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| Signing of a strategic cooperation agreement between Hue City authorities and enterprises |
Positioning an investment attraction strategy
Vietnam is pursuing the goal of net-zero emissions by 2050 while restructuring FDI flows toward quality, technology, and innovation. Priority sectors include electronics, semiconductors, renewable energy, the digital economy, R&D, and high-tech agriculture. This orientation serves as a reference framework for localities to reposition their investment attraction strategies.
For years, Hue has charted a path toward sustainable growth. In the 2013 plan for implementing the National Strategy for Sustainable Development in Thua Thien Hue Province (now Hue City) through 2020, the city defined its goal of becoming an ecological, scenic, heritage, cultural, and environmentally friendly urban area. By 2015, the city further concretized this orientation with green production and consumption models, paving the way for green industries, agriculture, and services. This foundation has helped Hue avoid being unprepared in the face of today’s global green transition trend.
Reality has shown that this approach is the right one. Hue’s economic growth has seen significant momentum in recent years. From 2016 to 2020, the city’s average annual economic growth rate was estimated at 6.09%. By 2023, it had risen to 7.03%, and in 2024, growth exceeded 8%. Meanwhile, the city’s 2025 target of 10% growth is considered achievable, even surpassable, with the strong performance of key sectors such as tourism, industry, and construction.
Investment attraction has also shown positive signs. Since the beginning of the year, the city has issued new licenses for 41 projects and adjusted 23 projects, with total registered capital reaching 31.496 billion VND, including 9 FDI projects. Several new growth drivers are gradually taking shape as large-scale projects are set to come into operation in 2025, such as the expansion of the high-quality quartz processing plant, the expansion of Phu Bai Brewery, the wastewater treatment station at Gilimex Industrial Park, and the FPT Education Complex.
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| Workers operating the automated system at Phu Bai Brewery |
Mr. Phan Quy Phuong, Standing Member of the City Party Committee and Vice Chairman of Hue City People’s Committee, affirmed that the city consistently prioritizes the development of green industries, clean industries, and high-tech industries to create high added value while maintaining environmental balance.
The outcome of this consistent strategy is the growing presence of green projects that generate broad impacts across Hue’s economy. Notably, Kim Long Motor Hue Manufacturing and Assembly Complex covering roughly 165 hectares with an investment of around 1 billion USD has begun operating. This is a major step forward in developing the automobile manufacturing and assembly industry, playing a key role in forming an automotive industrial ecosystem, promoting technology transfer, improving production capacity, and creating thousands of high-quality jobs.
A golden opportunity
The restructuring of global supply chains and reduction requirements in emission are opening opportunities for Hue, with its unique advantages in heritage, ecological environment, knowledge base, and abundant investment room.
To make use of these advantages, the city prioritizes the attraction of clean industries, high-tech industries, and environmentally friendly sectors; encourages enterprises to use eco-friendly fuels and renewable energy; and strengthens planning efforts. It is expanding land resources for industrial supporting services, shaping and developing green industrial zones and eco-industrial parks, while reserving land for housing zones for experts and workers… laying the groundwork for attracting large-scale, technology-intensive, environmentally friendly projects...
Mrs. Nguyen Thi Minh Hien, Deputy Secretary General and Head of International Cooperation at Vietnam Association of Foreign-Invested Enterprises, noted that Hue should soon introduce clear orientations and specific solutions to encourage and support enterprises in developing eco-industrial parks, fostering linkages and cooperation in production to enable industrial symbiosis; and accelerating the development of renewable energy such as rooftop solar and wind power. This would create industrial products with high “green” value that meet export standards for major markets such as the U.S., Europe, and Japan.
For enterprises, Ms. Hien suggested weighing short-term benefits against the choice to move more slowly in order to gain long-term advantages, as investing in green industry and technological innovation requires substantial resources and highly skilled personnel. While this may increase costs and affect consumption and competitiveness in the short term, the long-term gains are significant. For infrastructure enterprises, it is crucial to select suitable investors from the outset and only attract businesses that meet green criteria and participate in industrial symbiosis within eco-industrial parks.
Currently, not only the authorities but also the business community in Hue are shifting their investment mindset. A typical example is Carlsberg Vietnam’s expansion of the Phu Bai Brewery. Recently, the brewery put into operation machinery powered by internationally certified I-REC renewable electricity combined with biomass energy, and all wastewater is treated using advanced filtration technology. The brewery also achieves a water efficiency rate of 2.09 hl/hl, placing it among Carlsberg’s top 10 most water-efficient facilities in Asia and among Vietnam’s lowest water-consuming breweries in 2024.
According to its roadmap, the brewery aims to reach 2.0 hl/hl by 2026, eliminate landfill waste by the end of 2025, and achieve net-zero emissions in production by 2028. In 2026, Carlsberg Vietnam also aims for 100% of its packaging including bottles, cans, and kegs to be reusable or recyclable, reaffirming its commitment to fostering a circular economy and sustainable packaging innovation.
Green transition is not merely a slogan. It is a genuine shift in development thinking from growth at all costs to sustainable progress. With the determination of local authorities, the proactiveness of enterprises, and the momentum of the global green-transition wave, Hue is standing at a pivotal moment to emerge as a green industrial hub and a leading destination for sustainable investment in Central Vietnam as well as the country.