Binh Duong: the leading province for FDI and smart city establishment

Many roads in Binh Duong province have been upgraded and become outstanding signs of the urban architecture and industrial-service development. Photo: Le Toan

Synchronous infrastructure system and strong FDI attraction

Binh Duong aims to become a green-clean-beautiful industrial city, a political, economic, cultural, and social centre, and an important transport hub in the Southern Key Economic Zone in addition to developing its own smart city model.

To achieve this goal, Binh Duong province has step-by-step planned and built itself into a modern city. The province authorities have been actively investing in construction and long-term projects and works, attracting labour resources and long-term investment into infrastructure investment, and connecting areas within and outside the province.

According to Nguyen Van Hung, chairman of Becamex IDC, Binh Duong province is well-known among foreign investors and international groups and many of them are rushing to the province to search for more investment opportunities.

To successfully attract foreign investors from the get-go, Becamex IDC has been implementing projects in three key areas: hard infrastructure (including transport system, power and fresh water supply, waste treatment, and ports), soft infrastructure (management policy and system) , and social infrastructure (healthcare, culture, education, sports, trade and public services).

The expansion of Highway 13 which has been now become a prominent highlight of the urban architecture and industrial-service development of Binh Duong province. In addition, key transport roads will be invested by local authorities, including Bau Bang-My Phuoc-Tan Van, DT743, three roads in Tan Uyen commune, 7A road in Ben Cat commune, Ong Co Bridge, and the road DT744.

To ensure the success of foreign investment, Becamex IDC and Singaporean developer Sembcorp Development have been cooperating to build the first Vietnam Singapore Industrial Park (VSIP) in Binh Duong province in 1996.

So far, VSIP has attracted over $9 billion of investment capital from 630 enterprises from 60 countries and territories with a total export turnover of more than $37 billion and became a model in FDI attraction for the whole country. At present, the joint venture is setting up the first industrial-service-urban complex of Vietnam.

In addition, Becamex IDC's industrial parks have now attracted more than 970 projects with the total registered capital of more than $14 billion. According to investors, this landfall in foreign investment is a result of the support and cooperation with local companies, especially Becamex IDC.

Binh Duong new city is invested with modern style with hard, soft and social infrastructure system.Photo: Le Toan

In 1997 Binh Duong was still a poor province with the economy mainly focusing on agriculture, with little to no industrial and service activity. By the end of 2017, its economic structure has changed remarkably. Specifically, industry and construction occupied 64 per cent, trade and service occupied 23 per cent, while agriculture, forestry and fishery occupied 4 per cent.

In terms of attracting FDI, by September 2018, Binh Duong attracted 3,434 FDI projects with the total registered capital of more than $31.4 billion. The average project size is about $9.1 million. With this, Binh Duong ranked as the third province (after Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi) attracting the largest FDI volume in the country.

Developing a smart city model

According to experts, becoming a smart city will help Binh Duong province attract more new businesses and residents to live and work, boosting the sustainable development of the city of Binh Duong in the future.

The plan to build Binh Duong into a smart city was officially approved by the Binh Duong People's Committee in November 2016, outlining 46 specific actions under 14 programmes, divided into four main areas focusing on people, technology, enterprises, and other basic elements.

Becamex IDC and its partner Brainport (Netherlands) have designed suitable criteria to develop Binh Duong into a smart city. At the same time, in the implementation of this plan, Becamex IDC will also focus on different areas, such as people, technology, business community, infrastructure system, living and working environment.

The Eastern International University is a training centre providing high quality human resources in Binh Duong. Photo: Le Toan

Becamex IDC is now the Vietnamese partner of many large-scale enterprises and multinational corporations in many fields.

For example, Becamex IDC’s members Vietnam Communication and Technology Corporation (VNTT) and NTT Vietnam have signed a business cooperation contract to build Fibre to the Home (FTTH) and ICT solutions. These activities follow the memorandum signed by Becamex IDC with Japan's NTT Corporation (the world's fourth largest telecommunications technology company), with the aim of studying together the feasibilityfor smart city development in Vietnam, especially in Binh Duong New City.

Becamex IDC has entered a comprehensive cooperation with Industrial Technology Research Institute—the largest and most important scientific research institute in Taiwan—to collaborate in the fields of technology, human resources exchange, industrial development, scientific technology, and smart city development.

Becamex IDC also has been training skilled human resources for smart city development. Additionally, Becamex IDC’s members VNTT and the Eastern International University (EIU) have signed a cooperation contract with each other. Accordingly, EIU will conduct research and development, supply products requested by VNTT, and send students and lecturers to take practical training at the basements of VNTT. Previously, EIU signed a cooperation contract with Phillips Group on setting up a modern lighting laboratory.