The regional planning was presided over by the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI), with participation of international consultants and advice from relevant ministries and local authorities.

The draft regional plan was introduced at a recent conference.

Under the draft, there are three sub-regions.

The northern part of the central region, comprises five provinces, from Thanh Hoa to Quang Tri. The coastal area belonging to three provinces of Thanh Hoa, Nghe An and Ha Tinh will develop into an industrial center of the country and act as the driving force for the development of the sub-region, in association with a seaports area, export processing zone, international logistics center in Nghi Son, Thanh Hoa and Vung Ang deep-water seaport.

The central coastal region of five cities/provinces, extends from Thua Thien-Hue to Binh Dinh. Da Nang will be the national growth pole as stipulated in national development planning.

Da Nang and neighboring urban areas will be the center of startups, innovations, tourism, trade, finance, logistics, hi-tech industries and IT. It will be one of the country’s centers for education and training, hi-quality healthcare and science and technology, as well as the center for events of regional and international stature.  

The southern part of the central region with four provinces extends from Phu Yen to Binh Thuan. Of these, the urban cluster of Van Phong - Nha Trang - Cam Ranh will be the center of the sub-region in terms of economy, industry, trade, tourism and service. It will also be the important traffic hub connecting sub-regions, region and the world; and the fishery logistics service center in Khanh Hoa. Meanwhile, Ninh Thuan and Binh Thuan will be developed into a renewable energy center.

Regional development 

MPI Minister Nguyen Chi Dung said the content in the draft regional development plan are steps to concretize the national master plan, demonstrating the major orientations in different business fields, promoting development potential and new development space in the country and the region.

Regional planning aims to focus on identifying and solving major, inter-sectoral, inter-regional and inter-provincial issues to reorganize the regional development space, so as to effectively promote all resources for rapid and sustainable regional development. 

Regional planning will be the basis for localities in the region to link and cooperate in proposing a medium-term public investment plan for 2026-2030, especially large, inter-regional projects.

There are challenges, but there are also numerous opportunities to develop the northern part of the central region and coastal central region: attracting, connecting and mobilizing all investment resources from all economic sectors, so as to speed up regional economic restructuring in association with the growth model reform.

The plan also mentioned the need to develop clusters of sea-borne business fields, focusing on connecting industrial zones and coastal economic zones; to concentrate on developing some advantageous business fields in sub-regions such as petrochemistry, renewable energy, automobile and supporting industries, and forestry products and seafood processing.

Changes in priority

As the consultant of the planning, a representative of the consultant from the Netherlands has submitted the preliminary research report to the Regional Coordinating Council, leaders of ministries and branches and 14 cities and provinces mentioned in the planning.

After successfully implementing the Mekong River Delta programming project, Royal HaskoningDHV, one of the three Dutch technical consultancy groups with 140 years of experience and 35 years of experience in Vietnam has been assigned to create the  development planning of provinces in Vietnam, including Thua Thien-Hue, Phu Yen, Tien Giang, Hau Giang and Can Tho. 

Most recently, Royal HaskoningDHV became the head of the joint name assigned to draw up the overall development of HCM City, a large complex project and one of the most important plans in Vietnam.

These plans were conducted with an integration method applied in Vietnam for the first time after the Law on Planning was enacted (released in 2017, took effect in 2019).

Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha said it is necessary to set priority orders to decide which projects should be implemented first. The projects which can create the driving force for the development of the whole zone and projects which have spillover effects. Instead of developing separate socio-economic projects for every locality, it is now necessary to give priority to inter-provincial and inter-regional projects. 

Nguyen Hien