HCMC – Ideal land for foreign investors

In the eyes of foreign investors, the city has many advantages that make it attractive.

Mr. Alistair Sawer, founder and CEO of TLC Modular Construction Company, voiced his opinions after he had invested and done business in Vietnam for more than 30 years. The company’s product is prefabricated houses - an innovative solution for the future of the construction industry with huge global demand.

Though the factory is located in Ba Ria - Vung Tau Province, its headquarters is in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 1.

CEO Alistair Sawer explained the company’s headquarters in HCMC facilitates the connection with customers throughout Vietnam and the Southeast Asia region because the city is becoming a center linking with other countries in the region. According to the British businessman, the bustle and dynamism of Ho Chi Minh City always attracts international partners looking for cooperation opportunities. The city’s dwellers and government are quite open-minded to new ideas, so it is very favorable for new startup projects.

During a recent meeting with Ho Chi Minh City leaders, Consul General of Singapore to Ho Chi Minh City Kho Ngee Seng Roy informed that Singaporean businesses think of HCMC as the first destination when they look for investment opportunities in Vietnam.

He affirmed that the amount of capital and actual investment projects of Singaporean businesses in the city will continue to increase as they commit to long-term business development. Singapore is currently the largest foreign investor in Ho Chi Minh City with investment capital accounting for 25 percent of total foreign investment capital in the city.

The Funding Societies, the largest digital financial group in Southeast Asia for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), has been operating in Ho Chi Minh City since 2021 and has disbursed more than US$100 million.

Managing Director of Funding Societies Vietnam Ryan Galloway revealed that he has expressed his expectation that his partners should pour investment in Ho Chi Minh City.

Meanwhile, Mr. Seck Yee Chung, Director of Baker & McKenzie Law Company, one of the largest foreign law firms in Vietnam, announced that the company’s operation in Vietnam for the last 20 years was a very exciting journey and brought many achievements.

He showed his pleasure after spending years in Ho Chi Minh City adding that he looked forward to working in the southern largest city for many more decades. All foreign investors who love the city also wish the city to have a more favorable investment environment.

Mr. Alistair Sawer wanted the city to always maintain an airy environment for investors, simplify administrative procedures and make access to information increasingly convenient. To compete with other regions, according to him, Ho Chi Minh City also needs to have various incentives, especially for industries and fields which the city wants to attract investment in. Meanwhile, Singaporean investors want more information about investment attraction projects, planning, and land use plans.

Mr. Seck Yee Chung highly appreciated Ho Chi Minh City's priority in developing data centers saying that if many investors can access specific information such as information about conversion or extension plans in industrial parks and export processing zones whose land use term is about to expire or information about functional zoning, infrastructure development plans, more investors will surely pour investment in the city.

Although many administrative procedures have been resolved online, investors hope the city will continue to streamline administrative procedures, how to resolve documents as quickly as possible for businesses.

According to data recently announced by the Foreign Investment Department under the Ministry of Planning and Investment, in 2023, Ho Chi Minh City became the champion in attracting foreign investment. The southern largest city appealed a total registered investment capital of more than US$5.85 billion, accounting for nearly 16 percent of the country's total registered investment capital.

The city also saw a year on year increase of 48.5 percent in foreign investment in 2023. Ho Chi Minh City is also currently leading the country in the number of valid foreign-invested projects, with more than 12,300 projects. In particular, in the eye of foreign investors, the Ho Chi Minh City High-Tech Park is quite attractive, especially with high-tech projects.

Presently, 50 FDI projects are being carried out in the Ho Chi Minh City High-Tech Park with a total investment capital of more than US$10 billion including more than 10 of the world's leading high-tech corporations Intel, Jabil, Rockwell Automation (USA), Nidec, Nipro, NTT (Japan), Samsung (Korea), Sonion (Denmark), Datalogic (Italy), Sanofi (France), and TTI (Germany).

In recent years, the yearly export turnover of the Ho Chi Minh City High-Tech Park has reached US$20-23 billion accounting for 52 percent of the export turnover of Ho Chi Minh City.