New City takes Binh Duong forward

July 02, 2012 | 14:37

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Thu Dau Mot City has officially been founded in Binh Duong province since June 27, 2012 following the governmental Resolution 11/2012/NQ-CP.

At the same time, the city was awarded a Grade-II Labour Medal by Vietnam’s President. These significant events are considered a launching pad to promote the province.

Binh Duong’s core urban areas

Understanding the importance of Thu Dau Mot City in Binh Duong province’s socio-economic progress, the provincial People’s Committee has focuses on developing the city’s infrastructure as its preeminent master plan. Commercial services, residential areas and public transportation are well developed. Urban quality and landscape have also been improved day-by-day to make the city more modern and civilized. Meanwhile, education, training, health care, sport and cultural activities are also being championed.

Binh Duong New City is also continuing to be constructed to become Binh Duong province’s new administrative centre and it will promote and support the development of Thu Dau Mot City with the two urban areas being united to be the core of Binh Duong City in 2020.

Important works such as the provincial administrative centre will go into operation in 2013, while a high-end financial, commercial and service centre, a residential area, offices for lease, universities and sport centres will be opened for residents.

To promote the development of Thu Dau Mot City, Binh Duong People’s Committee chairman Le Thanh Cung is directing the city to continue focusing on developing technical and social infrastructure. Under the directive, the city should prioritise to develop of transportation, water supply, power supply, urban lighting, communications, environmental remediation and conservation systems and develop green spaces inside the urban area.

Cung said that the province would create good conditions for Thu Dau Mot City to push up its construction and synchronously connect to Binh Duong New City. That is the premise and also the important condition for Thu Dau Mot City to develop high-quality service industries while promoting environmental-friendly industries and creating a healthy living environment.

Takahashi Toshiyuki CEO of Tokyu Corporation

The 6,000ha Tokyu Tama Denen urban area is now home to 600,000 people and viewed as one of the most favourite areas for living in Japan. With a highly flexible traffic system, the urban area has a high transport efficiency.

Being a centre of the Southern Key Economic Zone, Binh Duong has a strategic position. Its annual GDP growth of 14-15 per cent is far exceeding the nation’s average.
Still, the local public transport infrastructure system remains incapable to serve the 1.6 million people residing in the province.

Given the rich experience from developing Tokyu Tama Denen in Japan, Tokyu Corporation and Becamex IDC will survey and plan an inter-provincial transport system connecting Binh Duong and the remaining of the Southern Key Economic Zone, focusing on a modern bus transit system. A railway route will also be likely built.

Tokyu Corporation and Becamex IDC

Becamex Tokyu is a joint venture company formed by Tokyu Corporation and Becamex IDC in March 2012, which is developing the Japanese-style $1.2 billion Tokyu Binh Duong Garden City project covering 71 hectares in the centre of Binh Duong province.

Tokyu Corporation is a leading urban development group in Japan. Over the past 90 years, Tokyu has been active in various business areas, from developing urban and commercial properties to constructing bus and railway systems with more than 2.9 million daily users, developing and managing retail systems, and providing IT and security services. The corporation has also involved in educational and cultural developments.

The combination of such operations in each urban development stage has helped Tokyu develop urban areas of highest standards and convenience. Tokyu Binh Duong Garden City project is built on Tokyu’s rich experience drawn from developing the Tokyu Tama Denen in Japan.

Thu Dau Mot City nowadays

In 1975, Thu Dau Mot was only a small town without a concrete masterplan. Residents’ material and spiritual lives had many difficulties and socio-economic infrastructure was poor. However, it is now a modern and civilized urban area.

Economic growth has always been high. The city’s average economic growth rate in 2006-2010 was 23.3 per cent, per year. In 2011, the rate was 27.7 per cent and the economy was restructured with a service proportion of 60.8 per cent, while the proportion of industry and agriculture was 38.9 and 0.3 per cent, respectively.

The city has 11 shopping malls and supermarkets, 13 traditional markets to ensure the local residents’ consumption demand, high quality services, public transport system, 30 banks and their branches. There are seven industrial parks in the city, which attract hundreds of investors.

The material and spiritual lives of local residents have also been improved. By the end of last year, the local per capita income reached $2,356 while the poverty rate was only 2.54 per cent.

The technical and social infrastructure systems are synchronously invested. Some key roads are under construction, including Binh Duong Avenue, Nguyen Chi Thanh Road, Nguyen Thi Minh Khai Road, Nguyen Tri Phuong Road and internal roads in the Binh Duong urban-service-industry complex project. Construction of many other important roads is also pushed up, including My Phuoc-Tan Van Road and the roads along the Saigon River.

Other public developments such as schools, hospitals are also built. Nguyen Thanh Tai, chairman of Thu Dau Mot City People’s Committee, said that despite the current gloomy economy, the city was determined to gain the target set by its 10th Party Congress. That is by 2015, the city will satisfy all criteria to become a Grade-I urban area.

On the occasion of Thu Dau Mot City’s official inauguration, Becamex IDC and Tokyu Nhat Ban last week signed a memorandum for the development of a modern bus transit system and a possible rail line connected to the inter-provincial transport system between Binh Duong and other areas in the Southern Key Economic Zone. It is considered an essential step in planning urban transport system and also a spring board for the locality to leap up.