Specifically, the city will develop multi-central points, with the current integrated center in district 1, district 3, part of district 4, Binh Thanh district (930 hectares) and 2 new Thu Thiem urban areas (737 hectares), 4
Besides, the city will expand in 2 main directions: the east and the south toward sea, and 2 additional directions: north-west and east-south-east.
The construction of infrastructure, IPs, urban areas, ports and the forming of waterway transportation play important role in the development of HCMC down south toward East Sea.
Economic development of HCMC
HCMC government is planning, building infrastructure and attracting both domestic and international business sector, with aim to develop HCMC toward East Sea. Such projects are: Tan Thuan IP (est. 1991, 300ha area), Phu My Hung urban area (est. 1993, 600ha area), Hiep Phuoc IP (est. 2007, 932ha area, in 2 phases), Long Hau IP (est. 2006, 141.85ha area), Soai Rap River dredging project (total investment of 2,800 bil VND), and recently, the project of Tan Cang – Hiep Phuoc Terminal of Saigon Newport Corporation at Hiep Phuoc IP, Nha Be District (operated on December 2014, total investment of 1,500 bil VND, total throughput of 50 mil tons of containers and bulk cargoes).
Operation activities at Tan Cang - Hiep Phuoc Terminal
The improvement of Soai Rap River to -9.5m deep to facilitate bigger vessels reconfirms HCMC”s strategy to “Toward east sea”.
These projects help enlarge space and shift economic structure of HCMC, improve life of citizen in those areas, and help those areas develop more actively.
Forming special economic zone
In long term strategies, HCMC will form a special economic zone in the South of the city. Specifically, HCMC will accelerate project of ring road number 3 (Ben Luc – HCMC – Long Thanh, going through Soai Rap River and Long Tau River, estimated finished by 2018).
HCMC government also promote the dredging of Soai Rap River to -12.5m deep, to enable 70,000DWT vessels to Hiep Phuoc. This will facilitate further development of the South of the city.
Moreover, the government also agreed to prioritize plans to build infrastructure both in road and waterway connecting industrial parks, logistics hubs, ports and Hiep Phuoc urban area, aka New Saigon Area, of over 3,600ha.
To complete the tasks, HCMC will issue supporting policies strong enough to boost business activities, infrastructure, import-export activities, trading – tourism, and logistics activities. This will be the chance to create a new economic zone to attract domestic and worldwide investors.
