Good strategic vision of Binh Duong, Dr. Tran Du Lich

“After 25 years of construction and development, from a poor province with the main agricultural economy, Binh Duong has effectively transformed the economic structure towards industry - service - agriculture thanks to policies and decisions under very good strategic vision.” That is the opinion of Dr. Tran Du Lich, former member of the National Assembly's Economic Committee, a member of the Central Council of Political Theories, and a member of the National Financial and Monetary Policy Advisory Council on assessing the Binh Duong's achievements over 25 years of development. On the topic, Binh Duong Newspaper interviewed Dr. Tran Du Lich.

Binh Duong traffic infrastructure is toward regional connection. Photo: Xuan Thi

- Can you please inform us the advantages of Binh Duong economic development? How has Binh Duong made use of those breakthroughs?

- After 25 years of construction and development, Binh Duong has had a very remarkable growth rate. Binh Duong has taken full advantage of its soil, geography and natural conditions to build and develop the industry while attracting many investors to industrial parks. In particular, being located near Ho Chi Minh City - the largest urban economic center of the country, helps Binh Duong a lot in its developmental strategy.

The breakthroughs of Binh Duong may come as: First, the favorable policy is a very subtle local implementation mechanism to timely support investors by continuous following-up policies.

Second, the association with Singapore to develop the Vietnam - Singapore Industrial Park to take advantage of the time when the whole country was opening up for market-oriented economic development as a strategic and long-term direction.

Third, the development of Binh Duong is also thanks to the breakthrough of the government. That is knowing how to use their investment tools in building technical and economic infrastructure, led by Becamex IDC. By such State instrument, industrial development was accelerated rapidly as the very important factor in the development process of Binh Duong.

- Administrative reforms is one of the factors making Binh Duong successful. What should Binh Duong need to do more, sir?

- Right from the beginning of industrial development and investment attraction, Binh Duong has emerged as a locality of the best administrative reforms in the country. This has increased confidence for domestic and foreign investors.

Currently, improving the investment environment is a national priority. Binh Duong is one of the leading localities in implementing the e-government model. If the locality makes full use of information technology as a management tool, it will gain more advantages. That is a way to help businesses save time and costs to create prestige, and the attractiveness of Binh Duong's investment environment will be enhanced. To do this, Binh Duong needs the consistency, transparency and synchronization from the provincial-level management model to the local level and from e-government to e-society.

- What do you impress most for the success that Binh Duong has gained in the past 25 years of development?

- After 25 years of construction and development, from a poor province with the main agricultural economy, Binh Duong has effectively transformed the economic structure in the direction of industry - service - agriculture thanks to the right policies and guidelines under very well strategic vision.

Through the development stages, it shows the long-term vision of the leaders of Binh Duong province in specific periods. Binh Duong has now had a medium and long term development plan. Even now, Binh Duong continues to promote the construction of transport infrastructure to link with neighboring provinces and cities and the southern key economic region, showing Binh Duong's foresight in terms of future development.

Many arterial roads that play an important role in the socio-economic development of the province have been built such as National Highway 13, My Phuoc - Tan Van Highway, DT744, Vanh Dai 3, Vanh Dai 4 etc. to ensure the transport infrastructure of the northern industrial parks of the province as well as to ensure the close connection of Binh Duong in the development strategy of the southern key economic region.

- Sir, Binh Duong does apparently not have better advantages like Dong Nai, Ho Chi Minh city, and Ba Ria – Vung Tau. What should Binh Duong do more for the time to come?

- Compared with neighboring provinces and cities, Binh Duong clearly does not have many advantages. Ho Chi Minh city has Tan Son Nhat international airport; Dong Nai is about to have Long Thanh airport, Ba Ria - Vung Tau has Cai Mep port etc. But, the current development trend is towards regional linkage. Each locality will play a role in the supplying chain and the linking chain.

Although it does not have good technical and economic infrastructure like other provinces and cities, Binh Duong can fully take advantage of its internal advantages. Binh Duong economic ecosystem is relatively complete and rich, so Binh Duong should focus on promoting the development of services related to logictics, commerce, and banking.

For a long time, I have considered the development quadrilateral of Binh Duong - Ho Chi Minh City - Dong Nai - Vung Tau to be a very strong development pole in the southern economic region. As mentioned, Binh Duong's strategic vision is very good, in which the construction of Vanh Dai 3 and Vanh Dai 4 is a preparatory step for regional integration. What needs to be done to develop the region's economy is that the remaining provinces and cities also need to speed up the construction of roads connecting the whole and throughout region so that goods can be easily circulated.

- Beside industrial development, Binh Duong also pays attention to urban development. How do  you assert the current urban development of Binh Duong?

- In recent years, Binh Duong has also accelerated urban development, but it has not commensurated with the potentials of the province. The urbanization of Binh Duong still has some limitations of infrastructure.

In the future, Di An city and Thuan An city will become a thriving service cities, and Binh Duong needs to learn from the model of a so-called megacity like Ho Chi Minh city is working on. The process of rural urbanization in Binh Duong is taking place strongly. The transport system connecting rural and urban areas of Binh Duong is properly concerned by the province. However, Binh Duong needs to pay attention to turning into urban areas when the areas of ​​agricultural land gradually narrow. It is necessary to focus on vocational training for rural areas when preparing to receive the wave of industrial development in rural areas.

- Regarding the human resources, what does Binh Duong need to prepare for upgrades, sir?

- For the policy of inviting talents through 25 years of construction and development, Binh Duong has attracted many scientists to contribute to the province. Binh Duong needs to keep on with this policy to welcome highly intelligent human resources to Binh Duong.

The on-the-job training of human resources is very important, but it should be tied to the needs of investors. Binh Duong is especially orienting industrial development towards less labor intensive while creating products with higher ‘gray matter’ content.

The process of industrial development of the locality has also received a lot of workers from outside the province. These workers need to be continuously trained and re-trained to improve the quality. Besides, the policy of retaining human resources is also worthy of attention. Currently, competition for human resources takes place on a large scale, so retaining employees will help investors feel more secure. I am very happy that during the past time, Binh Duong has done very well the social security work by paying much attention to immigrant workers. In particular, the construction of social houses for low-income people is also a highlight of the province.

- Thank you!

Interviewed by Phung Hieu – Translated by Vi Bao