An interview with Mr. Dinh Hong Ky, published on the CafeBiz online news platform on September 18, 2026.
According to the HUBA Vice Chairman, businesses need certainty and consistency more than promises of incentives. What businesses fear most is not necessarily high costs. Their greatest fear is uncertainty.
Ensuring Livelihoods for People Who Lose Their Land
While exploring investment opportunities in industrial parks (IPs) in the Mekong Delta region, Kinh Bac City Development Holding Corporation (KBC) identified several concerns.
First, there is pressure related to planning and compensation. Local authorities are seeking to establish numerous new industrial parks and industrial clusters, requiring large areas of rice-growing land to be acquired and converted into industrial land.
How, then, can the interests of all parties be balanced while ensuring sustainable livelihoods for people whose land is acquired and avoiding complications during compensation and site clearance?
Second, industrial parks such as VSIP Can Tho, Song Hau 2 Industrial Park, and Tan Phuoc Industrial Park (Dong Thap) are expected to create tens of thousands of jobs. However, can the province ensure a sufficient supply of qualified local workers? Or will foreign direct investment (FDI) enterprises face labor shortages within industrial parks in the Mekong Delta itself?
These concerns were raised by Ms. Hang, a representative of KBC’s investment promotion department, at the Conference on Investment Connectivity and Development Cooperation between Ho Chi Minh City and provinces and cities in the Southeast and Mekong Delta regions, held on the afternoon of September 17.
Responding to the investor’s concerns, Ms. Nguyen Dinh Phuong Uyen, Deputy Director of the Dong Thap Department of Finance, stated that the province currently has six industrial parks in operation, four under development, and plans to attract investment in another 18 industrial parks.
The development of numerous industrial parks raises issues related to land acquisition and resettlement support in the locality. However, while the province supports land acquisition for economic development, it is committed to ensuring a fair balance of interests for people whose land is acquired.
Accordingly, the Dong Thap Provincial People’s Committee has assigned the Department of Construction to plan residential areas across the province for the 2026–2030 period.
Under this plan, 20 residential areas covering more than 65 hectares will provide resettlement accommodation for 2,500 households affected by site clearance.
The province also prioritizes locating residential areas adjacent to industrial parks and industrial clusters to create additional livelihood opportunities for residents through industrial activities.
Regarding labor, the Dong Thap Employment Service Center is facilitating direct connections between businesses seeking workers and local general laborers, helping reduce the need for people to leave agricultural work and their hometowns to seek employment in major cities.
As for skilled workers, the representative of the Dong Thap Department of Finance acknowledged that this remains a challenging issue. The province will work more closely with businesses to better understand their specific workforce requirements.
What Businesses Need Before Committing Capital
From a broader perspective, Mr. Dinh Hong Ky, Vice Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Union of Business Associations (HUBA), believes there is a significant gap between “expressing interest” and “making an investment decision.”
This gap increasingly depends less on individual incentives and more on the quality of the investment environment, the ability to connect value chains, and the implementation capacity of local authorities.
In the past, when selecting an investment location, businesses primarily considered land prices, labor costs, tax incentives, and proximity to markets.
These factors remain important, but according to Mr. Ky, they are no longer sufficient.
Today, businesses must simultaneously consider logistics infrastructure, energy, human resources, supply chains, digital transformation capabilities, environmental requirements, sustainable development, and access to both domestic and international markets.
More importantly, the HUBA Vice Chairman believes that businesses need certainty and consistency more than promises of incentives. What businesses fear most is not necessarily high costs. Their greatest fear is uncertainty.
A project may be able to accommodate slightly higher land costs, slightly higher labor costs, or even fewer incentives if the business knows exactly how long administrative procedures will take, who is responsible, when infrastructure will be completed, and which commitments can be fulfilled.
“Conversely, no matter how attractive a project may appear, if a business does not know whether it will take six months, 12 months, or two years to complete the necessary procedures, the cost of uncertainty may far outweigh the value of the incentives it receives,” he said.
Mr. Ky also emphasized the need to view Ho Chi Minh City and the localities of the Southeast and Mekong Delta regions as an interconnected investment space.
According to the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), approximately 70% of the Mekong Delta’s export goods still have to be transported through ports in Ho Chi Minh City and the Southeast region.
A product may be cultivated or raised in Ca Mau, processed in Can Tho, packaged using materials or equipment supplied by a company in Dong Nai, financed in Ho Chi Minh City, and exported through the Southeast region’s port system.
Thus, while administrative boundaries exist for state management purposes, business activities operate differently. Businesses invest along value chains, not according to administrative boundaries.
By connecting these regional advantages, localities can establish interprovincial value chains instead of each locality attempting to build its own self-contained ecosystem.
“We should not frame the issue as Ho Chi Minh City competing with Dong Nai, Tay Ninh, Can Tho, Dong Thap, Vinh Long, An Giang, or Ca Mau to attract the same investor. A better question is: How can every dollar invested in one locality generate additional value for many other localities?” the HUBA Vice Chairman shared.
Original article published on the CafeBiz online news platform: https://cafebiz.vn/pho-chu-tich-huba-noi-ve-noi-so-lon-nhat-cua-cac-doanh-nghiep-176260918101329369.chn
