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KHÁNH H̉A: POTENTIALITIES AND PROSPECTS
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Area: 5.205 km2
Population: 1.137.792 inhabitants (data of 2006, KhanhHoa Statistic Office)
Main City: Nha Trang City
Administrative Units: Cam Ranh Town, Distrists: Van Ninh, Ninh Hoa, Dien Khanh, Khanh Vinh, Khanh Son, Truong Sa, Cam Lam
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 | Mr Vơ Lâm Phi-Chairman of
KhánhHoà People's Committee |
Khánh Ḥa is a coastal province in southern Central Vietnam with a mainland natural area of 5.205 km2 and large territorial waters with more than 200 islands of all sizes. The province has a rich workforce out of a population of 1.137.792 million (2006) and is one of 10 provinces nationwide with the highest amount of intellectuals. This is evident with more than institutions of scientific-technological research based in the province and a staff of over 20,500 college and university graduates and more than 200 post-graduates. The trained working population makes up over 25%.
Khánh Ḥa has 3 key zones of economic development:
- Cam Ranh Bay to the south of the province is strategically located in terms of national defense and economic development. Cam Ranh airport, situated at the center of the peninsula, is presently one of the few airports with the largest and longest runways in Vietnam, to be upgraded into an international airport in a very near future. Ba Ng̣i seaport, after being upgraded and enlarged, will become one of the major ports in the seaport system in southern Central Vietnam – a favorable condition for developing commerce between Khánh Ḥa and other regions in the country and in the world.
- Vân Phong Bay, to the north, is geographically at the easternmost position of Vietnam, only 14 km from international waters and close to the junction of maritime routes. Vân Phong is a big bay with 41,000 ha of water surface and a depth of 20-30 m and is relatively free from wind. Basing on these conditions and potentials, the Government has planned to establish in this area an international transshipment container port and a general multi-sectored economic complex of commerce, industry, tourism, etc. The container transshipment port of Vân Phong, safe and airtight, is favorably coordinated with the land route, the railway, and the airway, fully able to compete with other container transshipment ports currently operating in the region such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Kao-hsiung, … The container transshipment port of Vân Phong is expected to reach 17.5-17.8 TEU/year. In addition, Vân Phong is naturally endowed with a fairly mild climate and a beautiful environment with high potentials to develop eco-tourism and ideal conditions to develop aqua product economy.
- Nha Trang Bay, lying between the other two bays, has been acknowledged as one of the most beautiful bays of the world. With such natural gifts as the position, landscape, climate, together with its rich background in culture and humanities, Nha Trang - Khánh Ḥa is fully capable of developing many diverse forms of tourism. Khánh Ḥa, 1,280 km from Hà Nội and 448 km from Hồ Chí Minh City, is naturally gifted with a mild climate and geographically located on the North-South axis, thus obtaining all favorable conditions in communication. The province, easily accessible by road, rail, air and waterway, is the main door to the Western Highlands and enjoys the greatest proximity to international waters with its many bays and ports. The Prime Minister has given instructions on building a tunnel through Cả Pass and a railway connecting the Western Highlands and Vân Phong via Phú Yên, upgrading Đông Tác airport in Phú Yên and Cam Ranh airport so as to exploit the advantages of Vân Phong Bay and serve the international container transshipment based here. Khánh Ḥa ‘s orientation in developing communication and transport is to make full use of the advantages of the three bays: Vân Phong, Nha Trang and Cam Ranh, all lying on the maritime axis of North-South Asia, providing potentials of container maritime shipping in the construction of seaports, exploitation of maritime services, development of the ship-building industry,… At the same time, it is necessary to develop the system of rural communication to ease goods exchange among coastal areas. To date, 44 out of 45 wards and communes have had roads leading to the commune centers and have basically succeeded in dealing with flooding and inundation during rainy and stormy seasons, improving public welfare and national defense.
In the past years, Khánh Ḥa, with priority policies, has been able to mobilize many sources of capital from both inside and outside the country to invest in developing the infrastructure. The total mobilized investment capital in the whole province reaches VND 18,832 billion between 1995 and 2004, of which 2004 alone accounts for VND 3,300. In these investments, the domestic source of capital have increased quickly and in large amounts, with an annual increase of 18%. The investment results in these years have contributed to improving considerably the socio-economic infrastructure, basically changing the socio-economic profiles of urban, rural, and mountainous areas in the province, creating favorable conditions for various economic sectors to develop their trade and production and improving the people’s living. Hundreds of constructions have been completed and put into use, consisting of the infrastructure in communication, industry, power supply, water supply and drainage, agriculture, hydraulics, services, tourism, culture, information, education, health care, sports, urban upgradation, … The network of power supply, water supply, communication, post, banking, finance, health care, and public services has strongly developed, basically meeting investment needs. A lot of key infrastructure projects of a large scale have been completed and put into operation, creating a great impetus boosting socio-economic development. At present, the provincial authorities are promoting the construction of a 70km route linking Khánh Ḥa with Lâm Đồng Province, which will be the vital route for economic exchange between Khánh Ḥa and other provinces in Central Vietnam and the Western Highlands.
Together all these natural and geographical conditions as well as advantages in communication, developed services, rich resources, and an abundant workforce, Khánh Ḥa’s authorities have been working out priority policies to attract investment capital into industrial production, especially high technology, the production of export goods to replace import goods, the industry of agro-, forest and aqua product processing, banking and finance, post and telecommunications, tourism, high-quality services, … Khánh Ḥa will surely become a safe and developed investment environment.
For many years, Khánh Ḥa has obtained high economic achievements and budget collection in comparison with other localities in the country. Khánh Ḥa is known to many not only as a province with many great potentials in tourism and sea economic sectors but also as a locality with impressive growth rates in industry. Industry and tourist services make up a large and fast-increasing proportion in the GDP, in which industry accounts for 40.75%. Industrial values amounted to VND 7,398 billion, a 20% increase over 2003; this is the fifth year Khánh Ḥa’s industry has continuously achieved a growth rate of over 20%. Other sectors with great development advantages and high export values in Khánh Ḥa include aqua product processing, ship-building and ship-repairing, cigarette production, sugar production, textiles and garment, construction materials, production of fishing means, manufacture of aquaculture feeds, …
The transitory transport of petroleum at Vân Phong Bay so far has yielded very great economic efficiency, bringing back to the country VND 1,012.290 billion in import taxes and VAT from 20 shipments of 1.6 million tons of petroleum (VND 60-80 billion/shipment on the average). The ship-building industry has also strongly developed with the effective operation of Hyundai-Vinashin Shipyard, the largest ship-building enterprise in Southeast Asia. Together with this, the establishment of Cam Ranh Ship-building Factory invested by Vietnam Ship Industry Corporation has marked a great advance of Khánh Ḥa’s ship-building sector. This is all the more strengthened with the increasing number of new small- and medium-scale factories building boats and ships operating in shore and in domestic waterways for tourism and sport purposes.
In recent years, Khánh Ḥa’s authorities have issued many policies to attract foreign investment into the province. To date, there have been 52 foreign investment projects with a total registered investment capital of USD 369.8 million. In Suối Dầu IZ alone there are 22 investment projects (13 foreign and 09 domestic) with a total registered investment capital of USD 55.477 million. The provincial authorities are presently speeding up the construction of other IZs in Ninh Thủy, Southern Cam Ranh, Northern Cam Ranh, Vạn Ninh, and the small-scale IZs at Ḥn Nghê and Đắc Lộc in Nha Trang City, at Diên Phú of Diên Khánh District. Projects appealing for investment into these areas will be formulated once such infrastructure facilities as power supply and water supply have been completed. At the same time, the provincial authorities have also boosted up the training of the workforce and formulated priority policies for the investment into each of these IZs.
With priority policies and the best conditions for investment, Khánh Ḥa is always willing and opening the door to welcome all domestic and foreign investors. The provincial People’s Committee shall collaborate with investors and businesspeople in settling possible obstacles, and create any and every condition to ensure investment success in Khánh Ḥa.
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