9 Ideas for Creating a Border Gate Economic Zone

DNHN - Mr Nguyen Duc Kien, Chairman of the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Group, stated that the government must reconsider its approach to border-gate economic zones.

The economic zone is a prominent instrument used by governments to encourage economic growth while also creating and expanding foreign connections. Every country in the world has special economic zones and privileged methods for the KTC to encourage commerce and interchange and take advantage of their neighbours' low-cost commodities and sophisticated technologies.

Looking at the economic zones on the other side of China, Mr Kien stated that China has two development ideas that Vietnam could study.

One is to lead progress. The central government choose which pair of border gates to open, and the central government concentrates on economic, policy, and other aspects to assist that area. After the border gate region has been fully established, shut that pair of border gates or reduce their investment priority to switch to another pair of border gates.

The second is the State's "bait," which is spending money to invest in infrastructure to allow that area to flourish.

Mr Kien claims that "We haven't done it that way yet. We don't have a lot of money to invest, but we nevertheless spread the blinds around a little bit, not producing a rebound, breaking through. We must select and adopt the perspective that there is a wealthy place initially and a rich place afterwards."

Mr Kien stated that our shared sickness is spreading in many industries and that focusing on investment resources is something that everyone understands, but choosing to focus on winning properly is difficult, necessitating a local viewpoint.

"More or less must be based on each location's actual needs; the locality must decide for itself. That economic zone, does the community see the need for it, what to do, and how to develop? The state selects international border gates, whereas municipalities select national border gates and border gates. And should not rely solely on governmental funds. Each municipality determines which economic model is most suited for development "Mr Kien stressed this point.

The present SEZ model necessitates an efficient urban, socioeconomic development plan, governance mechanism, and policy execution, particularly with labour force concerns, linked economic integration, social security, and environmental protection.

Only in this way can we reap the benefits of the economic zone while also contributing to economic growth and development and ensuring security and defence.

The economic zone must be associated with production, not just transhipment and trading; it must serve as a "background" for residential areas, production facilities, ecological chains of goods production and supply to neighbouring countries; it must be associated with housing, social security... for workers, and a logistics chain.

Mr Kien offered nine categories of directions for the future growth of the SEZ based on his analysis: The new-style economic zone is a multipurpose region that includes economy, security-defence, and diplomacy. Having game-changing policies on state management in all areas; Making a good business environment; Harmonious development of production, urban, and cultural space; prioritization of vertical development; creating synchronous infrastructure; applying cutting-edge technology; aligning the interests of businesses and people; prioritizing employees as investment targets, and focusing on environmental conservation.

Thanh Ha