The central and central highlands region includes 19 provinces stretching from Thanh Hoa to Binh Thuan, which account for nearly 35.2 percent of the country’s land mass and 29.8 of its population. Despite possessing a lot of potential for developing the mining and building materials industries, agro-forestry-fishery production and processing and tourism services, this region is still lagging far behind the northern and southern regions.

Twenty years after implementing the Doi Moi (Renewal) process, the central and central highlands region has seen strong developments with an annual economic growth rate of 10-12 percent. Its economic infrastructure has been greatly improved along with 21 industrial parks, seven economic areas and four deep sea ports, making the region an attractive destination for both domestic and foreign investment.

However, regional economic development planning over the past few years has proved ineffective with not enough of the right economic investment.  All the provinces vie with each other to attract domestic and foreign investors through incentive policies and get them involved in building airports, sea ports, industrial parks, tourism areas and international convention centres. Thousands of billions of VND has been poured into such projects but almost to no avail.

The provinces also compete against each other in agricultural production by stepping up the growing of cinnamon, pineapples, rubber, coffee, cassava and cotton without considering whether or not the land and climatic conditions are suitable.

Subsequently, such poor planning and co-operation among them has made the investment environment unhealthy and less effective which causes big losses, especially when Vietnam is trying to expand its markets after joining the WTO.

Higher efficiency from integrated links

Good planning and investment cooperation among localities and businesses are essential for the central and central highland region. For instance, economic links in the tourist industry in recent times have paid off with the debut of international tourist trademarks such as the Ce ntral heritage road, the Central Highlands green road, the Central Highlands Gong Festival and the Trans-Asian Road. As a result, regional growth in Da Nang, Quang Nam, Lam Dong, Binh Thuan and Khanh Hoa provinces has increased by 30 percent with total earning of VND1,000 billion.

This has greatly encouraged other economic sectors in the region to co-operate more closely with each other. Many seminars on economic links were held in localities, such as an economic forum in the central region, and a conference to promote investment in the central and central highlands through an action programme with a list of 435 projects worth US$16 billion. Other conferences on regional co-operation in tourism, trade and investment between domestic and foreign markets also took place in Da Nang, Quang Nam and Hue.

All the central and central highland provinces are poised to move towards achieving “regional integration” with growth rate of 12-15 percent, exports of 20-30 percent and foreign investment attraction of US$5 billion a year.

In addition to close links amongst businesses and relevant agencies, ministries and central departments should identify their common interests to make regional economic planning well based on available sources.

Better implementation of coordination programmes will not only improve the region’s investment capacity to create products that are highly competitive but also lay a firm foundation for sustainable development to help the region boost the economy in the future.