The rough land has transformed…

From a degraded gravel land, rice fields plowed by bombs and bullets, Binh Duong today has become one of the big industrial - urban - service centers of the country. Here the lives of local folks as well as migrant workers, who came from other localities, are changing day by day, enjoying the fruits of development breakthrough brought by the province.

A stimulus from industrial parks

Binh Duong today has become the leading locality in the country in attracting investment into industrial parks, transforming the economy from purely agricultural to industry - service. Compared to the whole country, Binh Duong currently accounts for 9% in quantity and 13% in industrial zone area. Up to now, the province has established 29 industrial zones, with a total planning area of over 12,700 hectares. Of which, 28 industrial parks have been put into operation with a total area of over 10,000 hectares, and IPs leasing land with occupancy rates of over 90%.

The province's industrial zones, with synchronous and modern infrastructure, and convenient geographical locations, have attracted many large enterprises and multinational corporations to invest. In photo:  A corner of Bau Bang industrial park - urban area.

Binh Duong is one of the localities with the fastest growing industry in the country. Those who have been with Binh Duong for a long time can see the obvious change of this land. Starting from a backward agricultural locality, Binh Duong has now become one of the leading major economic centers and a bright spot in attracting domestic and foreign investment.

The appearance of Binh Duong today has really changed; around the industrial zones an entire urban ecosystem has been formed to serve the lives of residents. A province located inland, with no seaport or airport, has had a spectacular breakthrough in all fields. More than a decade ago, Binh Duong had more than 1 million people in rural areas, accounting for 70% of the province's population, up to now, 84% of Binh Duong's population is urban, the highest percentage in the country, higher than Hanoi and on par with Ho Chi Minh City.

Especially, from Binh Duong, the VSIP model, after more than 25 years, has now spread to all three regions of the North - Central - South. VSIP has become a model of concentrated industrial park development both at home and abroad. The effectiveness and wide spread of VSIP brand is a vivid proof for a dynamic, innovative, integrated, and sustainable Binh Duong.

Nguyen Van Hung, Chairman of Becamex IDC, shared that a locality wants to develop and attract investment based on providing a comprehensive ecosystem through the planning of green industrial zones inserted between urban, commercial and service areas. Along with the construction of social housing projects, resettlement areas for people in compensation areas, high-class urban areas for investors, Becamex IDC built an ecosystem of transportation, healthcare, and high-quality education at all levels to serve the learning needs of children of investors, experts, and workers working in industrial zones. This helps to form a network of new residential areas, and stimulate commerce and services around the industrial zones; at the same time, ensure living standards for investors, ensure benefits for residents in planning areas, as well as migrant workers. This is a solid foundation to accompany the local sustainable development.

Sustained advantages to attract FDI

The vigorous growth of the industry has contributed to bringing Binh Duong to the 2nd position in the country in terms of FDI attraction, just behind Ho Chi Minh City. Recognizing the important role of attracting investment to socio-economic development, Binh Duong province is focusing on infrastructure investment; actively improves business investment environment; builds and promotes Binh Duong's image to many international friends.

In 1997, Binh Duong had only 185 FDI projects with a total capital of 961 million US dollars, creating jobs for about 35,000 workers. Now the province has 4,100 FDI projects from 65 countries and countries and territories with a total registered capital of more than 40 billion US dollars. This shows that, in addition to the improved business investment environment, the infrastructure of industrial parks and transport infrastructure in Binh Duong are increasing its advantages and attracting investors.

Recently, at a meeting with provincial leaders, Priyamvada Srivastava, General Director of Procter Group & Gamble (P&G) Vietnam, said: “Being affected by the Covid-19 as well as the multi-dimensional impacts in the past time, we have faced many difficulties in production and business. However, we still have faith and decided to stick with Binh Duong for a long time. P&G has invested in Binh Duong for more than 28 years and will continue to expand production in the province in the future.

Vo Van Minh, Deputy Secretary of Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of Provincial People's Committee, said that along with the development process of the country, Binh Duong has had a strong transformation to become one of the leading provinces and cities in the whole country in terms of budget revenue, export, and FDI attraction. Binh Duong takes industry as a foundation, a breakthrough stage, in which the core is building IP infrastructure combined with urbanization. Constantly improving the investment environment in order to enhance the province's competitiveness; focus on preparing well the conditions, satisfying the needs of investors in order to enhance cooperation efficiency; exploit opportunities from the fourth industrial revolution to actively welcome new capital flows. Attracting FDI is a consistent and long-term policy of Binh Duong, which requires an increase in capital and improvement of the quality of projects to achieve the province's rapid and sustainable development goals. 

- Alain Canny, President of the European Business Association in Vietnam: Investing in Binh Duong since 2008, we understand very well the dynamism and creativity of the province. There are more than 50 European companies investing in Binh Duong; FDI attraction of Binh Duong province is second only to Ho Chi Minh City. I highly appreciate Binh Duong province on FDI attraction activities and outstanding results gained by the province.

- Preben Elnef, Vice President of Lego Group and General Director of Lego Manufacturing Vietnam Co., Ltd.: Binh Duong has a very good infrastructure and very good support for the production and business activities of enterprises. Lego received tremendous cooperation and support from Binh Duong provincial authorities from the very first day. I am really impressed with how the provincial government supports, answers, and handles problems to come up with practical and effective solutions. This is one of the main reasons that Lego Group has chosen Binh Duong as the place to build our sixth factory. I hope that the Binh Duong provincial government will continue to invest more to maintain and develop the infrastructure that can promptly meet the development need of enterprises in the coming time.

Reported by Ngoc Thanh - Translated by Ngoc Huynh

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