4:49:55 PM | 29/8/2005
Can Tho is a centrally-run city and an economic, trade, financial, service, scientific and technological and cultural centre in the Mekong delta. The city, with a total area of 139,000 hectares is located in the centre of the Mekong delta, to the west of the Hau River. It connects with the sea via the Dinh An passage. The national highway N0 1A links the city with Ho Chi Minh City and other localities in the Mekong delta. The city has a waterway to Cambodia.
Geographic location: Can Tho is bordered with Dong Thap, Vinh Long, Kien Giang, Hau Giang and An Giang province. The city has eight districts.
Population: Can Tho is home to 1.128 million people, including 562,019 living in urban areas, accounting for 49.84 per cent and 565,686 living in rural areas, or 50.16 per cent. The number of workers in agriculture accounts for 52.5 per cent while the number of workers in the non-agricultural areas accounts for 47.5 per cent. The city’s population density is 811 people per square kilometre.
Infrastructure: Can Tho has good infrastructure facilities with roads, seaports, airports, industrial parks and export processing zones, telecommunication, insurance and banking services, electricity and water supply networks, and new urban areas.
Potential and advantages:
- Industry: Industry is an important advantage of Can Tho city with various products. The city is concentrating on developing food and seafood processing, electric and electronic utilities, garment and footwear production, and chemical and construction material production industries. To date, the city has 5,357 production establishments with around 48,000 workers. Of this figure, the private sector has 5,325 establishments with 32,500 workers.
- Agriculture: Can Tho has a total area of around 116,868 hectares for agricultural production. Each year, the city produces over 1.2 million tonnes of rice and processes between 500,000 and 600,000 tonnes for export. Furthermore, the city produces around 100,000 tonnes of fruit, 65,000 tonnes of seafood and 20,000 tonnes of cattle and poultry meat. Can Tho produces other products including maize with 3,000 tonnes, soya beans with an output of over 5,000 tonnes and sesame with over 1,000 tonnes.
- Tourism: Can Tho city has many famous tourist sites with the Cai Rang-Phong Dien floating markets, the eco-tourist sites of My Khanh, Con Au and Thuy Tien, and fruit gardens along the Hau river.
Targets for 2005
- GDP growth rate: between 14.5 and 15 per cent per year
- Growth rate of agricultural, forestry and fisheries production value: 3.8 per cent
- Growth rate of industrial and constructional production value: 23.5 per cent
- Growth rate of services: 15.9 per cent
- Export turnover of goods and services: US$271 million
- Per capita income: over VND 9.3 million per year
- Jobs: 25,000
- Poor households: 2.59 per cent
Targets for 2006 – 2010 period:
- Economic growth rate: 16.8 per cent
- Per capita income: US$1,205
- Economic structure: region I contributing 9.4 per cent, region II contributing 43.9 per cent and region III contributing 46.7 per cent
- Export turnover of goods and services: US$1 billion
- Jobs: 206,700
- Trained workers: 30.78 per cent