HCM CITY — Mekong Delta’s Long An province and its neighbour, HCM City,  need to have better transportation and communications connections in order to improve their economic development.

The comment was made by the Secretary of HCM City’s Party Committee Đinh La Thăng, who chaired a conference on Saturday about the socio-economic development of the two localities between 2007 and 2015.

Long An has the great advantage of being located near HCM City, the country’s largest economic hub, but the two localities have not taken full advantage of this for better socio-economic development, according to the official.

“Therefore, during the meeting with Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc, HCM City suggested to build a mechanism for coordinating, regional connectivity for the southern economic hub and a deputy prime minister should be assigned to look after this. In fact, HCM cannot steer Long An nor is Long An able to steer HCM City,” Thăng said.  

Implementing regional connectivity well would impact development in other localities, Thăng said, adding that the two localities need to point out specific areas for cooperation.

In transport, Thăng urged speeding up contruction of projects that link HCM City and Long An, in addition to the Trung Lương Express way, National Highway No.1 and Trans-provincial Road No.10.

National Road No.50 and Rạch Dơi Bridge had been in the planning for several years, but hadn’t been completed for various reasons, including insufficient capital, said Bùi Xuân Cường, director of the HCM City Department of Transport.

Between 2007 and 2015, transportation connectivity between HCM City and Long An improved with the Bến Lức–Long Thành Expressway.

The official said after working sessions with the HCM City Department of Planning and Investment and the Long An Province Department of Transport that a new transportation system was needed for better connectivity.

There is a plan to build a Southwestern road linking HCM City’s Bình Chánh Distrrict, Nhà Bè District with Cần Guộc District in Long An and a road linking HCM City and Tân An City, with a total investment of VNĐ7 trillion (US$318 million).

Investment flow

Between 2007 and 2015, 36 enterprises from HCM City invested in Long An to develop infrastructure at 24 industrial parks in a total area of 8,240 hectares, with total investment of VNĐ14.9 trillion (US$677 million).

Another 15 enterprises from HCM City invested in 15 economic clusters in Long An with total investment of VNĐ6.7 trillion (US$304.5 million).

As of the end of 2015, 400 enterprises from HCM City invested in the industrial parks with a total registered capital of VNĐ43.7 trillion (US$1.9 billion), accounting for 62 per cent of the 646 enterprises investing in Long An’s industrial parks.

In order to have more efficient cooperation between the two localities, Phạm Văn Rạnh, secretary of Long An Province’s Party Committee, said the province had priority policy to attract investment in transportation development, industrial parks and urban areas.

Rạnh said Long An would focus on developing 20 routes linking the province and HCM City. -VNS