Technologies and creativity – the growth driving force

In the afternoon of April 19, together with thematic sessions of the scientific conference of "The tradition inheritance of Binh Duong in a quarter of a century - The achievements and prospects", a special session on economic - urban development was with serious and lively discussion. Experts, scientists, leaders of departments, branches and localities attending the seminar discussed directly on key issues in order to propose solutions to promote economic development - development. Binh Duong's urban areas will become more and more sustainability in the coming time by realizing the strategic goal of sustainable development to make Binh Duong province a modern industrial center of the country by 2030 and a smart city by 2045.

Associate Professor, Doctor Banh Quoc Tuan of Postgraduate School of Thu Dau Mot city University gives a speech at the discussion about economics and urban development

Seeking for new driving forces

The workshop was moderated by Mr. Vo Van Minh, Deputy Secretary of the provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the provincial People's Committee, Deputy Head of the Conference Organizing Committee; Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Ha, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Communist Magazine, Deputy Head of Conference Organizing Committee; Mr. Nguyen Van Hung, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Becamex IDC; Prof. Dr. Tran Tho Dat, Member of the Central Theoretical Council, member of the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Group, Chairman of the Council for the title of professor of economics; Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tran Dinh Thien, Member of Economic Advisory Group of the Prime Minister.

At the beginning of the Economic - Urban Development Symposium, Mr. Vo Van Minh said that over the past 25 years, Binh Duong province has gained many important achievements, contributing to the development of the whole country. For the achieved results, Binh Duong continues to try and make more efforts to get higher and newer results to contribute more to the central government. However, it is necessary to clear the "bottlenecks" to promote economic and urban development of the province.

Proposing solutions to accelerate the implementation of circular economic models towards sustainable development in Binh Duong province by 2025 with a vision to 2030, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Phung Chi Dung said that after 25 years of development, Binh Duong has risen to become a bright spot in economic growth and urban development. However, Binh Duong is facing many challenges in terms of resource depletion, pollution, environmental degradation and climate changes. Circular economy is becoming an inevitable trend to meet the requirements of sustainable development of the province.

The digital economy plays an important role

Speaking on the matter of digital economy at the seminar, Prof. Dr. Tran Tho Dat emphasized that in the context of the strong development of the 4th industrial revolution, the digital economy plays an increasingly important role in the post-COVID-19 recovery process, especially for localities with potential and development opportunities such as Binh Duong province. Prof. Dr. Tran Tho Dat proposed 5 recommendations on digital economic development for Binh Duong, including a comprehensive set of indicators to assess the province's digital economic structure, the current situation assessment of the digital economy according to the structure of the digital economy, the specific goals for developing the digital economy with attention to regional linkages, the scenarios for digital economic development associated with economic restructuring of the province, and the provincial resource capacity and time frame for implementation.

Prof. Dr. Vo Xuan Vinh said that after an impressive period of growth, Binh Duong's economy is showing signs of slowing down. Finding a new growth engine is, thus, urgent for the sustainable development of the province. According to Mr. Vinh, the three main growth drivers of an economy include capital, people and technologies. With the attraction of a lot of investment capital resources, especially FDI as well as the explosion of the number of immigrant workers in the area, technologies 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 the triple helix of government, people and technologies. In addition, the province needs to support businesses in the area to develop digital transformation strategies to increase operational efficiency and improve the competitiveness of businesses.

Discussing and offering critique at the workshop, delegates, experts and scientists said that after 25 years of re-establishment, Binh Duong has gained many important achievements to become a bright spot in the Southern Key Economic Zone. At the same time, experts also pointed out the challenges that Binh Duong has to face after 25 years of development such as labor-intensive economy not focusing on innovation, mechanical population explosion, and environmental problems.

Speaking at the workshop, Assoc. Prof-Dr. Nguyen Ngoc Ha, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Communist Magazine, Deputy Head of the Organizing Committee of the Workshop, said that the organization of the conference of "The tradition inheritance of Binh Duong in a quarter of a century - The achievements and prospects” shows the wishes to receive positive contributions from scholars and researchers. Particularly for the topic of economic and urban development, the province has received 55 presentations. By these discussions, Binh Duong will have more multi-dimensional opinions to look back 25 years and shape for the next 30 years. The results of the workshop will update the orientations to help Binh Duong plan to meet the requirements of future trends, leading the province to develop sustainably in the direction of a smart, civilized and modern city, and to strive to become a city directly under the central government and by 2030 to become a modern industrial center, and by 2045 to be a smart city of the region and the whole country.

Reported by Ngoc Thanh – Phuong Le – Translated by Vi Bao