Ca Mau City: Vibrant and Dynamic City

After more than a decade as a Class 2 urban area, Ca Mau city has significantly surpassed its initial standards and is now progressing toward Class 1 urban area criteria. The city aims to achieve Class 1 urban status by 2025.

Ca Mau City aims to achieve Class 1 urban area status by 2025

Commitments to supporting investors

According to the Mekong Delta Planning to 2020, with a vision to 2050, approved by the Prime Minister in Decision 287/QD-TTg dated February 28, 2022, Ca Mau city plays the role of a coastal subregional center in the Ca Mau Peninsula. The city is the national center of energy and oil and gas services, the center of eco-tourism services, and the center of seafood processing in the region. According to the Ca Mau Provincial Planning for the 2021-2030 period, with a vision to 2050, approved by the Prime Minister in Decision 1386/QD-TTg dated November 16, 2023, Ca Mau City is dynamic urban development poles of the Mekong Delta Key Economic Zone, a coastal center on the Ca Mau Peninsula, a national oil and gas service center, an ecological and processing hub, a regional seafood market, and a provincial center for politics, economics, culture, and education.

Currently, Ca Mau city is home to four national historical relics and eight provincial historical sites, which are annually invested by the province and the city in regular restoration and aggrandizement to preserve the national cultural identity. In addition, in order to effectively tap tourism potential, the city is forming and developing community tourism service areas (coconut garden tourism services in Ward 6, Tam Ngoat and Muoi Hieu gardens in Tan Thanh Ward, and Thu Duy Ecotourism Area in Ward 6) for tourists to experience and enjoy local fruits and regional cuisines. The effectively invested and operated Thu Duy Ecotourism Area is an ideal destination for domestic and foreign tourists to visit, explore and entertain services such as restaurants, hotels, resorts and recreational areas.

With continuous reform and innovation efforts, Ca Mau city achieved encouraging results in investment promotion and attraction. Effective investment attraction has importantly contributed to socioeconomic development, poverty reduction, job creation, income growth and improvement of people's material and spiritual life. Some investors in the city have brought about high business performance such as Nguyen Kim Group, Co.opmart, Dien May Xanh, Cho Lon, Muong Thanh Hotel and Minh Thang. Many projects have developed well in the city like VinCom, Muong Thanh, LICOGI and Happy Home. The city has also called for investors to invest in many new urban areas, business and manufacturing projects.

Mr. To Hoai Phuong, Chairman of Ca Mau City People's Committee, said, to ensure investment attraction in the coming time, Ca Mau City advocates reinforcing the leadership of Party committees and authorities at all levels and mobilizing the entire political system to actively participate in investment promotion. The city will speed up communications on local images, potential strengths and investment projects on mass media. “The city will support businesses with local investment projects, promote investment, streamline administrative processes, and foster an open, transparent, and competitive environment for continuous development,” he said.

Efforts to achieve class 1 urban area criteria

As soon as the Government recognized Ca Mau city as a class 2 urban area in 2010, the city focused on developing a plan to complete missing class 2 urban area criteria in order to advance to a class 1 urban area. In 2016, the Ca Mau City People's Committee issued Decision 2210/QD-UBND on ratification of Ca Mau Urban Development Program, roadmap, investment projects and investment resources to move towards a class 1 urban area. On February 20, 2022, the Provincial Party Committee also promulgated Program 27-CT/TU on Ca Mau city urban development to 2025, with a vision to 2030. Accordingly, Ca Mau city will be recognized as a class 1 urban area by 2025.

With the participation of the entire political system, after more than 10 years of being recognized as a class 2 urban area, Ca Mau city has far exceeded class 2 urban area standards and advanced towards the class 1 urban area standards as per Resolution 26/2022/UBTVQH15 of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly on amending and supplementing some articles of Resolution 1210/2016/UBTVQH13 dated May 15, 2016 of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly on urban classification. The urban space is planned to be expanded, combined with renovation and upgrading, to give the city a new prosperous appearance and increasingly improve the life quality of people.

To soon become a class 1 urban area by 2025, Ca Mau city will focus on completing the missing class 1 urban area criteria; continue to invest and upgrade technical infrastructure and social infrastructure; invest, build and develop green spaces, entertainment areas, sporting facilities, trade and education facilities to make Ca Mau a smart city and connect it with smart cities in the region and the country.

However, mobilized investment resources for urban construction and development in the past have not met requirements and the provincial budget has fallen short, resulting in some criteria not achieved. Currently, the Ca Mau People's Committee is carrying out a plan to fulfill unmet criteria, improve low-achievement criteria and consolidate high-achievement criteria. By 2025, the city must complete urban classification criteria for infrastructure development levels and urban landscape architecture, with a focus on health, education, training and cultural infrastructure to meet class 1 urban criteria. The city specifically figures out unmet standards relating to public works, roads, health, education and trees.

In addition, the City People's Committee will work with the Provincial Department of Construction to update the Ca Mau Urban Development Program through 2025 and 2030, develop a project for Ca Mau's recognition as a centrally governed Class 1 urban area, and create a flood prevention plan addressing climate change and rising sea levels by 2030.

By Tri Dung, Vietnam Business Forum