A view of Việt Nam-Singapore Industrial Park in Bình Dương Province. — Photo VNA

BÌNH DƯƠNG — The southern province of Bình Dương should shift its development model to industry-urban-smart services to help investors quickly deploy the smart factory model and smart production in the locality.

Deputy Prime Minister Lê Minh Khái delivered this statement during the "Start-up-Connection-New Development" conference held in the province on Saturday. 

In the long run, the province's development model should be associated with science-technology and innovation to facilitate the establishment of a new ecosystem by the requirements of new investors and employees, contribute to increasing the provincial labour productivity and helping it participate deeply in the industrial value chain, Khái said.

He also asked Bình Dương to ensure its rapid, comprehensive, and sustainable development with top priority to ensure synchronous development of social, healthcare and educational infrastructure, strengthening the connection between labour supply and demand and improving the quality of human resources. 

Chairman of Bình Dương People's Committee Võ Văn Minh said the industrial-urban-service development model is a unique choice of Bình Dương. It has played a strategic role in upgrading urban planning, industrial and transport systems and creating space for the development of trade, services and science and technology.

Minh said Bình Dương has transformed from a locality dependent on agricultural production to a developed province with the structure of industry-trade-services accounting for nearly 97 per cent. It is also among the leading localities in domestic and foreign investment attraction in the southern region and the country. 

Over the past 25 years, the province’s economic scale has expanded 104 times, reaching over VNĐ408.8 trillion. Agriculture increased 14.2 times, industry surged 140.6 times and services rose 112.2 times. 

Bình Dương, along with HCM City, Đồng Nai and Bà Rịa-Vũng Tàu, contribute over 91.7 per cent of the southern region's total budget revenue and 37 per cent of the nation's total budget revenue.

The locality is now home to 29 industrial zones (IZs), covering a total area of nearly 13,000ha. The chairman said these IZs, which have recorded 90 per cent of land occupancy, are expected to be a solid foundation for the province's sustainable socio-economic development and investment attraction in the future. 

In the future, Bình Dương has been reshaping the development model with major orientations, including transforming the industrial development model to industry-urban-smart service from the current industry-urban-service to meet strict new requirements of the market. 

Minh said his province would concentrate on upgrading existing IZs and building new green and smart IZs which can provide a 4.0 technology platform.

The provincial People's Committee granted investment certificates to nearly 10 domestic and foreign enterprises during the conference.

Besides, a memorandum of understanding was also inked between VSIP Group and leaders of nine provinces in Việt Nam, including Bình Phước, Tây Ninh, Bình Thuận, Khánh Hòa, Thừa Thiên-Huế, Hà Tĩnh, Thanh Hóa, Thái Bình and Nam Định. 

VSIP Group - a joint venture between Việt Nam's Becamex IDC and a consortium of Singaporean investors led by Sembcorp Development LTD. It operates 13 industrial, urban and service zones in nine localities with an area of over 10,300ha, chinhphu.vn reported. 

Under the MoU, VSIP Group will collaborate with these nine provinces to conduct feasibility studies for industrial parks, and urban and service centres.

The cooperation is expected to promote the socio-economic development of these provinces through the production of high-value products, job creation and the development of new urban areas to support the community's quality of life.

According to the Ministry of Planning and Investment's (MPI) Foreign Investment Agency, Bình Dương Province as of the end of 2022 has attracted more than 4,082 foreign direct investment (FDI) projects with nearly US$40 billion of registered funds, ranking it among the top two provinces in the country in FDI attraction, just after HCM City.

Denmark was the biggest investor of Bình Dương with $1.32 billion, followed by the Netherlands with $609 million, and China at $258 million.

Preben Enef, general director of LEGO Vietnam Technology Co. Ltd. (Denmark), which is investing $1.3 billion in a toy factory in Bình Dương, appreciated the support from leaders of the province as well as ministries for the construction of the project. — VNS