more attractive to foreign investors when the economy recovers," said another official.

At present, Viet Nam has 15 EZs along the sea, 28 EZs at border points and 800 ICs. They attract 40 per cent of the nation's FDI inflow, contribute 30 per cent of industrial production value, 20 per cent of export turnover and create 15 per cent of national labourers.

However, many of them have only been able to use 30-40 per cent of the original area, causing wastage of land resources as well as severe environmental pollution.

VNS