Unlocking Development Potential for Dien Bien through Connectivity Infrastructure

Dien Bien holds a very important economic and strategic position; it is a border area, a gateway to the homeland with a 455 km border with 2 countries, Laos and China.

The province has abundant and diverse land and mineral resources, huge potential for hydroelectricity, and beautiful, pristine, majestic natural landscapes of misty peaks, hidden waterfalls in virgin forests.

These are favorable conditions for developing sustainable green economic sectors such as tourism, eco-agriculture production, forestry economy development, and carbon credit production, clean energy.

Dien Bien is known as a heroic land, rich in revolutionary traditions, with the legendary victory of Dien Bien Phu spreading across 5 continents, shaking the world, along with the unique and diverse cultural identity of various ethnic groups.

This affirms that Dien Bien has the potential, advantages, and outstanding opportunities to develop its economy and society rapidly and sustainably, while playing an important role in the strategic development of the economy and society, ensuring the defense and security of the Central Highlands and the northern mountainous region.

“The land of ban flowers” gradually “changes its skin, transforms its meat”

Overcoming numerous difficulties, from a poor province, Dien Bien has utilized its specific advantages in tourism, import-export services, production and processing of agricultural and forestry products, hydropower, and mining to develop, creating comprehensive changes in various economic and social fields, ensuring defense, security, building the Party, and political system.

The average annual GRDP growth rate in the period 2021-2023 reached 9.33%. The per capita GRDP in 2023 is estimated to reach 48.6 million VND per year. The poverty rate of the whole province has been reduced to 26%.

The transportation infrastructure is increasingly being improved. The province’s education, healthcare, and culture have been consolidated to meet the needs of developing people’s intellectual level and quality of life.

On behalf of the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha acknowledged and highly appreciated the remarkable achievements of the Party, authorities, armed forces, and people of Dien Bien during the past period. These are also solid foundations and favorable conditions for Dien Bien to continue developing strongly in the coming years.

The provincial planning of Dien Bien is built with breakthrough thinking and long-term vision based on distinctive potential, outstanding opportunities, and competitive advantages, concretizing the Party Central Committee’s policy in Resolution No. 11-NQ / TW on the orientation of developing the economy, society, ensuring defense, and security of the Central Highlands and the northern mountainous region by 2030, vision to 2045, and the general planning of the entire country.

The specific targets by 2030 are:

– The province’s economic growth rate in the period 2021 – 2030 reaches 10.51% per year.
– The economic structure by 2030: The service sector accounts for about 41.2%; agriculture, forestry, and aquaculture account for about 12.7%; the industrial – construction sector accounts for about 42.4% (of which the industrial sector accounts for about 12.1%).
– By 2030, the average GRDP per capita reaches over 113 million VND (at current prices), labor productivity reaches 190.0 million VND (at current prices); reducing the multidimensional poverty rate to below 8%.

Prioritizing resources for inter-regional and international connectivity infrastructure

Discussing some issues during the implementation of the planning, Deputy Prime Minister Ha suggested that Dien Bien prioritize investment resources to implement important infrastructure projects to interconnect the region with localities in Laos, China, and Southeast Asian countries.

Especially in transportation infrastructure, energy infrastructure, digital infrastructure, education, health care, culture, aiming to lead, promote the attraction of projects that have a dynamic, central, and focal nature, with spreading and direct impacts that serve the directions, tasks, and objectives set out in the provincial planning, as well as that of the Central Highlands and the northern mountainous region.

Dien Bien should also continue to capitalize on its advantages to transform the economic model based on green growth platforms, clean energy, and digital transformation in commerce, tourism promotion, a destination to narrow the distance and difficulties in geography, and bring it closer to domestic people and international friends.

Regarding the goal of becoming the tourism center of the Northwestern subregion, Deputy Prime Minister Ha suggested that Dien Bien attract major tourism businesses to design high-class, unique products with the “land of ban flowers” such as adventure tourism, cultural tourism, experiential tourism associated with the daily life of ethnic minorities; strengthen brand promotion and connect destinations, travel products between localities, especially Lao Cai, Son La, and Yunnan Province (China).

In the future, with the advantages of natural resources, climate, land, Dien Bien will continue to develop efficiently, sustainably, and participate more deeply in global value chains. Especially, early planning for cultivation areas, production processes, processing, building brand value to meet increasingly stringent standards of consumers and importers.

Deputy Prime Minister also noted that when the Land Law (amended) has just been passed by the National Assembly with effective enforcement, it will “open the way” for many policies on the use of multi-purpose forest land. People can combine afforestation with medicinal plants, develop multi-tiered forestry, and exploit forest environmental services for tourism purposes, etc.

In addition, when implementing the commitment to the target of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, an estimated 90% of global GDP will be subject to enforcement. This is a new investment opportunity for Dien Bien, a province with great potential for renewable energy, combined with potential hydropower and solar power.

“Abundant clean energy can help Dien Bien transform digitally, become green, with new thinking, form a digital economic ecosystem, high-tech industries, and digital technology,” Deputy Prime Minister suggested.

Planning towards “forests in the city, within the city there are forests”

According to Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha, the provincial planning of Dien Bien is the initial step to show the aspirations of the Party, authorities, and people of various ethnic groups to make Dien Bien become a relatively developed province in the Northern Midlands and Mountains region; as one of the centers of tourism, services, and health care of the region.

Dien Bien province should concretize this through economic and technical planning, especially the development of urban networks, rural areas, functional cities. In which, grasp firmly the Resolution No. 06 / NQ-TW of the Party Central Committee on the planning, construction, management, and sustainable development of Vietnamese cities until 2030, vision to 2045, consider urbanization as the driving force for growth, transformation of economic structure, associated with the commercial, service, industrial, and tourism ecosystems, and interregional and international economic corridors, and connectivity.

“Dien Bien should promote and invite reputable investors to advise on urban development planning, tourism… that are modern and yet preserve historical, cultural values, and honor the beauty of nature, with forests in the city, within the city there are forests. At the same time, overcome the existence of current urban areas such as surface water pollution, groundwater pollution, traffic congestion, population density management,…”, Deputy Prime Minister suggested.

Dien Bien needs to propose mechanisms and policies to achieve the objectives set out, first of all for inter-regional connection projects of the Central Highland, the northern mountainous region, and the whole country.

Together with the special attention from the Central government, the determination, unity, dynamism, and creativity of the Party, authorities, and the aspiration for upward development of the people, Deputy Prime Minister believed that Dien Bien will enter a new development stage; soon achieve the goals of green, fast, sustainable, and comprehensive development; develop into a relatively well-developed province in the Northern Midlands and Mountains region in the coming years.

* On the occasion of attending the Opening Ceremony of the National Tourism Year Dien Bien 2024 and the Dien Bien Flower Festival 2024, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Hong Ha and the delegation paid homage, offered flowers to commemorate the martyrs in Dien Bien Phu historical battlefield and paid homage and placed wreaths to the martyrs at A1 National Martyrs Cemetery.