Ho Chi Minh City "builds a new nest" to welcome the wave of high-tech FDI.
Ho Chi Minh City's Strategic Technology Center, the "nucleus" of the high-tech development strategy, will attract investment in semiconductor projects, artificial intelligence (AI), data centers, and biotechnology.
This is a strategic step by Ho Chi Minh City in concretizing Resolution 57-NQ/TW of the Politburo on breakthroughs in science, technology, innovation, and digital transformation, creating momentum to bring the country into a new era of development.
Ho Chi Minh City continues its efforts to attract FDI businesses into technology sectors. (Illustrative image: T. Thuy)
The Strategic Technology Center, expected to cover nearly 53 hectares within the Ho Chi Minh City High-Tech Park (SHTP), will begin seeking investment from the fourth quarter of 2026, according to the SHTP Management Board.
Mr. Nguyen Viet Long, Deputy Head of the Ho Chi Minh City High-Tech Park Management Board, stated that the Strategic Technology Center will have functional zones such as a production zone dedicated to high-tech manufacturing and pilot production areas (16.25 hectares); a service zone focusing on data centers (data center, AI, chip design, and expert accommodation services, 24.38 hectares); and a training and research zone, oriented towards innovation, semiconductor research, and biotechnology, covering over 7.2 hectares. The remaining area of over 5 hectares will be dedicated to technical infrastructure and green parks.
Mr. Le Thanh Nhan, Head of the Investment Promotion Department under the Management Board of Ho Chi Minh City High-Tech Park, said that the formation of the Strategic Technology Center is taking place in the context of foreign direct investment (FDI) playing a core role in SHTP, with over $11 billion to date, accounting for more than 80% of the total cumulative investment, but with only 57 projects.
FDI into SHTP is shifting strongly from processing to strategic areas such as semiconductor chip design and AI technology, with typical projects such as the data center cluster in Lot T8 by investors from Singapore worth $508 million, or the Starmason joint venture project (also a data center) worth $480 million, Mr. Nhan said.
For upcoming data center projects within the Strategic Technology Center (SHTP), Ho Chi Minh City aims to apply advanced technology standards, encouraging the use of liquid cooling technology to optimize operational efficiency and maintain a performance-to-energy efficiency (PUE) index at an advanced level according to international standards.
To ensure the quality of investment at the center, SHTP will apply a strict and transparent quantitative screening criteria: Data center projects must achieve an investment rate of over US$100 million/ha, high-tech manufacturing projects over US$20.4 million/ha, and R&D projects over US$11.5 million/ha.
The planned subdivisions within the Strategic Technology Center at Ho Chi Minh City High-Tech Park are expected to attract investment in Q4/2027.
Following the Strategic Technology Center, the nearly 195-hectare Science Park project is expected to seek investment in Q4/2027.
The Science Park is an expansion area of Ho Chi Minh City High-Tech Park, oriented towards developing a new generation high-tech park model, integrating modern digital infrastructure, green infrastructure, and research and innovation spaces, aiming for carbon neutrality before 2050.
According to SHTP, the Science Park (located in Long Phuoc ward) aims to prepare a "nest" for large-scale new generation FDI projects. This nearly 195-hectare expansion area was approved by the Government in mid-June, along with the issuance of new SHTP operating regulations to meet development requirements in the new phase.
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