Philosophy for Binh Duong to develop

Part 4: Towards a green, smart and sustainable industry

At a recent meeting with provincial Party Committee, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh wanted that the province will receive the mission of pioneering, building and developing an inclusive green, smart, and sustainable industrial ecosystem and leave no one behind. The desire and direction of the head of the Government are also the goal and expectation of the local Party, government, business community and people in the new period.

Solid and pervasive foundation

From a purely agricultural, industrial and service economy, Binh Duong has  succeeded, being worthy of the title of one of the country’s localities with the strongest economic growth, especially industrial economy after more than 25 years of construction and development with a series of bold decisions in line with trends and persistence with the chosen goals.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and provincial leaders visit the VSIP III model that has just been commenced construction

Binh Duong's industrial breakthrough was from the mid-1990s of the last century. The birth of a large and modern Song Than I Industrial Park (Ip) was the starting point with breakthrough, creating a lever for the development of a series of large-scale IPs in Binh Duong later. As of late 2021, Binh Duong had a total of 29 IPs with clean land fund of about 13,000 hectares, including 27 in operation with the land tenancy rate of about 89%. Noticeably, many IPs were fully covered by investors. The province also had 8 industrial compounds with a synchronous infrastructure system at the needs of investors.

As of now, Binh Duong has absorbed more than 55,000 domestic enterprises, with total investment capital of nearly VND550 trillion, more than 4,000 FDI enterprises, with total investment capital of more than US$ 39.4 billion. The potential represented the strong and sustainable development of the province's economy during the past 25 years. During his working visits to Binh Duong as Prime Minister, State President Nguyen Xuan Phuc once set the expectation that Binh Duong will become the strongest economic development engine in the country, taking the leading role for national and regional economy. Indeed, Binh Duong has partly shown the role and position with its existing potential for many years.

The most vivid proof is that Binh Duong's industry has spread strongly throughout the country with a series of VSIPs developed in Hai Phong, Bac Ninh, Quang Ngai, Nghe An, Quang Tri, Binh Dinh together with the birth of Becamex - Binh Phuoc urban and industrial complex... One thing is sure that the spreading power of Binh Duong's industry does not stop there. It is not limited in two large enterprises, Becamex IDC and VSIP because tens of thousands of domestic and foreign enterprises that are operational in the province have also expanded their production and business activities to other neighboring localities as well as foreign markets.

Reaching Industry 4.0

After a journey of attracting investment for development, Binh Duong’s industry today has changed direction and entered into sustainable development by modern technical fields with high technology content and added value. Preparing for a new breakthrough, since late 2016, Binh Duong has set a goal of becoming a smart city and an innovative region. The core factors to build up a smart city are people, technology, business community, and infrastructure and investment climate. All four factors do not stand alone, but together contribute to a more creative, vigorous and sustainable Binh Duong. Realizing the goal of high development, Binh Duong has quickly set up and deployed projects on fostering innovation ecosystems, sci-tech IPs, forming up a digital economy to attract the content of knowledge, gray matter, science and technology at home and abroad to converge and develop together.

The development model and justification for a breakthrough under the industrial revolution 4.0, building up a green, smart and sustainable industrial ecosystem cannot but mention the VSIP brand, formed from the cooperation between the two governments of Singapore and Vietnam. From Vietnam - Singapore Industrial Park I (VSIP I) in Binh Duong’s Thuan An city, VSIP has so far developed 11 IP projects in many provinces and cities across the country. In addition to VSIP I, Binh Duong has also developed VSIP II and VSIP III,which have just started construction on a scale of 1,000 hectares, with total infrastructure investment of more than VND 6.4trillion. It is needed to know that VSIP is the leading IP infrastructure developer in Vietnam with a series of green, model and modern IPs. VSIP's scale is really large, with 11 IP projects, land fund of 10,000 hectares, attracting US$17 billion in investment capital, with 880 companies from 30 countries and territories, creating jobs for 295,000 employees. VSIPs in Binh Duong have so far attracted US$8.3 billion, 584 investment projects, and created 149,000 jobs for employees.

Not only VSIPs, existing Ips and those being formed up in Binh Duong have also had a change of direction and elevation by selecting and calling for potential and  great partners. All are the proofs of a economy with strong breakthrough into the intelligent and sustainable industry 4.0.

Speaking at the groundbreaking ceremony for construction of VSIP III, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh emphasized that the groundbreaking for construction of VSIP III is an important and meaningful activity of the Party, government and people of Binh Duong. The Prime Minister believed that the successful project will not only contribute to the local socio-economic development, but also foster the region, promoting innovation, creating a premise for the industry 4.0 and sustainable development, building up a new growth foundation for Vietnam.

Reported by Trieu Phong-Translated by Kim Tin