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Hoa Lac zone plans made public
The Ministry of Science and Technology has made public the blueprint for the Hoa Lac Hi-Tech Zone.
Construction of the 30km Lang-Hoa Lac express way is underway with a total investment capital of more than VND7 trillion ($437 million). The project is expected to be completed by 2009.
The 1,586ha zone will include Phu Cat Commune in Quoc Oai District and the communes of Tan Xa, Ha Bang, Thach Hoa, Binh Yen and Dong Truc in Thach That District – on the outskirts of Ha Noi.
The zone will be 200ha larger than the earlier design approved by the Prime Minister in 1998.
The Hoa Lac High-Tech Zone will consist of research and development areas.
The zone will have a software park and a high-tech industrial area occupying 500ha. It will also have accommodation, a hospital, an entertainment complex, hotels and restaurants.
It is expected that by 2015, the zone will have 134,500 residents.
In the near future, a project to expand the Lang-Hoa Lac highway will be completed. The Government has also approved a new railway linking the zone with the centre of Ha Noi. The zone will also be connected to Noi Bai Airport and Hai Phong Port by rail and highway.
According to Minister of Science and Technology Hoang Van Phong, the zone will become a high-tech research, development and training centre of the national level.
"The zone should have the infrastructure and services of a modern scientific city," he said.
Deputy Minister Nguyen Van Lang, who is also head of the Management Board of the Hoa Lac High-Tech Zone, said he hoped the zone would become a scientific city.
"It will have thousands of scientists, a number of universities with domestic and foreign lecturers and many plants that produce high-tech equipment like electronic and semi-conducting products, telecommunication, digital technology, and bio-technology," he said.
According to the State’s policies on encouraging new investment, investors will be exempt from enterprise income tax for their first four years; they will then have to pay 50 per cent of the normal rate for the next nine years. Investors will also be exempt from import tax.
Hiroaki Nakagawa, chief representative of the Japan International Co-operation Agency in Viet Nam, said that when the infrastructure was completed Hoa Lac would become a high-tech zone that would be attractive to international investors.
The zone’s management board has given business licences to 30 projects worth more than US$570 million. A number of other sizable projects are under consideration. The largest of which is worth $150 million.
The FPT University, funded by the FPT company, will open in the zone towards the end of this year.
VNN
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