Foundation and Resilience

From an agricultural province, Binh Duong has transformed, become a developing province with a high rate of industrialization and urbanization in the Southern Key Economic Zone. With the recent achievements, along with a breakthrough strategy and an aspiration to further develop, Binh Duong is reaching to new heights.

Industrial parks of the province with comprehensive and modern infrastructure, convenient locations, adjacent to important traffic axes connecting to Ho Chi Minh City and surrounding areas, have attracted many large enterprises, multinational corporations. In photo:  A corner of VSIP 2.

The fire of creativity, innovation

From the end of April 2022, after the workshop "Continuing tradition, Binh Duong province over 1/4 century: Achievements and prospects”, Binh Duong immediately embarked on concrete plans and actions. The first was to start the project of upgrading and expanding National Highway 13, from the border with Ho Chi Minh City to Thu Dau Mot City (about 12.7km long, from 6 to 8 traffic lanes). Followed by a series of "one step ahead" breakthrough decisions in investment and development of transport infrastructure. In particular, the province is determined to speed up the construction of inter-regional transport projects to facilitate socio-economic growth.

Nguyen Van Loi, Member of the Party Central Committee, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Head of the Provincial National Assembly Delegation emphasized, for more sustainable development, Binh Duong needs to actively coordinate and soon build a regional connected transport system. In particular, infrastructure construction projects that need to be completed in the shortest time: Ring Roads 3 and 4; Ho Chi Minh City - Thu Dau Mot - Chon Thanh expressway; road and railway projects connecting Thu Dau Mot City and the center of Ho Chi Minh City…

It is the desire for innovation and non-stop creativity from leadership to implementation methods that have given Binh Duong outstanding results in many fields. On a national scale, Binh Duong is currently ranked second in attracting FDI capital, third in domestic revenue, and third in the country in terms of contribution to the Central budget, the highest trade surplus rate; is the first province to have no poor households according to the national criteria; is the locality with the highest per capita income; ranked second in the country on the PAPI, fourth out of 63 provinces and cities in the Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI)... As a result, the investment environment in the province continued to be improved, business community and society's confidence heightened, promoting growth, creating new development motivation.

To take advantage of opportunities to break through

At a recent talk on industrialization and modernization, Prof. Dr. Ta Ngoc Tan, Permanent Vice Chairman of the Central Theoretical Council, said that if Korea had a miracle of the Han River, Binh Duong would be a miracle of Vietnam in terms of economic development and industrialization. This is proven through 25 years of construction and development, Binh Duong has made breakthrough changes in economic and urban development. From a province depending on agricultural and handicraft production, Binh Duong has made a remarkable development with economic indicators that are tens to hundreds of times higher than when the province was reestablished. The economy has reached high growth rates for many consecutive years. The current per capita GRDP is nearly 7,000 USD/person/year, belonging to the top 3 leading localities in the country. The size of the province's GRDP has increased by more than 104 times over 25 years.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tran Dinh Thien, Former Director of the Vietnam Economic Institute and Member of the National Monetary and Financial Policy Advisory Council, said that it seems that up to now, no locality has done as drastically and thoroughly as Binh Duong, aiming at the most difficult goal of a more autonomy in operating and managing the transformation process, in order to increase self-responsibility and proactively accelerate innovation - creativity. Binh Duong has made a successful strategic breakthrough and established a "development miracle": Maintaining a high growth rate continuously for many years, fundamentally changing the economic structure, heightening development level, reaching the highest GRDP/person in the country.

For today, for tomorrow

Assessing the development of Binh Duong over the past 25 years, Prof. Dr. Nguyen Xuan Thang, Politburo member, Director of the Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics, Chairman of the Central Theoretical Council, affirmed: Binh Duong's development in the country's renovation period is a unique model that meets the following approaches: “Global Thinking, National Vision, Local Acting”. With a creative way of doing things, Binh Duong has chosen the path of "intelligent development", constantly looking for new ways to grow up, surpass and achieve outstanding results.

From the results achieved, Binh Duong continues to constantly try, make more efforts to have higher and newer results, continue to contribute more to the Central Government. In particular, it is necessary to solve "bottlenecks" to facilitate socio-economic development, take the responsibility of pioneering and taking the lead in development in the coming time. Vo Van Minh, Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, emphasized: “With internal resources, strategic vision and aspiration that have been forged, Binh Duong will have to continue to supplement and realize the aspiration of generations of leaders, business community and people in its cultural development philosophy. A philosophy in which the people are always the center of development”.

Vo Van Minh affirmed that the achievements that Binh Duong province's leaders, Party committees, authorities and people have gained over the past quarter of a century are the foundation, belief and hope for today and future generations. New opportunities and challenges require determination, innovative thinking, overcome all difficulties, persist with the set strategic goals, then Binh Duong will continue to reach to new heights. Binh Duong is trying to overcome the middle-income trap and develop sustainably in the direction of a smart, civilized and modern city.

Vo Van Minh, Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee: In the next stage, Binh Duong will synchronously implement some key solutions. Forming an Innovation Region, creating new development momentum, international integration, attracting stronger investment, meeting the demands of people and businesses in new conditions. Focusing on digital transformation, continuing to take industry as the foundation, the center element is building infrastructure of industrial parks associated with urbanization, constantly improving the investment environment to enhance the competitiveness of the province…

Nguyen Van Hung, Chairman of Becamex IDC: As one of the first provinces in the country to face the middle-income trap, Binh Duong needs to renew its development approach as soon as possible, focus on developing new-type ecosystems, smart industrial ecosystems, take innovation and science and technology as the driving force, take the development of high-quality human resources as the center, on the basis of the province's development philosophy: "Effective investment environment - Harmonious humane society - Dynamic and tectonic government". Binh Duong is confident to overcome challenges, reach to a new level, and contribute to the country's socio-economic development.

Prof. Dr. Vo Xuan Vinh, Director of Business Research Institute, University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City: In general, the three main growth drivers of an economy include capital, people and technology. With the attraction of a lot of investment capital, especially FDI, as well as the explosion of the number of migrant workers, technology can be considered an inevitable direction of Binh Duong in the future. In the coming time, Binh Duong needs to research and develop a smart city model, with three pillars: government, people and technology. In addition, the province needs to support businesses to carry out digital transformation strategies to increase operational efficiency and improve competitiveness.

Reported by Ngoc Thanh - Translated by Ngoc Huynh