Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc on February 17 approved the revised master plan for the construction of Van Don coastal economic zone until 2040, with a view of becoming a multi-sector economic zone, a center of entertainment industry with casino and high-class maritime tourism.

Illustrative photo.

The government considers Van Don economic zone, covering an area of over 2,171 kilometer squares in Vietnam’s northern coastal province Quang Ninh, a gateway to international trade and is capable of competing with other cities globally in terms of investment-friendliness or tourism.

By 2030, the population in the locality is set to reach 140,000 – 200,000 from the current 52,000 with around 5,500 hectares needed for functional infrastructure. In ten year time, the population would go up to 300,000 – 500,000, and the acreage under functional infrastructure would rise to 12,050 hectares.

Van Don, along with Bac Van Phong (Khanh Hoa province) and Phu Quoc (Kien Giang province) were intended to become the country’s three special economic zones (SEZs) in the draft law on SEZs.

With expectation to be a breakthrough in legal and institutional reforms to boost economic development and investment in SEZs, the draft law was first submitted to the National Assembly for review in October 2017. 

However, it was returned for revision several times and now put on hold, due to its complicated nature that resulted in divergent opinions among National Assembly deputies, experts and the public, said Nguyen Khac Dinh, head of the National Assembly Committee on Legal Affairs, in August 2018.

One of the most controversial issues of the draft law was its proposal of land leasing tenure of up to 99 years in exceptional cases, which was later discarded by the government. Policy makers later proposed applying the Law on Land with regard to the duration of land leasing in SEZs.