Binh Duong Innovation Region - A breakthrough, fundamental project to enter the digital era

To execute and further expand the Binh Duong Smart City Project, on Sep 21, at Provincial Convention and Exhibition Center, Tran Van Nam, Member of the Party Central Committee, Secretary of Provincial Party Committee, Head of Provincial National Assembly's delegation, chaired a conference to inform on the Binh Duong Innovation Region project. Participants of the meeting were Tran Thanh Liem, Deputy Secretary of Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of Provincial People's Committee; leaders of Provincial People's Council, Provincial People's Committee, Provincial Fatherland Front Committee, departments, agencies, branches, unions, districts, towns, cities, and leaders of Becamex IDC, universities in the province.

Binh Duong focuses on high-quality human resource training to meet the requirements of a new development stage. In photo:  Students of Viet Duc University practice their lesson in laboratory.

To be in agreement with reality

In recent years, with various innovation programs, Binh Duong province has continuously exceeded targets, there were even sudden growth in some criteria, such as international cooperation, foreign investment attraction, export surplus... Enterprises in the province from early 2016 to March 2020 doubled in quantity from over 20,000 to nearly 44,000. The province's economy in 2011-2020 period continued to maintain a good growth rate, was estimated at about 8.5% / year. GRDP / person in 2015 was 4,660 USD / person, in 2020 is estimated at 7,665 USD / person, 2.6 times higher than the whole country. Provincial northern districts were strongly industrialized. while in the south, Thu Dau Mot City rose up and become a class-1 urban center, Di An and Thuan An were recognized as cities. Programs to promote innovation and research in science and technology, modern education such as STEM / STEAM, provincial innovation centers, TechLabs, FabLabs, startup incubators etc. have been deployed actively and vigorously.

Binh Duong is a province having a fast growth rate across the country. Our urgent task is to soon build a knowledge-based, in-depth economy, with science technology and innovation as the foundation. On that basis, we are able to create new demands for the market, meeting requirements of domestic and foreign investors, step by step transform into a sustainable innovation zone instead of an industrial urban area today.

Particularly, the project "Binh Duong Innovation Region" is a completely new model, in accordance with the reality of Binh Duong. Binh Duong Innovation Region is a central scheme in building a smart city for the next period. This is an integrated breakthrough project, including Thu Dau Mot City is the central urban area; Bau Bang Science and Technology Industrial Park; working areas and urban areas; public transport, logistics.

The project is expected to stimulate and build the foundation for a creative innovation ecosystem, a sustainable culture of innovation; help Binh Duong build an attractive environment for entrepreneurs, technology companies, continue to participate in major economic organizations in the world... From there, it will upgrade the current production, create new production tools, develop evenly in all aspects of social life, gradually increase the proportion of the digital economy in the economy.

An indispensable factor in Binh Duong Innovation Region is the formation of a science and technology industrial park. The Science and Technology Industrial Park is a breakthrough in industrial production, fundamental infrastructure for the formation of an innovative ecosystem, attracting investment with high added values, creating a premise for high-tech production.

The Science and Technology Industrial Park in Bau Bang will be an extended cluster of the central region from Thu Dau Mot City, Binh Duong New City in attracting excellent institutions, centers of multinational corporations. In addition to encouraging research and knowledge transfer, the new industrial park model also has the mission of upgrading the existing industrial ecosystem; to launch new means of production, serve industries with high added values, while focusing on scientific research and development, gradually increasing the proportion of the digital economy in provincial economic structure.

A platform for innovation

Binh Duong Innovation Region is the initial accomplishment of Binh Duong Smart City project (Binh Duong Navigator 21); is the spread of Binh Duong Smart Economic Zone and is expanded omni-directionally, thereby repositioning the role of development for each specific region in the province...

From the smart city strategy, Binh Duong province has gradually cooperated and attracted many world leading corporations in science and technology such as Schneider, Philips, Bosch, NXP, Intel, TMA...; prestigious domestic and international institutions such as National University of Singapore NUS, ITRI Taiwan Institute of Industrial Technology, Korea Chungnam National University, US Portland State University, Ho Chi Minh City National University... thereby building large research training centers.

In addition, Binh Duong hosted successfully global events on economic cooperation, science and technology, innovation, and smart cities. Binh Duong and other regions in the province joined the world's prestigious organizations, such as Intelligent Community Forum (ICF), World Technopolis Association (WTA), and World Trade Centers Association (WTCA). In two consecutive years 2018 and 2019, the Binh Duong smart region was honored by ICF as one of the 21 regions that have the world's exemplary smart city development strategies. 

Reported by Phuong Le - Translated by Ngoc Huynh