HCM City needs to create a new and appealing incentive mechanism to attract investors to the Sai Gon High-Tech Park, Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Nguyen Van Lang has said.

"Many incentives offered by high-tech parks are also offered by other industrial parks," Sai Gon Giai Phong (Liberated Sai Gon) newspaper quoted him as saying at a meeting to review 10 years' operation of the HCM City-based park on Tuesday.

"We need to create a really different mechanism to attract investors to high-tech parks."

Cumbersome procedures, a drawn-out tax payment system, and the availability of electronic customs declaration only to big enterprises have seen the SHTP lose its attraction, he added.

Nguyen Huu Nghiep, deputy head of the city Customs Department, urged all companies to contact his department to understand how they can make electronic customs declarations.

Le Trong Hieu, senior manager, CB Richard Ellis Viet Nam, said: "The SHTP should study the Viet Nam – Singapore Industrial Park.

"It has five parks in four provinces, but 80 per cent of their growth comes from old enterprises thanks to taking good care of them."

He said the SHTP should consider offering personal income tax breaks to attract talented human resources.

Dr Le Hoai Quoc, head of the SHTP, promised after listening to the others' opinions: "The SHTP will provide incentives to enterprises, draft long-term plans to support domestic companies, increase investment in infrastructure."

So far 61 companies have been licensed to invest US$2 billion in the park, 29 of them coming from Japan, Italy, the US, and other countries who account for $1.67 billion.

Last year the park's output topped $1 billion. 

Source: VNS