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After more than a year of implementing the Prime Minister's decision on classifying investment licences, many localities have succeeded in mobilising investors and evaluating and granting investment licenses.
To date, excluding the Dung Quat Industrial Zone (IZ), the country has 57 IZs and export processing zones (EPZs) which cover 9,362ha. Of these, 33 IZs are presently home to investment projects with a registered leased land rate of over 22 percent.
The capital city of Ha Noi accommodates five IZs, including three JVs with Malaysia (the Noi Bai IZ), South Korea (the Daewoo-Hanel IZ) and Japan (the Thang Long IZ); the entirely Taiwanese-capitalised Dai Tu IZ; and Vietnamese-founded Sai Dong B IZ. So far, only the Noi Bai and Sai Dong B IZs have leased their land, with the remainder now either under capital construction or ground clearance. The Sai Dong B IZ, built in 1996 on 97ha, has leased land to 13 foreign-invested projects which occupy 35 percent of the total area. The Noi Bai IZ which was granted an establishment licence in 1994 with a registered capital of US$30 million has invested over $20 million in infrastructure construction on a 100ha area, yet could only lease 6.5ha. The Ha Noi People's Committee conferred investment licences to nine projects totalling $15.79 million last year and three projects worth $3.7 million in the early months of this year. As well, the Ha Noi Industrial Zone and Export Processing Zone Authority licensed three projects worth $9.3 million in 1997 and two others capitalised at $1.35 million in the first five months of 1998.
The northern port city of Hai Phong has three IZs, of which the 153ha Nomura IZ, a $163.5 million JV with Japan, was licensed in 1994. Despite being the most modern when compared with the entire country as well as with the rest of the region, the IZ has been able to lease only 4.5ha to eight investment projects. The remaining two IZs were allowed to become operational in 1997, including the $80 million Dinh Vu IZ, a JV with the US, Belgium and Thailand, which was built on 164ha and has so far leased three ha to only one project, and the $75 million Hai Phong EPZ which was jointly built by...