Maintaining Hai Phong's appeal to FDI

Building on investor confidence

In late May and early June 2026, a Hai Phong delegation, led by Chairman of the City People's Committee Do Thanh Trung, paid an investment promotion visit to South Korea. As part of the city's proactive efforts to approach major corporations, introduce investment opportunities and promote specific projects, LG Innotek was among the companies the city chose to work with.

LG Innotek is no stranger to Hai Phong. The company began investing in the city’s Trang Due Industrial Park in 2016 and has gradually expanded its production of camera modules, 3D sensing modules and transmission devices for phone camera modules. As of June 2026, LG Innotek's total registered investment in Hai Phong had exceeded USD2 billion.

After nearly a decade of investment in the city, the meeting in Seoul opened a new chapter in the relationship between Hai Phong and LG Innotek. The city supported the company's plan to build a semiconductor packaging substrate manufacturing plant in the Hai Phong Free Trade Zone. It also committed to providing prompt support with investment and customs procedures, the export-processing enterprise mechanism and high-tech enterprise certification. The two sides also discussed expanding research and training activities, attracting suppliers, and connecting Vietnamese businesses with LG's supply chain.

Less than two months later, on July 30, the LG Innotek Hai Phong Semiconductor Packaging Substrate Manufacturing Plant project, with total investment of USD1 billion, was granted an investment registration certificate. The project covers more than 32 hectares in Nam Dinh Vu Industrial Park (Zone 2), developed by the DEEP C Industrial Park Complex, within the Hai Phong Free Trade Zone. The plant is expected to begin trial operations in the third quarter of 2027 and mass production in the third quarter of 2028.

Looking back on the company's development in Hai Phong, Park Hong Keun, General Director of LG Innotek Vietnam Hai Phong Co., Ltd., said that from initially focusing on mass production, the plant has become an important "hub" in LG Innotek's global network, undertaking a wide range of activities from research, development, production to quality control and customer service.

According to Park Hong Keun, these results have been built on the foundation of a Vietnamese workforce with a strong sense of responsibility, a willingness to learn and good execution capabilities, together with the city's prompt support in handling administrative procedures, upgrading infrastructure and improving the investment environment. Therefore, continuing to implement the semiconductor project in Hai Phong is not merely an expansion in scale but also reflects the company's long-term investment commitment to the city.

Creating an edge for high-quality capital inflows

LG Innotek's decision also offers a broader perspective on Hai Phong's appeal to foreign investment. In the first seven months of 2026, the city attracted approximately USD3.26 billion in FDI, up 71.8% year on year, with nearly 90% of the capital concentrated in industrial parks and economic zones. As of July, the city had 1,868 valid FDI projects from more than 40 countries and territories, with total registered capital of approximately USD54 billion.

FDI is not only increasing in scale but also shifting more clearly toward industries with high technology content and high added value. At the conference announcing the Prime Minister's decisions on economic zones and launching the Hai Phong Free Trade Zone, the city granted new investment registration certificates and approved increased investment for 13 projects, with total capital of approximately USD2.6 billion. Many of these projects are in semiconductors, electronic components, optical equipment, robotics, rare earths and high-tech machinery.

The emergence of these projects continues to add links to the industrial ecosystem already established with LG, Pegatron, Lite-On, Biel Crystal, Shin-Etsu, USI, Brother and Hyundai, together with a network of supporting companies.

The city's development potential is continuing to expand with the 6,292-hectare Free Trade Zone, the 5,300-hectare Specialized Economic Zone and the approximately 20,000-hectare Southern Coastal Economic Zone.

Alongside using long-term planning as a tool to guide development, Hai Phong will expand regional linkages and strategic supply chains; continue investing in Lach Huyen deep-water port and Nam Do Son port, expand Cat Bi International Airport, develop the Lao Cai-Ha Noi-Hai Phong railway, the coastal expressway and an internationally interconnected logistics system.

The city will also step up cooperation among the State, schools and businesses, developing high-quality human resources in engineering, digital skills, foreign languages and modern management.

Hai Phong's goal is not only to maintain its appeal to FDI or increase the scale of FDI inflows, but also to attract strategic investors, form internationally competitive industry clusters and enable the city to participate more deeply in global value chains. Each selected project that is effectively implemented must become part of the city's new development capacity and make a practical contribution to the goal of achieving annual GRDP growth of 13% or more in the 2026 - 2030 period.

LE HIEP