Start of construction of a shipping center in the industrial park.

Construction of a US$140 million logistics park started yesterday in the northern province of Bac Ninh’s Viet Nam-Singapore Industrial Park.

Financed by Mapletree Investments Pte Ltd (Mapletree), the park covers a total area of 55ha. When fully developed, it is expected to provide about 310,000sq.m of warehousing space designed for modern logistics operations.

The park is Mapletree’s third in Viet Nam and the first in the northern region. Its first phase comprises three warehouse blocks totalling 54,750sq.m. The first block with a total floor area of 18,250sq.m is expected to be completed in May 2011.

“Viet Nam is a very important emerging market in Asia. With its competitive cost structure and a large and well-educated workforce, it is becoming an attractive low cost alternative to China as a production base for many international corporations”, said Mapletree’s Group Chief Investment Officer Chua Tiow Chye.

“With the growing demand for logistics space in Viet Nam, we believe that Viet Nam will provide opportunities to our partners and tenants as we plug into the growth of the supply chain management sector”, he said.

“Viet Nam is integrating deeply into the world market, resulting in an increasing demand for logistics services”, said the deputy head of Bac Ninh Industrial Zones (IZs) Management Board Bui Hoang Mai.

When operational, the large-scale project will satisfy logistics demands for manufacturers not only in the province, but also in surrounding areas, and help make provincial IZs a more attractive destination.

Since the beginning of this year, the board has granted licences to 50 domestic and foreign-invested projects capitalised at $342 million, bringing the total number of licensed projects to 435 to date, worth a combined $3.3 billion.

Of these, 200 were already operational, making their contribution to shifting the provincial structure towards industrialisation, Mai said.

The province had established 15 industrial and urban zones, covering over 6,000ha, in an attempt to attract more foreign investors to hi-tech industries, logistics, trade and services sectors, he added.