What is economic zone? Plans for development of economic zone network in Vietnam

What is economic zone? Plans for development of economic zone network in Vietnam (Internet image)

1. What is economic zone?

According to Clause 13, Article 2 of Decree 35/2022/ND-CP, economic zone refers to an area which is enclosed with specified geographical boundaries, including functional zones and is established to meet the objectives of calling for investments, promoting socio-economic development and maintaining national defence and security.

2. Plans for development of economic zone network in Vietnam

- A plan for development of the network of economic zones constitutes part of the provincial planning scheme in Vietnam under the regulatory provisions of point d of clause 2 of Article 27 in the Law on Planning.

- Each plan for development of the economic zone network in Vietnam must include the following information:

= Objectives, orientations, implementary organization and solutions for development of the network of economic zones in the planning period;

= List of economic zones in a province or centrally-affiliated city;

= Representation of the plan for development of the network of economic zones on the planning map.

- List of economic zones located in a province or centrally-affiliated city must contain the following information:

= Names of economic zones on the list;

= Proposed project sizes and locations of economic zones on the list.

- In order to compile a list of economic zones in a province or centrally-affiliated city, the following requirements must be satisfied:

- Economic zones on the list must be located in areas full of crucial potentials and advantages in terms of natural, resource and socio-economic conditions compared to the others nationwide in order to attract human resources, mobilize resources and develop technical utilities, social, production and business infrastructure; must be connected to international airports or class-I or higher-class seaports in the event that establishment of a coastal economic zone is proposed; must have international border gates in place as provided in law on management of land border checkpoints in the event that development of a border gate economic zone is planned; must be capable of providing easy connection to regional and international economic corridors, easy access to international markets, and being developed into large-scale industrial – urban – service and innovation centers promoting regional special potentials in the event that establishment of a specialized economic zone is proposed;

- Each coastal economic zone or bordergate economic zone must be located on the land covering an area of at least 10,000 ha; each specialized economic zone must be located on the land covering an area of at least 5,000 ha.

All of these economic zones must meet general development requirements of economic zones;

- Each economic zone can attract investment projects or items of work that are large in scale, critically important and affect the socio-economic development of the whole region;

- Economic zones on the list do not have adverse impact on historical - cultural relics, natural heritage; are in line with national defence arrangements and objectives of national defense, security, sovereignty and territory protection; enable conformance to requirements concerning environmental and natural resource protection, natural disaster prevention and control, sustainable development and response to climate change;

- Economic zones on the list are in line with the scheme for construction of the network of economic zones.

- Plans for development of the network of economic zones in provincial planning schemes must be precondition for:

= Establishment or expansion of economic zones;

= Supervision of formulation of the master plan for construction of economic zones and the revised or updated version thereof;

= Supervision of formulation and revision of the investment plan for development of technical utilities and social infrastructure needed for development of economic zones.

(Article 5 of Decree 35/2022/ND-CP)

Nguyen Thi Diem My

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