Transport – Vital for Development of Tay Ninh Province

Transport – Vital for Development of Tay Ninh Province

The southern province of Tay Ninh possesses many advantages in its geographic location. It adjoins Ho Chi Minh City, the socio-economic centre of Vietnam, acts as a gateway to the south-east region (bordering Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, and incorporating National Road No's 22 and 23B) and holds a key position in socio-economic exchange relations with the north-west region and southern major economic area. Tay Ninh province, therefore, plays a very important role in establishing inter-regional and international ties.

Real situation and potential

Thanks to its present advantages, Tay Ninh possesses a variety of fundamental conditions for expanding its transport activities. The provincial road network has long been established and extends over more than 3,000 km. The waterway network is approximately 617 km in length. The two main rivers of Vam Co Dong and Saigon facilitate the travel of boats, however, the smaller rivers and canals pose issues for the transport sector. Current river crossings and difficulties with dredging narrow passages means the smaller waterways are unable to meet the requirements for goods and passenger transport. The national and provincial road networks do inter-mesh, however, helping to expand the traffic network which joins Tay Ninh to other provinces. 

Until 2003, the provincial road system was a total 3,043 km in length. Of these, the National Roads No.22 and 22B are nearly 112 km long and under Central control. Another 650 km are under provincial management with some 538 km of asphalted road and 113 km of gravel and stone path. Rural traffic roads occupy 1,447 km, 11.5 km of which are concrete roads and the remainder is macadam. There are 108 bridges with total length of 2.83 km across the province.

Improving road links

To boost socio-economic growth, the first job for Tay Ninh is to fortify the road network – an urgent task to enable it to integrate into the common network of the south eastern and international region. Thus, the provincial transport sector is making continuous efforts to fulfil projects, laying the foundations for the development trend throughout the province. In 2003, the transport sector kept exceeding its set targets and plans regarding cargo and passenger transport activities as well as capital construction. Cargo transport reached 4,577,000 tonnes, fulfilling 101.68 per cent of the target set for the year, an on-year increase of 12.04 per cent.

In terms of capital construction, the province carried out schemes valued at VND133,785 million (equal to 182.7 per cent of the yearly plan) in 2003, up 6.54 per cent on-year. The provincial localities have encouraged their inhabitants and socio-economic organisations to make contributions to building 423 km of rural traffic road. Construction projects in this area are capitalised at US$1.61 million, of which US$877,000 comes from the State budget and the rest comes from contributions of the people.

It took 79,000 days of man-labour to complete the works. Apart from capital sources mobilised from the people and State budget, Tay Ninh has carried out as many as 15 rural traffic works across districts and towns, making full use of the World Bank 2 capital source for the second year's rural traffic projects, including 58 km of asphalted stone road and 44 m of ferro-concrete bridge worth a total of US$460,500.

In general, the provincial traffic infrastructure meets current travelling needs only but may fail to satisfy local development requirements in the future. Hence, the province of Tay Ninh needs to simultaneously upgrade and develop its traffic network from the district and town level through to the national roads, and focus improvement efforts on key areas to ensure the travel and transport of goods for greater convenience. The traffic network of Tay Ninh aims to link economic centres with material areas, in line with provincial socio-economic development plans.

• M.N