Economic development of region along Saigon river

Part 1: Arousing potential

Saigon river with the section from Thuan An town’s Lai Thieu to Dau Tieng is very favorable for waterway traffic. Especially, there are a lot of historical relics and landscapes along the river such as Ben Duoc temple in HCM city’s Cu Chi district, Ba Lua communal house in Thuan An town, Dau Tieng reservoir…together with tens of traditional craft villages and famous Lai Thieu orchard being advantageous to tourism development. To tap this potential, Binh Duong has had orientations to develop it into a trade-service hub along Saigon river with the regional scale.

Saigon river

After over 40 years of living on Binh Duong land, Quach Chinh Duy, a retired official in Thuan An town’s Lai Thieu ward has witnessed spectacular changes of Binh Duong-an agricultural land in the past and now it is an industrial province and is striving to become one of the centrally-controlled municipalities by 2020.

He said that the Lai Thieu orchard area used to face great challenges from the local industrialization speed. But thanks to the sound leadership of the local administration, it has still continued developing and welcomed visitors near and far in the ripe fruit season.

An Son port was fulfilled and put into operation in 2014, contributing to promoting economic development of the region along Saigon river

Realizing great benefits from the Lai Thieu orchard area, since 2008, Thuan An town has made a project on supporting to improve productivity of orchards in some communes. Based on the development, the town will foster tourism services, promoting the local socio-economic development in accordance with orientations set out by the province.

Between 2007 and 2012, provincial People’s Committee also issued the Decision No.106/2007/QD-UBND and the Decision No.45/QD-UBND/2012 on supporting farmers to develop the Lai Thieu orchard area.

To absorb visitors and enterprises, the province and Thuan An town have jointly organized the annual “Lai Thieu in ripe fruit season” festival. Many business opportunities have been opened for those visiting the festival with a foundation from thousands of domestic and FDI enterprises operating in the province.

Do Thanh Su, Vice-Chairman of Thuan An town’s People’s Committee said that restoring and developing the Lai Thieu orchard area was a sound policy. In the future, it will be restored along with the birth of specialized areas in fruit trees in Ben Cat town, Bau Bang and Dau Tieng districts, contributing to promoting the local tourism. This will also bring a series of business opportunities to locals and enterprises.

Great advantage for trade-services

Saigon river with the section running through Thuan An town is very suitable to waterway traffic development with many advantages for goods transportation.

According to Truong Cong Thach, Deputy Head of Thuan An town’s Division of Economics, the whole town is now home to 21 enterprises in logistics. All the enterprises have only begun operating since 2010 with the annual growth of more than 30%.

Huynh Van Minh, Head of provincial Planning Institute said that the province has realized big economic benefits from Saigon river, in which logistics will be a key element. The province has also seen economic development of the region along the river as a decisive factor in shifting the local economic structure towards trade and services. Some enterprises have been keen on waiting in front for benefits from logistic sector with the development of An Son, Ba Lua, Rach Bap ports together a small port system around canals connecting with Saigon river.

Reported by K.Vinh-P.Hieu-Translated by K.T