Vinh Phuc province facing challenges in leasing land to Toyota for factory expansion

Toyota Vietnam has proposed to rent additional nine hectares of land that is adjacent to its project located in Phuc Yen City, Vinh Phuc province in order to reach its operation goals by 2030.

Established in September 1995 with the initial investment capital of $89.6 million by a Japanese firm (70%), a Vietnamese company (VEAM), and a Singaporean enterprise, Toyota Vietnam is one of the first foreign automobile manufacturing joint ventures in the country and has been the leading enterprise in the market with the production of more than 50,000 units per year.

In its plan, Toyota expects to expand its operation and the area of land to meet the requirement related to the length of test track regulated in Decree No. 116 of the Government on the production and trading of imported cars. Accordingly, Toyota Vietnam targets to increase its production capacity to more than 90,000 units by 2023.

According to Vinh Phuc People's Committee, the area of land that Toyota has asked for the lease is in the key industrial development areas of the province.

So far, the total area of land leased to Toyota Vietnam and Honda Vietnam to develop their project in Vinh Phuc province is 40 hectares, which are the same as the size of a small-scale industrial park.

Vinh Phuc’s people committee states that the land Toyota asked for leasing is in accordance with its plans till 2035.

However, it is facing a number of obstacles in conducting procedures to lease the land to Toyota due to the regulations in the 2013 Land Law.

In addition, the Decree No.116 of the Government regulates that the test tracks of automobile enterprises must be completed by April 2019 while it is expected to take Toyota at least six months to construct and complete the project to meet the requirement. Therefore, the province must hand the land over to Toyota before October this year.