Turn "bottlenecks" into "breakthroughs"

Since July 1, 2025, the merger of administrative units has created "super localities" with outstanding economic scale, population and development space. In particular, the new Dong Nai province, based on the merger of the two old provinces of Binh Phuoc and Dong Nai, is among the top in the country in terms of population size, area, as well as economic scale.

After more than 2 months of operating the new government apparatus, Dong Nai is entering the stage of shaping its development strategy, taking advantage of opportunities to combine resources, identifying bottlenecks to overcome, and gradually turning potential into driving force to become one of the 4 largest economic centers in Vietnam, just after Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi and Hai Phong.

The Bien Hoa - Vung Tau expressway project through Dong Nai is being accelerated. Photo by Contributor

From traffic "bottleneck" to development driver

With a strategic location, the intersection of key economic regions: Southeast, South Central and Central Highlands, Mekong Delta, Dong Nai province converges all the elements of the border - inland region, possesses great potential in sustainable industrial economic development, high-tech agriculture , border trade economy, logistics and modern services associated with Long Thanh International Airport, river port system, IDC dry port and smart urban areas.

According to experts, Dong Nai has a diverse, multi-modal transportation network (air, road, rail, waterway) with Long Thanh Airport as Vietnam's international aviation gateway, Phuoc An Port as the country's major seaport center, but looking at it as a whole, transportation infrastructure is still the "bottleneck" that has long hindered the province's development.

Dr. Tran Du Lich, Member of the National Monetary Policy Advisory Council, member of the Dong Nai Province Socio-Economic Advisory Group, said: To fully exploit the potential and strengths of the locality, Dong Nai needs to prioritize investment in the transport system connecting the road from Dong Xoai to Bien Hoa to effectively exploit the large land area in the northern part of the province. At the same time, Dong Nai is developing the strength of airports and seaports associated with border gates. Therefore, if the railway line from Ho Chi Minh City to the border gate and the expressway to Chon Thanh are soon formed, this system will create momentum for the province's development.

Identifying "bottlenecks" to create breakthroughs, the Party Committee and the government of Dong Nai province determined that 2025 would be the year of infrastructure investment, creating a solid foundation for double-digit economic growth. Along with the direction, the province has taken drastic actions. Currently, Dong Nai is considered a "big construction site" with 10 expressways and an intra-provincial traffic system that has been, is being, and will be vigorously deployed.

People of Chon Thanh ward liquidated a 15-year-old rubber garden to hand over the site for the Ho Chi Minh City - Thu Dau Mot - Chon Thanh expressway. Photo: Xuan Tuc

At some key traffic projects such as Ring Road 3 - Ho Chi Minh City, Bien Hoa - Vung Tau Expressway and routes connecting Long Thanh Airport, Cai Mep - Thi Vai Port and industrial parks, urban areas, etc., contractors organize construction in "3 shifts, 4 shifts", "overcoming the sun, overcoming the rain", speeding up the project progress.

In the Northern region, the Ma Da Bridge Construction Project connecting the province is being implemented on schedule, with over 70% of the site having been handed over to the construction unit. The "lightning-fast" momentum is also being continued at the Gia Nghia - Chon Thanh and Ho Chi Minh City - Thu Dau Mot - Chon Thanh expressway projects, as investors and local authorities are rushing to implement, striving to complete the inventory and statistics of houses and assets attached to the land by the end of September; at the same time, striving to complete the compensation and site clearance work in 2025 in accordance with the direction of the provincial leaders.

In addition to accelerating the progress of key transport projects that have been and are being invested in, the province will prioritize the development of investment plans to develop connecting transport infrastructure to expand to the old Binh Phuoc areas to exploit the potential of large land funds, opening up opportunities to promote socio-economic development, transforming "potential" into "advantages" to attract investors, creating a stable source of budget revenue for the province.

Comrade Ho Van Ha, Provincial Party Committee member, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee

Focusing on removing the "bottleneck" of site clearance and accelerating the progress of key projects has promptly unblocked public investment capital, creating a spillover effect for the province's economic growth. In August 2025 alone, Dong Nai disbursed nearly 4.8 trillion VND. To date, the total disbursed public investment capital in the province is more than 13.5 trillion VND, reaching more than 36% of the plan. From the great efforts of the entire political system, in the first 7 months of the year, the province's economic picture emerged with many indicators achieving impressive growth; in which, the trade balance continued to maintain a trade surplus of 4.4 billion USD; the total product in the area (GRDP) maintained an increase of over 8% over the same period in 2024, among the leading localities in the country.

Removing "barriers" in administrative procedures

The model of the Mobile Public Administration Service Center in Bu Dang commune is highly appreciated by people and businesses. Photo: Xuan Tuc

With its existing advantages, Dong Nai boldly set a target of 10% economic growth in 2025, requiring the entire political system, business community and people of the whole province to accelerate, be creative, innovate, and coordinate more synchronously, systematically and rhythmically in the last months of 2025.

One of the fundamental solutions that the provincial leaders pay special attention to is to focus on improving the capacity of the team of cadres, civil servants and public employees; promoting administrative reform, creating an open mechanism to serve people and businesses better and better.

In Bu Dang commune, what has been particularly impressive to people and businesses since the two-level local government apparatus was put into operation is that the commune government has proactively built a model of a mobile public administration service center. In addition to the documents and administrative procedures being guided and resolved quickly, the cheerful and friendly service attitude of the staff, civil servants and public employees has created great sympathy from people and businesses.

Chairman of Bu Dang Commune People's Committee Nguyen Thanh Tung said: The new administrative system is a service-oriented one, so it is extremely necessary for the government to proactively seek out people and businesses and see them as customers.

“In addition to the procedures and documents of the people being resolved directly, quickly, neatly, and according to their wishes, the cadres also go to the grassroots to listen to the opinions, recommendations, concerns, and wishes of the people and businesses. From those thoughts and wishes, the commune leaders will direct specialized agencies to advise and resolve them promptly. This is also one of the criteria we consider to evaluate the capacity of the cadres, civil servants, and public employees of our unit,” Mr. Tung affirmed.

At Dong Phu Commune Public Administration Service Center, on average, every day, officials and civil servants handle hundreds of files and procedures for people and businesses, so delays in returning file results are inevitable. However, instead of making promises as before, the new commune government has asked officials and civil servants who are late in returning results to people and businesses to write a letter of apology, stating the reason for the delay and asking for sympathy and sharing.

Deputy Director of Dong Phu Commune Public Administration Service Center Ngo Sy Quyen said: The Center has proactively advised the Commune People's Committee to create sample apology letters to apologize to people and businesses in case of late files, regardless of subjective or objective reasons. In addition, the Center also directly calls, even meets in person to apologize to people and businesses to improve the spirit of openness as well as service attitude.

Thanks to the drastic implementation of many solutions to strengthen administrative reform, comprehensive digitalization, ensuring professionalism, dynamism, publicity, transparency, speed and efficiency, by the end of August 2025, Dong Nai rose to rank 3rd out of 34 provinces and cities nationwide in terms of service index for people and businesses according to the assessment of the National Public Service Portal with 85.75 points. The province is also in the top of the country in attracting FDI capital with 219 projects, total investment capital of over 1.8 billion USD.

Regarding administrative reform efforts, the Provincial People's Committee recently issued a Plan to build and implement a friendly Government model with "4 pleases, 4 alwayss and 5 nos" in 100% of communes and wards. In which, "4 pleases" include: hello, sorry, thank you, permission; "4 alwayss" include: always smile, always be gentle, always listen, always help; "5 nos" include: no authoritarianism, arrogance, causing difficulties, troubles; no bureaucracy, insensitivity, irresponsibility; no corruption, waste, group interests; no flattery, lobbying, deceit and no abuse of position and power in implementation.
public service

The Provincial People's Committee has also requested communes and wards to publicize the phone numbers of the Party Secretary, Deputy Secretary, Chairman, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of the commune and ward, and commune-level officials and civil servants. At the same time, post the list of administrative procedures, suggestion boxes at the office or publicize similar contents on electronic information pages and social networks so that people can directly evaluate the effectiveness of citizen reception work and handling of administrative procedures by officials and civil servants.

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Source: https://baodongnai.com.vn/kinh-te/202509/bien-diem-nghen-thanh-dot-pha-9d014d3/