FDI enterprises want to increase incentives and simplify investment procedures for worker accommodation

The above proposal was made by businesses at the 2025 Investment Legal Support Forum with the theme "Investment in industrial park infrastructure development: Updating regulations and implementation recommendations" organized by the Ho Chi Minh City Investment and Trade Promotion Center (ITPC) in coordination with the Vietnam International Arbitration Center (VIAC) on November 21.

Mr. Jeong Ji Hoon, Vice President of the Korean Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam (KOCHAM), said that in the context of a rapidly increasing labor force and limited access to housing for workers, the need to develop social infrastructure in industrial parks is becoming urgent.

Mr. Jeong Ji Hoon, Vice President of the Korean Business Association in Vietnam (left) recommended the need to perfect the legal mechanism on financial incentives, land funds, and housing development planning for workers.

Currently, the country has more than 430 industrial parks in operation with more than 4.1 million workers, but 70-80% of workers in need of housing still have to spontaneously rent accommodation due to the lack of social infrastructure.

“Many industrial parks only meet the minimum needs for education , healthcare, and cultural activities, putting great pressure on localities and affecting the quality of life of workers,” he said.

Taking some large industrial park developers such as VSIP, Becamex, Deep C as examples, Mr. Jeong Ji Hoon assessed that industrial park investors in Vietnam have good infrastructure deployment capacity, however the social infrastructure segment is still unattractive due to low profits, slow cash flow and complicated investment procedures.

He emphasized that after more than 2 years of implementation, the 120,000 billion VND credit package for social housing has only disbursed about 2%, clearly reflecting the difficulties in procedures and loan conditions. In addition, the problem of land allocation within the industrial park boundary, lengthy approval procedures and overlapping laws also hinder the project's progress.

KOCHAM representative said that Vietnam needs to continue to review and improve the legal mechanism in a more strict and specific direction while still ensuring feasibility and rationality for implementation, including issues of financial incentives, land fund, and planning. At the same time, strengthen the application of the PPP model, apply digital transformation in project approval and management to promote the development of social infrastructure associated with industrial parks in an effective and sustainable manner.

Mr. Nakagawa Motohisa, Vice President and Head of the Business Environment Department of the Japanese Business Association in Ho Chi Minh City (JCCH), said that investing in the social housing segment for workers is a potential but challenging direction in developing industrial park infrastructure.

In reality, this type of project is not really attractive to investors due to low profit margins, long payback periods, and complicated and inconsistent legal procedures. In addition, the relatively large investment costs for technical infrastructure and community services also reduce the attractiveness of the projects.

JCCH representatives also acknowledged that the overlap between legal documents and the lack of consistency in implementing preferential policies between localities remain major barriers, causing many difficulties in implementing worker accommodation projects, especially inter-regional projects or projects in integrated industrial parks.

Therefore, Mr. Nakagawa Motohisa believes that policies need to be stable, transparent and able to protect the legitimate interests of all parties, so that the private sector can participate deeply in the development of social infrastructure in industrial parks, creating a foundation for sustainable growth, labor security and enhancing the competitiveness of Vietnam's investment environment.

Specifically analyzing the current barriers, Lawyer Nguyen Gia Huy Chuong, Managing Lawyer of Global Vietnam Lawyers LLC, said that social infrastructure projects receive great attention from central and local agencies, but are still less attractive due to legal issues, along with problems related to profits.

For the worker accommodation segment, these projects mainly operate under the rental model, directly linked to labor relations in industrial parks and do not form ownership rights for residents.

This limitation leads to significant challenges in attracting investment, especially when the worker accommodation model requires synchronous technical and social infrastructure, operates within the tightly planned space of the industrial park and depends heavily on the ability to coordinate between infrastructure enterprises, manufacturing enterprises and local authorities.

Lawyer Chuong commented that the Housing Law 2023 and Decree 100/2024/ND-CP have recognized the concept and have some specific regulations on "workers' accommodation in industrial parks", but there is still a lack of detailed guidance. Therefore, when implementing housing projects for workers, investors also face more difficulties.

Another difficulty is related to the preparation of investment approval documents. Accordingly, enterprises must meet mandatory requirements on planning, infrastructure, security, and environment. However, the current guidance documents between sectors still have many points of disagreement.

“Worker accommodation projects are a necessary requirement for sustainable development of industrial zones, so to attract investment and create trust for businesses, localities need to have a mechanism to ensure rights and reduce risks for investors; incentives and procedures also need to be more feasible and convenient,” Lawyer Nguyen Gia Huy Chuong recommended.

Source: https://baodautu.vn/doanh-nghiep-fdi-muon-tang-uu-dai-don-gian-thu-tuc-dau-tu-nha-luu-tru-cong-nhan-d438675.html