As part of the Mekong Delta, Long An enjoys a special position as a gateway connecting the delta with the southeastern region, bordering both Cambodia and Ho Chi Minh City.

Truong Van Liep, acting director of Long An Department of Planning and Investment

The locality can therefore leverage Ho Chi Minh City’s robust industrial and urban development pace, as it only takes 40-50 minutes to reach the southern growth engine.

A gateway to the Mekong Delta region

Capitalising on these advantages, Long An has seen laudable socioeconomic development recently, with its economic scope topping the delta region and accounting for more than 13 per cent of the total.

The local economic structure has been geared towards industrial development with breakthrough growth. Its regional GDP grew by 8.46 per cent in 2022.

To create firm fundaments to realise its development goals, Long An has focused on developing a string of major transport infrastructure projects, including those promoting links with Ho Chi Minh City and localities in the Southeast, as well as others to strengthen its internal connections.

Businesses setting up shop in Long An can easily bolster trade exchange with partners both domestically and internationally, helping to save time and cost, and boosting competitiveness.

Nguyen Van Duoc, Secretary of Long An Party Committee (first on the left) speaking with businesses and partners at a seminar on Long An High-Tech Zone's development orientation

Long An aims to grow into a locality with strong industrial production in the southern region.

The province currently boasts 15,000 hectares for industrial development, encompassing 37 industrial zones (IZs), and 59 industrial clusters (ICs), of which 18 IZs and 23 ICs have already become operational and span over 4,000ha.

These IZs and ICs are mostly located in districts adjacent to Ho Chi Minh City. They host mostly complete infrastructure and are ready to welcome investors.

As of now, Long An is home to 1,184 foreign-invested projects worth more than $10.3 billion in the total committed capital.

Creating an enabling business environment

Long An has posted inspiring achievements in investment attraction and economic development over the past couples of years as the province has effectively availed of the local advantages. It has paid due regard to accelerating administrative procedure reforms while creating a safe, efficient, and friendly business environment.

For many years in a row, the province has been named among top performers nationwide in terms of administrative reform efforts, instituting trust in the business community, and creating an open, transparent, and competitive investment and business environment.

Significantly, the province’s leaders have often taken part in business dialogues, creating the necessary conditions to support investors during their survey and project implementation in the province. This provides a fulcrum, highlighting Long An’s charm to domestic and international investors.

With a consistent and strategic vision for growth model reform, Long An has connected with a world-leading consulting group to pen the province’s strategic planning, aimed at creating exceptional growth in the province and setting the orientation for investment attraction for the coming time.

In mid-September 2022, the Central Council evaluating Quang Binh’s planning scheme worked on evaluating the provincial planning for the 2021-2030 period, with vision for 2050, with positive assessments.

On June 13 of this year, the prime minister approved Long An’s planning scheme for the above period.

In light of the master planning, Long An is set to grow into a dynamic, efficient, and sustainable economic development centre in the southern region. It will form a gateway as part of the area’s urban and industrial economic corridor, with close links to Ho Chi Minh City, the southeastern region, and Cambodia.

Long An’s management team at an investment promotion event in Japan

The scheme aims for the province to establish diverse economic corridors with dynamic urban and development centres that are adaptive to climate change and assure social wellbeing.

Long An aims to grow by around 9-9.5 per cent annually during the 2021-2030 period, with the local economic structure geared towards industrialisation.

By 2030, its economic scale should reach a 2-2.5-fold increase over 2021, with the average income per person approximating $7,820.

Long An encompasses two corridors, including the ring roads No.3 and No.4 links and the Ho Chi Minh City-Long An-Tien Giang development triangle, creating vibrant urban and economic development close to Ho Chi Minh City and coastal areas.

Tan An city is being turned into an administrative and high-tech centre, leveraging digital transformation.

In addition, there will be another high-tech agriculture, ecotourism, and order economy area in the West, with good transport connections to the two corridors and Tan An centre.

Long An’s development land consists of three distinct zones.

Zone 1 aims to develop high-tech agriculture, ecotourism, and a border economy, providing materials to feed the local processing industry.

Zone 2, surrounded by the Vam Co Dong and Vam Co Tay rivers, aims to develop renewable energy projects and riverside ecotourism, as well as serve as an internal transshipment centre.

Zone 3 consists of districts adjoining Ho Chi Minh City, and aims to drive urban and industrial development.

With such orientations, the available land for urban, industrial, and services development is expected to swell by 4-4.3 times by 2030.

The province’s workforce also constitutes an advantage with over 900,000 people at working age, a figure which is expected to reach one million by 2030. Furthermore, it has proven easy for Long An to entice a high-quality workforce and experts from Ho Chi Minh City.

Regarding infrastructure, Long An has very competitive advantages with Ben Luc-Long Thanh Expressway linking to Ho Chi Minh City and Trung Luong, Ho Chi Minh City-Long Thanh-Dau Giay expressways, ring roads No.3 and No.4, the Ho Chi Minh City-Can Tho express railway development, and Long An Port, among others.

The province is prioritising investment into supporting and processing industries, automation, electronic devices, equipment, microchip and semiconductor production, AI, high-quality urban services development, organic and high-tech agriculture, ecotourism, and renewable energy.

To best avail of these strong advantages and strategic vision, Long An is committed to driving both social and economic development, particularly in the fields of transport investment, healthcare, and the environment.

The province also pays special attention to developing high-quality human resources to meet the need for a skilled workforce.