Infrastructure investment, Western economy flourishes

The 120km invested highway has “brought closer” the capital of the West to Ho Chi Minh City – Photo: MAU TRUONG

In the period of 2021-2025, the economy of Vietnam and the southwestern provinces in particular will suffer many negative impacts, especially the COVID-19 pandemic and wars happening in the world.

Therefore, 2024 is considered a pivotal year for provinces to complete the common development goals of the whole period.

With the attention and investment from the Government for the region, over the past year many provinces and cities in the region have achieved outstanding achievements, bringing the economic situation back to the growth momentum from before the COVID-19 outbreak.

Major roads open, many provinces have outstanding budget revenue

In the last days of 2023, 23km of My Thuan - Can Tho expressway was put into operation, connecting to the two existing expressways Ho Chi Minh City - Trung Luong and Trung Luong - My Thuan.

From the southern economic center of Ho Chi Minh City to the capital of the Southwest region, thanks to the 120km expressway, travel time has been shortened by about 2 hours, and in 2024 this route has begun to show its value, and people have benefited.

To continue towards the 600km target for the Southwest region, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has directly surveyed and worked many times to remove difficulties such as lack of construction materials, capital mechanisms, etc.

This is an important milestone, clearly demonstrating the Government's investment attention, helping to open up major roads, bringing many important results in socio-economic development of the Western provinces in 2024, especially improving budget revenue.

Specifically, in the gateway province of Long An, the total state budget revenue in 2024 will reach more than VND 25,800 billion, an increase of more than 27.5% over the same period, reaching more than 121.3% of the initial estimate.

Provinces near the "tail" of this highway such as Hau Giang also saw their budget revenue increase by 23.52% over the same period, with more than 7,520 billion VND.

In particular, Tra Vinh, which was considered a remote province, has also made a breakthrough, with total budget revenue of over 18,632 billion VND, reaching 136.38% of the estimate.

Tra Vinh is also a province with GRDP increasing by 10.04% in 2024, leading the Mekong Delta. Following that are Hau Giang (increasing by 8.76%) and Long An (increasing by 8.30%)...

Gradually becoming an attractive destination for investors

In the list of top 10 localities attracting large enterprises in 2024 released by Vietnam Report in the program to announce the 500 largest enterprises in Vietnam in 2024, Long An is the only province in the Mekong Delta to make it to this list.

With its gateway location, next to Ho Chi Minh City, Long An has become the leading investment attraction in the Southwest for many years.

In 2024, the province attracted strong investment with 104 newly licensed FDI projects, with a total registered capital of more than 507 million USD, and adjusted to increase capital for 85 projects with an amount of 153 million USD. At the same time, domestic investment also achieved positive results with 57 newly licensed DDI projects, with a total registered capital of 175,313 billion VND (an increase of 90,136 billion VND), and 33 projects adjusted to increase an additional 4,368.1 billion VND in investment capital.

Up to now, the total newly registered capital, adjusted capital and capital contribution to buy shares of foreign investors in Long An has reached over 14.2 billion USD with 1,483 projects, accounting for over 71% of the number of projects and over 38% of the registered FDI capital in the Mekong Delta. In parallel, there are 2,250 domestic investment projects with a total registered capital of 474,578.3 billion VND.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh at the construction site of the Ho Chi Minh City Ring Road 3 project through Long An - Photo: SON LAM

Besides Long An, other provinces in the Southwest region, although not yet in the leading group of the country, have achieved encouraging results in attracting investment. Typically, Tien Giang with 20 new projects, Tra Vinh with 15 projects and Hau Giang with 8 projects in 2024.

These achievements were achieved thanks to synchronous investment in transport infrastructure connecting provinces, along with capital support from the central government and the Government and ministries and branches actively removing difficulties for localities.

Ready for the 2021-2025 finish line

These days, the 3.4km access road from Ho Chi Minh City – Trung Luong Expressway to National Highway 1, located in the final section of the Ben Luc – Long Thanh Expressway project, is also ready for traffic, helping to make the gateway to the West more open.

Right next to that, the Ho Chi Minh City Ring Road 3 project through Long An is also rushing towards the finish line to open to traffic in 2025.

In addition, a series of provincial road projects in Long An have also begun to be put into operation or started construction, "bringing" this region closer to the key economic region of the South.

The Ben Luc – Long Thanh expressway section connecting National Highway 1 to Ho Chi Minh City – Trung Luong expressway is ready for traffic – Photo: AN LONG

The openness of the gateway area has promoted the development of the entire region. Mr. Tran Ngoc Tam - Chairman of the People's Committee of Ben Tre province, a province with a relatively "nest" geographical location - said that the province's trade and service activities in the past year were bustling with stable commodity prices.

Total retail sales of goods and consumer service revenue were estimated at VND70,855 billion, up 11.68% over the same period and exceeding the plan (reaching 100.45%). Import-export activities also flourished in the last months of the year: export turnover was estimated at USD1,750 million, up 20.27% and reaching 100% of the plan; import turnover was estimated at USD520 million, up 25.61% and exceeding the plan (reaching 104%).

In recent times, Ben Tre province has been one of the localities that has benefited greatly from central investment projects.

“In addition to the expressway projects connecting Ho Chi Minh City to the Western provinces and the dredging projects to improve transport capacity, Ben Tre province also benefits from the National Highway 60 expansion project and the upcoming Rach Mieu 2 Bridge project,” said Mr. Tam.

In 2025, Mr. Tam said that the province will promote infrastructure development to continue economic development. Especially the foreign connection traffic infrastructure, opening up new development space. Ben Tre province will continue to coordinate the implementation of important traffic projects: Rach Mieu 2 Bridge and the access road to Rach Mieu 2 Bridge (inaugurated at the end of 2025), construction of Ba Lai 8 Bridge, carrying out investment procedures for coastal road projects connecting Ben Tre province with Tien Giang province and Tra Vinh province, Cua Dai bridge project on the coastal road connecting Ben Tre province with Tien Giang province, starting construction of Dinh Khao bridge...

The Rach Mieu 2 Bridge project is approaching the finish line in 2025 and is expected to create great momentum for the development of the two provinces of Ben Tre and Tra Vinh - Photo: MAU TRUONG

Regarding Hau Giang, Mr. Nguyen Van Hoa - Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee - said that the province will continue to focus on the quality of investment attraction.

“To achieve the growth rate according to the 2025 plan, the province focuses on effectively implementing the Provincial Party Committee's program to implement the planning of Hau Giang province for the period 2021 - 2030, with a vision to 2050 and the Provincial People's Committee's plan to implement the Provincial Party Committee's program. Accelerate the investment progress of Song Hau 2 Industrial Park and Dong Phu 2 Industrial Park.

Continue to invest in building infrastructure for industrial clusters according to the industrial cluster development program of Hau Giang province for the period 2021-2025 approved by the Provincial People's Committee. At the same time, strengthen the management of state budget collection, analyze, evaluate, forecast the collection capacity, propose effective solutions to implement budget collection in the area, especially revenue from land," said Mr. Hoa.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/ha-tang-duoc-dau-tu-kinh-te-mien-tay-khoi-sac-20250120091928181.htm