Located in a strategic position and endowed with diverse natural resources, vast fertile land, profuse freshwater and other pluses, the Mekong Delta - also known as the “Land of Nine Dragons” – has huge potential for economic development. However, the shortage of high quality human resources, the absence of comprehensive investment attraction policies, the weakness of infrastructure, especially traffic systems, and other drawbacks are “bottle-necks” in the process of attracting investment in particular and expanding socioeconomic development in general in the entire region.
Holding all fundamental conditions to facilitate socioeconomic development, like relatively equal socioeconomic level among regional provinces, and common cultural structures, coupled with huge advantages and strengths of closely-united economic sectors like agriculture, fisheries and tourism, the Mekong Delta holds an important role in the national socioeconomic development strategy. Besides significantly contributing to the country’s GDP, the region is also the largest agriculture and aquaculture producer in Vietnam. Although the Mekong Delta accounts for 27 % of the country’s total farming area, it annually produces 20 million tonnes of rice, two million tonnes of aquatic products, more than 2.2 million tonnes of fruits and many other agricultural products. Providing more than 50 % of the nation’s rice, aquatic products and fruits, the Mekong Delta plays a crucial role in Vietnam’s agricultural production.
Fully aware of the strategic location and huge potential, as well as the drawbacks to socioeconomic development in the Mekong Delta, the Party and State of Vietnam has for years focused on directing, investing and supporting the region to develop the fundamentals to catch up with the national integration process. Together with the persevering efforts of the Party, the authorities and the people, the region has mobilised many investment resources for socioeconomic development to create positive changes, and has attained many encouraging achievements. Regional economic growth is relatively high, at 10-12 % per year on average in 2006 - 2010; the economic structure is characterised by an increasing proportion of industry and services in GDP; and socioeconomic infrastructure, particularly electricity supply, transport, irrigation, health and education, have made important advances.
The Mekong Delta also has relatively high industrial growth. Many giant industrial parks have been built in the largest delta in the country, including Ca Mau gas - electricity - fertiliser complex, Tra Noc 1 Industrial Park, Tra Noc 2 Industrial Park, Hung Phu 1 Industrial Park, Hung Phu 2 Industrial Park (Can Tho City), Khanh An Industrial Park (Ca Mau province), Hoa Binh and Vam Cong industrial parks (An Giang province), and Thanh Loc and Thuan Yen industrial parks (Kien Giang province).
According to Planning and Investment Minister Vo Hong Phuc, the Mekong Delta stands apart from the three regions of the country with three major advantages. First, like Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia, the region has a favourable geographical position and lies on international maritime and aviation transportation routes connecting South Asia and Southeast Asia, Australia and other islands in the Pacific. Second, the region has an abundant workforce with more than 18 million people of working age, primarily young people. Third, this is the largest agricultural centre in Vietnam and Southeast Asia. With its potential, the Mekong Delta has attracted increasing flows of foreign direct investment (FDI), bringing new vitality to the “Land of Nine Dragons.”
According to Minister Vo Hong Phuc, the Mekong Delta attracted FDI capital right after the Law on Foreign Investment took effect in late 1987. The region had four FDI projects with a total investment capital of US$7.8 million in 1988, and it currently houses 530 FDI projects worth US$9.2 billion. In the first seven months of 2010, 51 new FDI projects with total registered capital of US$1.49 billion were granted investment certificates. Compared with eight other regions in the country, the Mekong Delta ranked third in investment projects after the South-eastern region and the Red River Delta, and fifth in investment value ahead of the North-eastern region, the Central Highlands and the North-western region.
At the "Investment and Development in the Mekong Delta" conference held in Can Tho City in September, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said that, clearly recognizing its strategic position and role, the Government pays special attention to the Mekong Delta. Particularly, it adopted many policies to support and facilitate the Mekong Delta to develop, including the Mekong Delta Socioeconomic Development Plan until 2015 and towards 2025, the Mekong Delta Construction Plan until 2020 and towards 2050, and the Mekong Delta Key Economic Zone Establishment Project which defines the Mekong Delta as the country’s centre of rice cultivation, aquaculture and aquatic processing, as well as a major centre of energy.
Thien Tan
Vietnamese
