Van Phong Economic Zone: Boasting Huge Advantages to Develop Various Industries

Favourable conditions for the seaborne economy
Van Phong Economic Zone is located in Ninh Hoa and Van Ninh districts, covering a total area of 150,000 ha, including 80,000 ha of land and 70,000 ha of water surface, in which construction land accounts for about 10,000 ha. The population of the zone is estimated at 400,000 in 2020, including 275,000 people living in urban areas. Van Phong Economic Zone consists of two main functional areas; namely nontariff zone including international transhipment port, logistics port, and commercial and financial centre, and tariff zone consisting of oil transit port, specialised port, general port, resorts, industrial parks, urban residential areas and administrative areas.

 

The economic zone has Dam Mon pool in Van Thanh commune, Van Ninh district - an airtight area encircled by high mountains and canal gateways leading to the East Sea. The width of the canal gateway is 600 - 1,500m and the depth is 20 - 27 m. This is the only bay in Vietnam with ideal depth to build a sea port to receive large modern ships.

 

The section of Van Phong Bay running from Ninh Phuoc commune to Ninh Hai commune of Ninh Hoa district is advantageously 15 - 23m deep and 400-900 m off the coast. This is an ideal advantage to develop heavy industries such as shipbuilding, oil and gas. In addition, Van Phong Bay has a temperate climate, unspoiled natural beauty, diverse terrain, and a diversified natural ecosystem to develop a variety of marine tourism.

 

Therefore, Van Phong Economic Zone is planned to become a general multi-sector economic zone with international transhipment port playing the leading role in association with industrial, service, tourism and urban development. The economic zone is also a gateway to the sea. On the other hand, the development of coastal economic zone is in line with the national sea economy development strategy.

 

Creating attraction
So far, Van Phong Economic Zone has 84 registered investment projects (including 24 foreign-led projects and 60 Vietnamese-invested projects) with a total capital of US$15,207 million. Particularly, 27 projects with a combined investment capital of US$307 million have gone into operation, 36 projects with a total capital of about US$1,327 million were granted investment certificates, and 21 investment projects with total capital of US$13,573 million are underway. Specially, the Van Phong Economic Zone has attracted several large-scaled projects with driving-force effects on the development of the zone, the region and the country, including Van Phong International Transshipment Terminal (with US$186 million in the start-up phase), Van Phong petroleum bonded warehouse (with US$125 million invested by Petrolimex Corp), Van Phong power centre (US$3,800 million invested by Sumitomo Group), and Nam Van Phong petrochemical refining complex (US$4,800 million invested by Petrolimex Corp and other foreign partners).

 

Currently, Van Phong Economic Zone is implementing a number of big projects such as Van Phong international transshipment port, eco-tourism zone, petroleum bonded warehouse, coal-fired thermal power plant, petrochemical refining complex, Tu Bong coastal urban zone, etc. In the near future, when these projects go into operation, they will contribute to develop the local economy in particular and the whole region in general.

 

As planned, in the period until 2010, the economic zone will give priority to build international container transshipment ports with a capacity of 0.7 million TEUs, oil port with a capacity of 1.5 million to 2 million tonnes, petroleum bonded warehouse with a capacity of 0.5 million tonnes, roads from National Road 1 to Dam Mon area and railways to the port. The economic zone will also construct Hoa Son, Dong Dien and Tien Du water reservoirs; 110 KV power supply system and 110 KV power stations at Dam Mon; and implement service, tourism and commercial projects.

 

At the same time, the economic zone also has functional areas. Accordingly, the North Van Phong section is constituted by an international container transshipment port. The port logistics and commercial centre zone has an area of some 950 ha. There are also many other areas in the northern section like Cat Tham sand beach resort covering 295 ha, Ho Na beach resort with 150 ha, Tuan Le - Hon Ngang general service area with 920 ha, Van Gia town with 500 ha, Tu Bong new urban zone with 2,000 ha, and Van Thang industrial park with about 144 ha. The South Van Phong section includes a petroleum bonded warehouse with some 80 ha, shipbuilding industrial zone with about 345 ha, electric industrial zone with about 175 ha, Ninh Thuy industrial zone with about 207 ha, Doc Let tourist area with about 175 ha, Ninh Hoa Town with 500 ha, Northeast Ninh Hoa new urban with around 550 ha, and Ninh Long - Ninh Thuy residential zone with about 500 ha.