Management Board of Economic Zones and Industrial Parks of the province: 20 years of accompanying the development of Thai Binh industry

With the function of state management in the fields of planning, construction, investment, environment, labor, land, organizing public administrative services, supporting enterprises to invest in production and business in Economic Zones (EZs) and industrial parks (IPs), over the past 20 years, the Management Board of Economic Zones and Industrial Parks of the province has accompanied and made an important contribution to the development of Thai Binh industry.

Manufactured at Thien Hoang Technical and Commercial Joint Stock Company (Tien Hai Industrial Park).

Laying the foundation for industrial development

The Provincial Economic Zone and Industrial Park Management Board, formerly the Provincial Industrial Park Management Board, was established on January 29, 2004. In the early days, although the unit only had 13 officers and employees with an organizational structure including an office, 2 specialized departments and the Industrial Park Infrastructure Development Company, the Board made great efforts to complete the task of managing and promoting the activities of industrial parks in the province.

Since its establishment until 2017, the Provincial Economic Zone and Industrial Park Management Board has advised the Provincial People's Committee to deploy a project to establish, adjust and supplement the planning network of industrial parks, submit it to competent authorities for approval and get approval for 6 industrial parks with a planning area of 1,228.2 hectares. In order to put the industrial parks into operation, serving the socio-economic development of the province, the Board has focused on researching and advising the Provincial People's Committee on many solutions to direct the concentration of investment resources, and at the same time have policies to socialize investment resources through attracting enterprises to participate in infrastructure investment of industrial parks. Some industrial parks such as Phuc Khanh, Nguyen Duc Canh, Song Tra, Tien Hai, Cau Nghin have been established to become large, concentrated industrial centers of the province, attracting domestic and foreign investors to cooperate and develop together.

Mr. Phan Dinh Duc, Deputy Head of the Management Board of Economic Zones and Industrial Parks of the province, shared: Thanks to clean land, well-invested and timely technical infrastructure, and the province's many preferential investment mechanisms and policies, industrial parks are like "magnets" attracting many businesses to put projects into operation. By the end of 2017, there were 171 investment projects in industrial parks, with a total registered investment capital of VND 27,281 billion, including 43 FDI projects with a total registered capital of USD 439.5 million. The operational efficiency of enterprises in industrial parks has contributed to transforming Thai Binh from a purely agricultural province to gradually shift its economic and labor structure to industry, trade and services. If in 2003, the industrial production value of enterprises in the industrial zones only reached 70.2 billion VND, accounting for 3.02% of the total industrial production value of the province, contributing 4.5 billion VND to the budget, accounting for 6.22% of the total provincial budget revenue, then by 2017 the production value reached 18,871 billion VND, accounting for about 40% of the total industrial production value of the province, the export value reached 805 million USD, accounting for 57% of the export value, contributing more than 700 billion VND to the budget. In addition to economic value, the industrial zones have created jobs for about 59,500 local workers with an average income of 4.5 million VND/person/month, truly improving people's lives and effectively solving social security policies.

With the active support of the Provincial Economic Zone and Industrial Park Management Board, Tien Thinh high-tech steel structure processing project soon came into operation.

Making Thai Binh an attractive investment destination

From 2017 to now, Thai Binh has emerged as an attractive location for domestic and foreign investors. This is the period when Thai Binh Economic Zone and many industrial parks were established, creating a large enough land fund to serve industrial development. Up to now, the whole province has 10 industrial parks established with a total area of 2,560 hectares, an increase of 2.1 times compared to the period from 2017 and before. Notably, Lien Ha Thai Industrial Park in Thai Binh Economic Zone has become a locomotive, a model for technical infrastructure investment and efficiency in attracting investment with dozens of large projects of the world's leading corporations and enterprises.

Mr. Le Dinh Dap, Deputy General Director of Green i-Park Joint Stock Company - the infrastructure investor of Lien Ha Thai Industrial Park, said: In addition to the capacity and experience of the industrial park infrastructure investor, we highly appreciate the Management Board of the Economic Zone and Industrial Parks of the province for advising the Provincial People's Committee to direct and mobilize resources to invest in developing the economic zone's traffic infrastructure with a system of key traffic axes such as the coastal road, National Highway 37, the main roads in the economic zone, Road 221A, CT.08 Expressway... This is an important factor that helps the province attract many large-brand industrial park infrastructure investors as well as secondary projects with investment scales of hundreds of millions to billions of USD.

Not only is there a breakthrough in the technical infrastructure of the Economic Zones, the Industrial Zones, the Economic Zone Management Board and the provincial industrial parks have also proactively advised the province to develop and promulgate mechanisms and policies to encourage investment that are attractive enough. At the same time, actively participate in investment promotion at home and abroad; strongly innovate and reform administrative procedures towards publicity, transparency, simplicity, shortening, minimizing processing time, creating favorable conditions for businesses. All of these factors have built trust, attractiveness, and attracted investors to Thai Binh. In the 5 years from 2018 to 2023, the total investment capital of newly registered projects in the Industrial Zones in the province reached 114,738 billion VND, of which FDI capital reached 3.8 billion USD, putting Thai Binh in the group of provinces and cities attracting the leading foreign investment capital in the country, ranking 5th in the country in 2023 in terms of attracting FDI capital. By the end of 2023, there were 333 investment projects in industrial parks (13 times higher than in 2003) with registered investment capital reaching 187,631 billion VND (388 times higher than in 2003); including 83 FDI projects with a total registered capital of 4.3 billion USD.

Deputy Head of the Management Board of Economic Zones and Industrial Parks of the province, Phan Dinh Duc, affirmed: In addition to the increase in the number of projects, the total investment capital, quality and operational efficiency of enterprises have also made a leap forward. In 2023, the industrial production value in the industrial zones is estimated at 54,737 billion VND, accounting for over 60% of the total industrial production value of the province, an increase of 781 times compared to 2003 and an increase of 2.9 times compared to 2017; the export value is estimated at 1,364 million USD, accounting for over 60% of the province's export value, an increase of 1.7 times compared to 2017 (in 2003, enterprises had almost no export activities); Taxes and payments to the state budget are estimated at 1,721 billion VND, an increase of 382.4 times compared to 2003 and 2.45 times compared to 2017. By the end of 2023, projects in the economic zones and industrial parks have created jobs and stabilized the lives of 76,620 workers, contributing significantly to improving people's living standards and implementing social security policies well.