The People’s Council of the northeastern border province of Quang Ninh early this month approved a project proposing the establishment of Van Don special administrative-economic unit at its sixth meeting of the 13th tenure in Ha Long city.
Secretary of the provincial Party Committee Nguyen Van Doc said after the Politburo announced a project on rapid and sustainable socio-economic development and the pilot construction of Van Don and Mong Cai special administrative-economic units in October 2012, the province has actively coordinated with relevant ministries and centrally-run agencies to build a project in the field.

A bustling urban area, the site will be a special administrative-economic unit in the future.

The Van Don special administrative-economic unit project defines key industries of tourism-service, industry and agriculture. In the first phrase (2018-2022), the project will focus on casino entertainment tourism, seaport, aviation, trade, international shopping centers, innovation technology, and start-up centers, while the second phrase (2023-2026) will feature parks, fisheries, aquatic processing, logistics services, education and training, financial services, and healthcare. The third phrase (2027-2030) will aim at biological technology, green technology, and hi-tech agriculture.
Van Don is a district comprising more than 600 islands. It is approximately 175 km from the capital city of Hanoi, 80 km from the northern port city of Hai Phong and 50 km from Ha Long city. It boasts rich ecosystems, beautiful beaches and islands, which hold a lot of potential to become a world-class maritime tourism destination.
The same move was also seen at the southern province of Kien Giang. The provincial People’s Council has recently also approved the Phu Quoc Special Administrative-Economic Unit project.
Under this project, Phu Quoc will have an area of more than 57,530ha and population of 117,460, with nine administrative zones which were founded from two existing towns and seven communes (excluding Tho Chau Commune as the province is planning to turn it into a district).
The province expected that the establishment of the Phu Quoc Special Administrative-Economic Unit would bring into play the island’s potential to attract investment and high technologies to boost development.
By 2030, Phu Quoc is expected to become a modern tourism and resort hub, as well as a hub for trade, exhibition and meeting, with international competitiveness towards global reach.
Investments in Phu Quoc have been robust in recent times, especially in tourism development, with the island having rich potential. Phu Quoc has, so far, attracted more than 250 projects with total registered capital of some US$16.7 billion.
Meanwhile, central Khanh Hoa Province is also implementing a project to turn Bac Van Phong into a special administrative-economic unit.
Bac Van Phong has significant potential for developing ports, logistic services, trade and international financial services, as well as tourism and high technologies.
Special administrative-economic units are magnet for investment, high technology and advanced management mode for the formation of a high growth area that generates more resources and accelerates local economic restructuring and development.
The Ministry of Planning and Investment, which is in charge of drafting the Law on Special Administrative-Economic Units, expected that with preferential incentives, the three special zones - Van Don, Bac Van Phong, and Phu Quoc - would attract investment worth dozens of billions of dollars, which would generate huge sums in terms of added value and boost average income to US$12,000-13,000 per capita.
It estimated that the special zones would contribute billions of dollars in taxes and fees to the State budget.