On March 29, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha signed Decision No.318/QD-TTg approving Khanh Hoa's master planning for the 2021-2030 period, with a vision to 2050.

Accordingly, by 2030, the south central coastal province will fall directly under the central government as an international sea tourism and service centre, serving as the growth pole in the central coastal region, the Central Highlands, and the whole country in terms of the marine economy, high-tech industry, sci-tech, innovation, human resource training, and high-quality healthcare services.

The province’s GRDP growth rate for the 2021-2030 period is set to average 8.3 per cent per year.

Having been named as one of the leading coastal cities with the most liveable environment in Asia, Khanh Hoa aims to become a major marine hub for the country and a smart, environmentally friendly city that is on par with its regional peers in Asia.

Khanh Hoa’s master planning for this period identifies four pillars for breakthrough development.

Firstly, it aims to create breakthroughs in administrative reform, improve the business investment environment, and implement specific mechanisms and policies enacted by the National Assembly to effectively avail of all internal and external resources for socioeconomic development, particularly for the breakthrough development of Van Phong Bay, Nha Trang city, and Cam Ranh Bay.

Secondly, it wants to create breakthroughs in human resource development, especially for major industries such as tourism, processing, manufacturing, logistics services, seaports, fisheries, and IT.

Thirdly, the plan is to strengthen the research and application of sci-tech, especially in the fields of marine economic development such as oceanography, ocean technology, aquatic breed production, vaccines and medical products, and tourism services, while strongly promoting innovation, entrepreneurship, and startups.

Finally, focus will be placed on fostering investment, while mobilising and effectively availing of the available resources to create breakthroughs in building a seamless and modern socioeconomic infrastructure system.

The spotlight will be on key projects, especially infrastructure for transport, economic zones (EZs), industrial parks, urban areas, seaports, and airports, and effectively adapting to climate change.

Of equal importance is developing ICT infrastructure to build and develop provincial databases that are in sync with the national systems to create a foundation for digital transformation in the province.

The master planning also identifies three dynamic development zones in Khanh Hoa.

Efforts will gear towards turning the Van Phong Bay-Van Phong EZ area into a modern marine hub, creating a driving force for the development of Khanh Hoa province in particular and the south central region in general.

Nha Trang city is expected to grow into an economic, political, cultural, social, scientific, technological, and human resource training centre to effectively promote its role as the growth pole and gateway for the international integration of Khanh Hoa province.

The Cam Ranh Bay area will be developed as a key economic and social location, in which Cam Ranh city will be developed for tourism and logistics and Cam Lam district will become a modern, ecological, and world-class airport city.

Developing two grade 1 urban centres

In light of the master planning, Khanh Hoa will have two grade 1 urban centres, Nha Trang city and Cam Lam new urban area, along with many other urban areas of different grades.

Van Phong EZ will grow into a modern marine centre, consisting of North Van Phong and South Van Phong.

North Van Phong is set to become a world-class tourism and resort urban centre, leveraging high-class marine tourism to benefit from its geographical location and scenic local landscape.

Efforts will be made to build a world-class marina to welcome passenger ships and luxury yachts, along with a seaport and associated logistics services.

Meanwhile, South Van Phong is oriented to become an industrial hub with associated seaports, urban projects, and coastal tourism services. It will focus on attracting industrial park infrastructure development projects, high-tech industry, energy, oil and gas processing, shipbuilding, manufacturing, processing, and supporting industries.

It will also be important to develop cargo ports associated with the logistics centre in South Van Phong to serve both the Central Highlands and the central coastal regions.