Mekong Delta: Development space with 'three seas'

If we only view the Southwest coastal road as a segmented traffic project, we will miss the opportunity to shape a new development space for the entire Mekong Delta region.

Ca Mau sea area - Photo: THANH HUYEN

The Southwest coastal road is the coastal corridor of the entire delta.

The 740km long Southwest coastal road project, from Ho Chi Minh City to Ha Tien, passes through the provinces and cities of Dong Thap, Vinh Long, Can Tho, Ca Mau and An Giang .

Although it was "registered" in the planning documents more than a decade ago and approved by the Prime Minister in Decision 1454 on the road network planning for the 2021-2030 period, with a vision to 2050, it has only been formed in fragments so far, and the overall picture is still unclear.

The project is identified as very important, but the 2021 - 2025 period will not be allocated central budget capital because this route is invested by the locality, the budget previously assigned to the Ministry of Transport cannot be spent, and the provincial budgets are thin.

If this continues, the inter-regional project, linked to the vision of the marine economy, will still be an "investment burden" for the localities. Those who "have money" will do it first, those who "lack money" will wait.

Putting the Southwest coastal road project in the overall development of the Mekong Delta region, the delay is a paradox.

This is the only region in the country that has "three sides bordering the sea" with the East Sea, the South continues with the world's busiest Pacific shipping route and the West Sea with the Gulf of Thailand.

The development of the Mekong Delta in recent times has mainly been in the "onshore space" with rice, fruits, seafood, processing industry, following the national highways, provincial roads, inland rivers and canals. The marine economy has not really been organized into a chain of development spaces with corresponding connecting infrastructure.

This project should be viewed as a regional public investment program.

The Southwestern coastal road is not only a new traffic axis but also a coastal corridor of the entire delta. It is the red thread connecting seaports, logistics centers, urban areas, and coastal and island economic zones.

From the seaports of Tien Giang, Ben Tre, Tra Vinh, Tran De - Soc Trang, Ganh Hao - Bac Lieu, Nam Can, Hon Khoai - Ca Mau, to Ha Tien, Phu Quoc - Kien Giang in the past and now are the "seaports" of the new provinces and cities of Dong Thap, Vinh Long, Can Tho, Ca Mau and An Giang.

This coastal corridor not only shortens the distance of several dozen kilometers per route for coastal areas, but also shares the burden of National Highway 1, connecting "economic space on land" with "economic space on the sea", creating new momentum to promote the strengths of agriculture, fisheries with the marine economy, develop renewable energy, sea and island tourism, and logistics services of the region.

In the context of climate change, rising sea levels, land subsidence and increasingly severe coastal erosion, the Southwest coastal road also has the mission of protecting coastal residents and reorganizing living space. If the road is built close to the sea, continuously raised, cut across canals, and erosion and flow are ignored, the road can be "swallowed" in just a few decades, turning into a wall causing stagnation and pollution.

But if intelligently designed with reasonable setbacks, elevated roads in low-lying areas, parallel canals to both take up local sand and soil while also ventilating and storing fresh water, overpass systems that respect the canal network, and coastal routes can become "economic soft dikes", both infrastructure paving the way for development and a line of natural disaster prevention.

The Southwest coastal road project has been discussed for more than 10 years but has been slow to be implemented, not only because of capital issues, but also because of the mechanism. The project is inter-regional, passing through many provinces, related to transportation, irrigation, urban areas, environment, national defense and security but there is not yet a strong enough regional coordination point.

Each province has a section, each place has a priority, a budget capacity, without a common framework on progress, technical standards and economic space model along the route, it is difficult to create a continuous, true coastal corridor.

This project should be viewed as a regional public investment program, funded by the Government and ministries, with a mixed capital mechanism, central budget for strategic sections, local capital, PPP capital for sections associated with urban areas, tourist areas, and coastal economic zones. There should be a mechanism to collect the land value added to reinvest in infrastructure; risk sharing should be attractive enough to attract long-term investors.

The Southwestern coastal road has been delayed for 10 years, but if repositioned and re-approached, it will accelerate. Turning this project into a coastal corridor of the delta is not only a development option, but also a requirement for the delta to "reach out to the sea" in the era of national development.

TRAN HUU HIEP

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/dong-bang-song-cuu-long-khong-giant-phat-trien-ba-mat-bien-20251130170708493.htm