With reference to "companies for workers" of mutual support and love, we - Kinh Bac City Development Holding Corporation (KBC) aim to meet the urgent need for housing and ensure residence for workers.

We have included the implementation of social housing projects in the synchronous and sustainable development orientation of the company. Until now, KBC have built 4,000 houses, reaching 7% of the social housing fund nationwide.

Pioneer in creating an ecologically integrated model

As a corporation running about 20 industrial park and urban area projects with strategic locations in many localities across the country, such as Bac Ninh, Bac Giang, Hai Phong, Hai Duong, Da Nang, Binh Dinh, Ho Chi Minh City, Long An, etc, KBC hold a total industrial park land fund of up to 6,387 hectares (accounting for 5.5% of the nation’s industrial park land area) and about 1,263 hectares of urban and service area land.

According to Mr. Dang Thanh Tam, Chairman of the Board of Directors of KBC, the industrial park-urban area integrated model has been deployed in many developed countries around the world with a high concentration of resources, technology and production capabilities.

In fact, building an industrial park-urban area ecosystem is not only consistent with the national orientation of building social housing, ensuring settlement and employment for workers, but also solves the problem of maintaining stability of the workforce in industrial parks, thereby creating a highly competitive and dynamic investment environment, especially in force majeure cases such as during natural disasters and epidemics, workers are still ensured  residences and businesses are not interrupted in production.

In Vietnam, KBC is one of the leading units in building an integrated infrastructure complex model of industrial parks and urban areas. Looking at the social housing apartment type with an area of 60m2 in Evergreen Bac Giang invested by KBC, you will feel the happiness of the working couples here when they have a convenient place to live and the management services are no less than mid-range apartment complexes in Hanoi.

Having adequate infrastructure such as schools, markets and supermarkets helps improve the quality of life for workers. This is also the goal and enthusiasm that Mr. Dang Thanh Tam and his colleagues at KBC as well as subsidiaries in the KBC ecosystem that have strived to carry out throughout the past period.

Arousing the spirit of "companies for citizens"

During the conversation with us, Mr. Dang Thanh Tam did not mention the difficulties and barriers that KBC had to overcome when implementing social housing projects, even though everyone knows how difficult these projects are.

For example, according to the current Housing Law, manufacturing enterprises in industrial parks are not eligible to buy, rent, or lease-purchase social housing, while enterprises investing in industrial parks are in huge desire to rent or buy this type of housing to accommodate their officials, employees, and workers. The order and procedures for investing in construction, selling, leasing, and renting of social housing are currently also complicated, etc.

The nature of the social housing project implemented by KBC is that it is part of a commercial housing project, not an independent social housing project, so it does not have 20% of the land fund for commercial using.

Therefore, with the same investment capital, project scale and housing quality, but because there is no commercial part, KBC's selling, leasing, and rent-purchasing prices for social housing are still higher than other projects of the same independent type. This causes the investor to have very little profit, which as revealed by Mr. Dang Thanh Tam is less than 1 million VND/m2, but KBC is always dedicated to doing the best it can for the workers and is still determined to overcome difficulties.

At the end of May 2023, Sai Gon-Hai Phong Industrial Park Corporation (SHP) implemented the construction of a social housing area under the Trang Due commercial service urban area and workers' housing project with its own capital. According to Mr. Vu Thanh Duong, Standing Deputy General Director of SHP, the company has proactively registered a credit package of 120,000 billion VND with lending banks to support customers who are eligible to buy social housing under regulations.

At the same time, KBC also devoted large investment resources to the social housing project for workers in the new urban area of Nenh town (Bac Giang) with a total area of 12.6 hectares, scale of 16 apartment buildings of 20 floors high and a total investment of nearly 5,000 billion VND, expected to provide about 7,000 apartments to serve more than 20,000 workers. This is one of the largest social housing projects in the country.

Speaking at the groundbreaking ceremony of this project, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh pointed out: "Resources from the state budget are limited, and resources must be devoted to other priorities.

Therefore, it is necessary to build institutions, mechanisms and policies, to pay attention to planning, mobilize resources for social housing construction, and to learn from experience while working, with reference to promoting the cooperation between public and private investment, using public investment to lead private investment”.

Mr. Dang Thanh Tam believes that the message and sharing of the head of the Government, as well as the support of management agencies and local authorities, will be the driving force for Vietnamese entrepreneurs to have more determination to implement social housing projects on schedule, quickly providing a place to settle for many workers and laborers in large industrial centers.

“We believe that, when mechanisms and policies are complete; If localities proactively implement the projects, there will be many companies participating in capital investment in this field, arousing the spirit of "companies for citizens" of solidarity and mutual love," Mr. Tam shared.

According to a survey data in the second quarter of 2023, KBC created about 75,000 jobs, accounting for 50% of the total number of new jobs nationwide. KBC's orientation in building social housing also means building housing for workers, meeting the urgent needs of workers in industrial parks.