Alongside the airport, the Dong Nai River corridor has been identified as the second strategic space in the province's new development structure.

At a working session with the Standing Committee of the Dong Nai Provincial Party Committee on May 18, 2026, General Secretary and President To Lam emphasized that the city needs to elevate its planning with a long-term and feasible vision in which the Dong Nai River must fulfill its role as an ecological, cultural, landscape, and urban development axis.

This is viewed as an important orientation to restructure the riverside space in a modern, sustainable manner and generate additional growth momentum.

The Dong Nai River stretches more than 586 kilometers, including about 234 kilometers flowing through Dong Nai. It is considered one of the city's most valuable natural assets, offering unique economic, cultural and landscape advantages.

The Standing Committee of the Dong Nai Party Committee has approved plans to study the development of the riverside corridor from Bien Hoa to Nhon Trach with the goal of creating a modern, distinctive and highly recognizable urban space.

A centerpiece of the plan is a large-scale riverside boulevard that will serve as the city's primary spatial development axis while opening new opportunities for urban development, commerce, services and tourism.

In the Tran Bien area, the ongoing conversion of Bien Hoa 1 Industrial Park is laying the foundation for a new administrative, commercial and service center. Land clearance has largely been completed, with construction expected to begin in August 2026.

Meanwhile, Long Hung, Hiep Hoa, Dai Phuoc and Nhon Trach are attracting numerous large-scale urban projects focused on eco-urban development, high-quality services and innovation.

At the same time, multiple infrastructure projects connecting both banks of the Dong Nai River are being developed, expanding the city's development space while enabling a more balanced distribution of population and services.

Building twin growth engines

A notable feature of Dong Nai's strategy is that these growth drivers are not developing independently but are creating strong synergies.

Ho Van Ha, vice chair of the Dong Nai City People's Committee, said the industrial parks surrounding Long Thanh Airport are becoming a new magnet for investment, attracting experts, engineers and highly skilled workers while creating substantial demand for housing, commerce, services, education, healthcare and urban amenities.

Conversely, the urban areas along the Dong Nai River, with high-quality living spaces, service infrastructure, and ecological environments, are expected to become long-term places of residence and work for this elite workforce. This mutual support creates a new development structure with two complementary growth poles.

If Long Thanh is viewed as the industrial - logistics - high-tech growth pole, the Dong Nai River corridor plays the role of the urban - service - innovation growth pole.

This development model helps Dong Nai expand its growth headroom intensively rather than merely relying on industrial scale expansion as previously done.

This also serves as the foundation for the city to transition toward a greener, more sustainable development model with better capability to adapt to fluctuations in the global economy.

To realize the 10 percent growth target, Dong Nai is deploying a range of solutions, from accelerating public investment disbursement, improving the investment environment, and removing bottlenecks for businesses to developing the digital economy, fostering innovation, and attracting high-quality capital flows.

At a working session with the Steering Committee for Economic Growth and State Budget Revenue of Dong Nai, Nguyen Van Ut, chair of the Dong Nai People's Committee, requested that units maximize resources, especially revenues derived from land, while accelerating public investment disbursement and untying difficulties for production and business activities.

From the infrastructure construction sites around Long Thanh Airport to the urban projects along the Dong Nai River, the new development space of Dong Nai is gradually taking shape. When these growth engines are connected, the locality will possess further headroom to realize its double-digit growth target, while asserting its role as an important growth pole of the Southeast region.

Hoang Anh