Ben Cat - strength and desire to out reach

From the war-torn land, Ben Cat has transformed strongly with breakthrough development steps to become an industrial, urban, and service area of ​​the province with well-invested infrastructure and modern urban development in the direction of civilization, modernity and intelligence.

Ben Cat has now become the industrial center of the province, reaching the new heights of development with synchronous infrastructure and strong attraction of domestic and foreign investors

Strength of the industrial park model

Binh Duong in the 1990s was with the breakthrough thought of economic development taking industry as a lever by building the Vietnam's first ever industrial park to bring industry into concentrated production with adequate infrastructure and services hand in hand with environmental protection and urban development. The efficiency of the industrial park economic model has brought Binh Duong up from a poor province to a local economic driving force in the whole region and nationwide with fast developing pace.

In that dramatic change, Binh Duong clearly sees a difference between the southern region where industry thrives, and the north where agricultural production is mainly rice and rubber with low economic efficiency. By a strategic vision, the provincial leaders decided to develop the industrial zone to the north to meet the requirements of industrial park expansion and to create a driving force to promote the economy of purely agricultural districts, to effectively eliminate hunger and reduce poverty in rural areas where Ben Cat was selected to deploy the economic model of the industrial zone.

Located in the central area of ​​the province with the National Highway 13 along with provincial roads to ensure convenient circulation in the north-south direction, waterways with Saigon River and Thi Tinh River, flat terrain, solid ground, Ben Cat is eligible for industrial economic development. In addition, the industrial zones that have sprung up in the south of the province have made people's lives better and more prosperous. Therefore, the planning to develop the industrial zone to the north, specifically in Ben Cat, has been unanimously supported by the local people and has well complied with the site clearance policy.

With all the aspiration to revive the land that had suffered heavy losses during the war, Becamex IDC accompanies the provincial and Ben Cat authorities to build a new model of industrial park with close connection of industrial production - services and urban areas to meet the requirements of sustainable development in a harmonious relationship of businesses-workers and the people. In June 2002, the economic model of a new industrial zone, My Phuoc Industrial Park - Urban Area was established on an area of ​​370 hectares with modern investment infrastructure. Thanks to the investment promotion experience of Becamex IDC, in a short time, My Phuoc Industrial Park - Urban Area has filled up the leased land area and continues to be expanded by the province along other industrial zones.

Mr. Nguyen Van Hung, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Becamex IDC, said: “In order to attract businesses to invest, we create an environment with new and better opportunities while creating jobs for people. The industrial park is built based on the planning and orientation to build synchronous infrastructure inside and outside the industrial park, meeting the real requirements of investors. These are very important components in the development of industrial zones that we have built in the past time.”

To the higher ends

During the visit and talk with officials and people of Ben Cat in September 2005, General Secretary Nong Duc Manh reminded that Ben Cat was a "golden wharf"; so localities need to persist in strategic goals of industrialization and modernization. In fact, Ben Cat is relatively behind the southern industrial districts for many years, but it has quickly become a sustainable industrial center of the province - an attractive location, an ideal place for investment.

The industrial zones and urban centers of My Phuoc, Thoi Hoa and Bau Bang are models of Binh Duong province and the whole country. Technical infrastructure is fully invested by Becamex IDC with social infrastructure, reformed administrative procedures, good investment promotion and a series of spacious and modern urban projects covering the whole area. Industrial zones in Ben Cat - Bau Bang have attracted thousands of investment projects including many famous global economic groups. In the area, thousands of factories have come into operation to create jobs for a large part of people, not only local but also immigrated throughout the country.

Being true to the goal of "taking industry as a lever for other fields to develop", Ben Cat has miraculously changed from a land of hardship to now a full new vitality, reaching out for development to new higher ends. The factories are always bright with production lights; each market and supermarket is bustling with trading, rich in all kinds of convenient services in life and production. Complete transport routes seamlessly flow from urban centers to rural areas.

With comprehensive development in all fields, Ben Cat quickly becomes a locality with high growth rate of the province. Particularly in 2021, despite the heavy impact of the COVID-19 epidemic, Ben Cat's economic growth gained 20.5% compared to 2020. The people's material and spiritual life is constantly improving. The urban appearance is increasingly spacious to meet the criteria of a grade 2 urban area to become a Ben Cat city directly under the province in the future.

The resilience of the industrial and service economy, the resilience of the increasingly complete infrastructure system is the potential for Ben Cat to confidently reach a modern, civilized and smart city in the new development period. Currently, Ben Cat is making urban development planning and construction planning to 2040 with vision to 2050 with the function of being one of the three central urban centers of the province located in the Binh Duong Innovation Zone, at the same time, belonging to the central urban sub-region of the Ho Chi Minh city region.

Ben Cat is currently the province's high-tech industrial center as well as a provincial-level commercial and service center with commercial centers, industrial service centers and transportation and logistics services. Ben Cat is also a regional education center with 2 universities of Viet Duc and Thu Dau Mot (expected new campus). The area is a regional transport hub with roads and waterways on the Saigon River, the Di An - Loc Ninh railway line and transport ports such as An Tay river port, An Dien dry port. Ben Cat develops urban areas and functional areas based on regional traffic frameworks to take advantage of the traffic hubs.

Ben Cat - a famous land during the wartime is getting on with the song of joy and prosperity to make worthy contributions to the general development of the province.

Reported by Phuong Le – Translated by Vi Bao