Pleiku with a New Stature in the Central Highlands

Vietnam Business Forum interviewed Vo Ngoc Thanh, chairman of the People’s Committee of Pleiku city.

 

The renovation process has created a more convenient environment for investment and co-operation, thus helping the city gain a rapid, sustainable development. In particular, in recent years, Pleiku has recorded important achievements including a high growth rate, a change for the better in economic structure, and resources mobilised for socio-economic development. As a result, the city has become a driving force in Gia Lai province’s economic development. Social issues have been settled. Local people’s incomes and living standards have improved. The number of poor households in the province has dropped to 3.9 per cent (according to the norm of the 2005-2010 period). The number of rich households is increasing rapidly. Per capita income of the local people has reached US$780, equal to VND 12 million, per annum. We have promoted our investment in upgrading roads, electric supplies, water supply and drainage systems, and post and telecommunication network. At the same time, we have upgraded facilities for education and training, public health, culture and sports. We have striven to keep the city’s social order and security stable.

 

We have identified an economic structure with industry, services and agriculture. Accordingly, we will promote our economic restructuring, focusing on the development of industry and services.

 

Specifically, we will prioritise the development of services, in which we have great potential and advantages, concentrating on the exploration of goods exchange and tourism. This is because the city has convenient conditions in communication with Laos and Cambodia. We also intend to fully tap our advantages in land and material supplies, including rubber, coffee, wood and granite stone, to develop our processing and consumer good production industries for the local demand and export.

 

At present, many enterprises in Gia Lai and other localities are promoting the development of infrastructure facilities. Accordingly, trade centres, complexes of offices and apartments, hotels and new urban areas are being built. Post and telecommunication, financial and banking services have seen a rapid development to meet the demand of a rapid urbanisation in the city.

 

With a rapid urbanisation process and socio-economic development of the city, since 1991, we have planned and adjusted our plans three times. After reaching an agreement with the Ministry of Construction, on August 15, 2005, the People’s Committee of Gia Lai province issued the Decision N⁰ 104/2005/QD-UBND on adjusting the master plan of Pleiku city throughout 2020. On this basis, Pleiku city has developed detail plans, expanding the downtown area with both modern and traditional styles of an urban area in the Central Highlands, ensuring that by 2020, Pleiku will have developed in a rapid and sustainable manner in the Central Highlands and Vietnam.

 

We are now planning the development of the city’s infrastructure facilities, focusing on the development of roads, electricity supplies, and post and telecommunication services for the expansion of the city. We will expand the city to Dien Phu, Chuprong, Tra Da, Bien Ho and Chu A, promoting compensation and site clearance, building resettlement and residential areas, as well as industrial and handicrafts complexes. Also, convenient conditions will be created for investors to develop approved urban areas, and investment will be further called upon for projects on building entertainment areas including an ethnic group cultural park, the Tra Da park, the Dien Phu garden, the Ly Tu Trong park and the Bien Ho garden. At the same time, hotels, complexes of offices and apartments, and trade centres will be built.

 

According to the approved master plan, Pleiku, as an urban area in the Central Highlands, will be a major economic, cultural and educational, trade, and tourism centre in Gia Lai province. In the future, the centre of the city will be expanded by around 13,000 hectares. It will have industrial parks with total area of between 500 and 700 hectares. Trade and services activities will be expanded. New residential areas will be built with universities, colleges and educational centres, and entertainment areas, including the Ly Tu Trong Park and the ecological garden of Bien Ho, as well as parks and public gardens.

 

In the short term, we are preparing conditions to propose the Government to recognise Pleiku as a city, second class, before 2010.

 

We believe that in the coming time, Pleiku will become a leading locality in Gia Lai province in industrialisation and modernisation, becoming an industrial and service city in 2015 with a new stature of the Central Highlands.