Rising up from hard times

Coming out of ruins of the wars, Song Be province quickly began to overcome difficulties, stabilize life and gradually recover production, socio-economic development, and build a good government. The province soon flexibly applied the comprehensive renewal of the country, while utilizing all potential and advantages to become one of the leading provinces in the development of economic sectors. Especially, as early as the 90s of the last century, Song Be - Binh Duong made many breakthroughs in development by calling for and attracting investment, especially foreign investment to stimulate economic growth.

Industry takes the lead

After the national reunification, the economy of Song Be province still depended mainly on agricultural production and handicrafts. Due to many reasons, the above sectors grew slowly, people's lives in rural areas were difficult. However, by the late 1980s, thanks to the 6th Party Resolution with the policy of opening up the country, Song Be province quickly changed its economic structure and encouraged industrial development, commerce - services. In a recent interview with Binh Duong Newspaper, former President Nguyen Minh Triet, former Secretary of Song Be Provincial Party Committee, said that the old Song Be Province had an area of over 1 million hectares, a large land, sparse population, did not generate material wealth, food was in short supply. Therefore, the provincial leaders discussed and set out a policy to mobilize human strength, material resources, investment capital at home and abroad, advanced science and technology.

Vietnam - Singapore Industrial Park 1 was established and later became a model of industrial development in Vietnam.

The policy of investment attraction created a development turning point, making Song Be, then Binh Duong an attractive and reliable address of domestic and foreign investors. Many key areas that were much invested by domestic and foreign enterprises, were construction of technical infrastructure, agricultural processing, forestry, fisheries, production of exports... The investment attraction policy continued to create buzz, encouraged many domestic and foreign organizations and individuals to invest and do business in many fields, especially commerce - services, industry, handicrafts, import and export. In 1996, together with the separation of the province, Song Be also celebrated a year gaining the largest investment attraction with 136 FDI projects (accounting for 50% of the total projects of the country).

Nguyen Van Hiep, Chairman of Thu Dau Mot University Council, said that the investment attraction policy was a motivation to activate investment. Thousands of domestic and foreign investors rapidly generated economic growth, did job creation and solved many other socio-economic problems. This is a prerequisite for the economic restructuring in the province. "Based on the potential and development conditions, the Provincial Party Committee and government affirmed that the economic structure of the province must be industrial - service and agriculture...", said Hiep about the determination of provincial leaders to restructure the economy at that time.

Stimulating industry growth was a central task in leading and governing the socio-economic development tasks of the province at that time and throughout the following years. As a result, the province's industrial sectors have been growing rapidly and strengthening its leading role in the province's economy until this day.

Breakthrough in infrastructure development

One of the landmark successes in the province's economic development process is the policy advocating infrastructure development, especially the infrastructure of industrial parks (IPs) and connected transport infrastructure, inter-regional transport. In February 1992, the construction of Tan Thuan Export Processing Zone (Ho Chi Minh City) was started, marking the birth of the first export processing zone in Vietnam. After learning about this export processing zone of Ho Chi Minh City and other foreign industrial zones, Binh Duong provincial leaders realized that practical conditions of the province at that time were suitable for the development of industrial parks... In particular, in 1996, the Vietnam - Singapore Industrial Park (VSIP 1) was established from the agreement of the Prime Ministers of Vietnam and Singapore. VSIP Joint Venture Company was assigned to manage and invest in VSIP; the company is a capital contribution joint venture between Becamex IDC and foreign partners led by SembCorp Group (Singapore). Over 26 years of establishment and development, VSIP has become a leading industrial developer in Vietnam with 11 projects deployed in Binh Duong, Bac Ninh, Hai Phong, Quang Ngai, Hai Duong, Nghe An, Binh Dinh...

In addition to the construction of the industrial park, from the first years of the renewal, the province has been well aware that the infrastructure development is a foundation to open up the capability of attracting investment capital. Based on the practical conditions of the province, infrastructure construction has received much attention from the Provincial Party and government, especially the construction of transport system. Every year, the province spends a high proportion of capital on large-scale transport projects to meet the requirements of socio-economic development.

Located in the Southern Key Economic Zone, adjacent to Ho Chi Minh City, Binh Duong attaches importance to radial traffic axes, belt roads, in order to connect technical infrastructure of the province with localities in the key economic region. Up to now, Binh Duong has a convenient road transport system connecting with other provinces, cities in the Southeast, Central Highlands, northern and southwestern provinces. Highway 13, from Ho Chi Minh City throughout the length of Binh Duong province and Binh Phuoc province, is the key traffic axis of the province. DT741 Street connects Thu Dau Mot City to Ben Cat Town, Tan Uyen Town, Phu Giáo District, to Binh Phuoc and the Central Highlands provinces. DT744 Street, also has a starting point from Thu Dau Mot City, goes through Ben Cat Town, Bau Bang District, Dau Tieng District and to Tay Ninh province.

Ho Chi Minh Street, the section going through Binh Duong, is 32km long, passing Ben Cat and Dau Tieng, and is a bridge between the Central Highlands provinces, Binh Phuoc province, Binh Duong and southwestern provinces. National Highway 1K in the south connects provinces and cities in the Southern Key Economic Zone together. My Phuoc - Tan Van Highway is a main axis connecting Binh Duong's industrial zones with Ho Chi Minh City and Dong Nai, Ba Ria - Vung Tau provinces.

Along with the main traffic axes connecting Ho Chi Minh City and the eastern and southwestern provinces, the road system connecting industrial zones was also built synchronously and modernly. In urban areas, streets and alleyways are upgraded, thanks to the implementation of the new rural construction program. Many communes hardened inter-hamlet and inter-communal roads. Convenient transportation is a very basic condition for the province to develop comprehensively.

With the innovative mindset, dare to dream, know how to do, the Party, government, people and business community of the province have developed inner strength, utilized the potential and advantages to open a new page in the development history of the province. This is the foundation for the province to continue making development breakthroughs in the future.

Reported by Tri Dung – Translated by Ngoc Huynh