Adjusting Binh Duong Province industrial park development planning till 2020 – Part 4

Part 4: Environment safety assured

Experts believe that the open policies and investment luring have helped Binh Duong economy develop rapidly. However, the outcome of fast economic, urban, and industrialized development has been beyond managerial competence of the province. This is the cause of environment risks which potentially affect sustainable development. This proves that the review of industrial parks development in the province until 2020 is a righteous step to improve State’s management of environment and the industrial parks.

Industrial development and environment protection are coincided. In this photo: the street leads to My Phuoc Industrial Park in Ben Cat Town. Photo: Xuan Thi

Industrialization to be ‘greenified’

To prepare for expansion of industrial parks in the Northern region of the province, Binh Duong Province has followed the roadmap to ensure thorough technical and traffic facilities. Through years, Binh Duong Province has poured thousands of billions of VND to construct major traffic facilities to connect districts, towns, and Thu Dau Mot City to National Highways of 1A and 13 to Dong Nai and Ho Chi Minh City. The My Phuoc – Tan Van Highway has been particularly constructed to be ahead of Long Thanh International Airport in a thorough preparation for welcoming investors to the Northern industrial parks of the province.

According to experts, industrialization in Binh Duong Province has previously been diverted strongly to Di An Town, Thuan An Town, and Thu Dau Mot City – the 3 localities of up to 80% of industrial production in the province. However, industrial production values some Northern localities of the province have surged such as Ben Cat Town accounting for 24% of total industrial production of the province in 2014.

By the 10^th Resolution of Provincial Party Congress, Binh Duong Province has focused on industrial development integrated with services, urbanization, and high-tech industry with lesser use of energy and natural resources for sustainable environment. The decision has gained agreements and support of enterprise community locally. The separate planning of auxiliary industries such as wood processing Tan Lap Industrial Cluster in Bau Bang District has particularly ensured the enterprises of their investments.

Luong Ngoc Kim, the Deputy President of Binh Duong Wood Processing Association, believed that it would be wise to pay attention to industries of influence on environment as the wood industry. The concentrated industrial zones will help enterprise operate professionally. Moreover, the environment factors will be tightly controlled.

Aside from attracting investors, the transition of industrial production to Northern localities has facilitated standardized planning and development of the Southern zone in accordance with central government’s requirements before 2020. Concurrently, the balance of environment management would be in more favored conditions for Binh Duong Province to gain the position of a green and livable city. It is expected that by 2025, Binh Duong Province will have 3 central urban zones of Thu Dau Mot, Nam Tan Uyen, and Nam Ben Cat in multi-functional and multi-central model with average population. The Southern urban zones of Thuan An and Di An would be compacted with high population and the Northern zones of Dau Tieng, Phu Giao, Bac Ben Cat, and Bac Tan Uyen with low population.

Sustainability assurance

According to Department of Construction, the province has fulfilled infrastructure requirements and focused on investments into industrial parks in the Northern region of the province, on the one hand, to create land fund for new investors while moving and scattering enterprises from residential and urban zones to control environment pollution and on the other hand moving industrial parks from the South to the North to leave behind room for urban development. Besides, the on-going investment luring is to stretch population density and reduce pressure on social infrastructure of the Southern urban zones. For the long run, central urban space will be created in modernized and civilized manner to become the spotlight of urban-service development in the key Southern economic zone.

Nguyen Hong Nguyen, the Deputy Director of Natural Resources and Environment, informed that for the time to come, Binh Duong Province will intensify punishment against environment breaches and especially implement tighten grips on polluting establishments while moving them out of urban and residential zones. Binh Duong Province will also eliminate sites of hot environment pollution and prevent new incurrence of pollution while promoting projects of waste collection and treatment to improve water environment in the South of Binh Duong Province.

Currently, auxiliary industries, services, and agriculture are prioritized for development in Binh Duong Province in the manner of attracting projects of high-tech, clean technologies, environment friendly with priority for industrial production in industrial parks and zones in the North of the province. Meantime, proposal for factory renting and investments into production project in the Southern region of the province will be denied. For the time to come, Binh Duong Province will enhance management quality and effective use of land, meeting socio-economic development demands while issuing preferential treatment and policies for enterprises to renew technology to be environment friendly. New technology of waste treatment and recycling will be applied. The province is aiming to fulfill all environment assurance criteria to ensure rapid and sustainable development.

Reported by Phung Hieu – Translated by Vi Bao