Ham Thuan Bac - "resilience" of suburban areas

Ideal place for a second home

While the People's Committee of Ham Thuan Bac district is busy adding works and projects related to the connection between the North-South high-speed railway to the inner city of Phan Thiet to the land use planning, construction planning, etc., people and investors are also implementing plans to have a piece of land in Ham Hiep commune or adjacent areas. The above "pull-up" phenomenon often occurs in Ham Thuan Bac for a long time, when there is a project or a shift in administrative boundaries, because this urban fringe area has many legitimate complementary factors for a Phan Thiet that is becoming crowded and also in the minds of investors or land speculators for a real estate market oriented towards relaxation.

Ham Thuan Bac District Administrative Center.

National Highway 28 passes through the administrative center of Ham Thuan Bac district.

Tran Hung Dao Street, Ma Lam Town.

Phan Thiet - Vinh Hao Expressway passes through Ham Hiep and Ham Thuan Bac communes, where the planned intersection connecting the 12-lane road to Phan Thiet city is located.

It could be a garden with a few plants, a fish pond, a small house for relaxing on weekends. It could be a peaceful second home for convenient travel, especially when the highway passes through, the Ham Thuan Bac area becomes more bustling with land transfer transactions from people coming from other provinces and cities. Thereby, it also contributes to the birth and operation of more and more businesses and individual business households over time in the district.

That is why in recent years, besides other revenues growing over time, land use fee revenue has always maintained its pioneering form, being the revenue that reaches the finish line the earliest and exceeds the highest. For example, in 2020, land use fee revenue exceeded 117.7% with 136.3/60 billion VND of the plan in the total annual revenue of 385,486 billion VND. Likewise, in 2024, land use fee revenue was nearly 122 billion VND, in the total revenue of 445 billion VND, compared to the estimate of 372 billion VND. Or in the first quarter of 2025, Ham Thuan Bac collected 139.36 billion VND, reaching 35.46% of the estimate for 2025, of which land use fee revenue was nearly 56 billion/100 billion VND of the plan...

Phu Long Town.

Many spacious houses in Ham Thang commune.

Thanks to that, in recent years, Ham Thuan Bac has always been the district with the second highest budget revenue among the localities of the province, after Phan Thiet City. The total annual budget revenue exceeds 40%/year. In particular, the budget revenue in 2024 with 445 billion VND is 57 times higher than in 1995, when Song Quao Lake began to be exploited.

According to information from the People's Committee of Ham Thuan Bac district, in the first quarter of 2025, 20 new enterprises and 110 individual households registered for business, bringing the total number of enterprises and 6,772 individual households registered for business in the district to date, with a total registered investment capital of nearly 12,191 billion VND...

Many high-tech agricultural farms invest in Ham Thuan Bac district.

Create people power

With a purely agricultural district, even though now, after 50 years of liberation, the economic structure has shifted towards increasing the proportion of industry, trade and services, when talking about Ham Thuan Bac, everyone thinks of Song Quao Lake. In the report 50 years after liberation, the People's Committee of Ham Thuan Bac district also used the year 1995, the time when Song Quao Lake was in operation, to compare changes in many fields, not just budget revenue. For example, the value of agricultural production reached 190 million VND/ha last year, more than 14 times higher when Song Quao irrigation project was built. Average income per capita in 2024, 5 times higher than in 1995. Or reducing the rate of hungry and poor households from 95% in 1995 to below 7.4%...

Song Quao Irrigation Reservoir.

Export garment in Phu Long town.

Ecotourism on Ham Thuan Lake.

It can be imagined that in the beginning, after the district separation in 1983, Ham Thuan Bac would have been like that when there were many poor households, food shortages; many families with preferential policies, because it was a revolutionary area; many ethnic minorities... and especially no irrigation. Therefore, it is not an exaggeration to say that Song Quao Lake appeared in 1995, marking a turning point in the lives of the people of Ham Thuan Bac. Because from the place of "dry fields, dry grass, and water waiting", many areas of fallow land, unstable single-crop fields were now produced with 2-3 crops of certainty or areas of lush green fruit trees such as dragon fruit, durian, melon... appeared. With the current proactive irrigation area of ​​over 90%, more than 9 times, and although agricultural prices fluctuate, in general, people's lives have turned to a bright state. During that journey, people built and renovated spacious houses, paid attention to aesthetics and design, and also joined hands to contribute to building new rural areas and civilized urban areas through investment in infrastructure from irrigation, roads, etc. to cultural institutions, in parallel with the investment of the State. Up to now, in the district, there are 12 communes meeting new rural standards, 2 towns meeting civilized urban standards.

Village in La Da commune.

Rice pounding competition in the Cultural and Sports Festival of ethnic groups in Ham Thuan Bac district.

Kate Festival of Cham people in Ham Thuan Bac.

VietGAP dragon fruit.

Harvesting melons.

Ham Thuan Bac rice fields.

That people's strength in Ham Thuan Bac is also demonstrated through the contribution to the gratitude fund, the fund for the poor always exceeds the set plan. For example, in 2020, the "Gratitude" fund received more than 900 million VND, reaching 132.57% of the plan (680 million VND); the "For the poor" fund received nearly 970 million VND, reaching 121.2% of the plan (800 million VND). Or in 2024, the "Gratitude" fund received more than 1 billion VND, while the plan was 800 million VND... From that source of money, more is mobilized each year, helping the movement of "eliminating temporary and dilapidated houses" according to the Government's policy in the district to come to an end. According to the plan, this June, that is, in no more than 2 months, the remaining 91 policy beneficiaries, 57 poor and near-poor households will finally be supported to improve their housing, helping Ham Thuan Bac complete the above criteria.

Cai River – Ma Lam embankment.

Efforts to connect urban areas

In the atmosphere of the 50th anniversary of the liberation of the homeland, the road from the district center to National Highway 1A, a key project of the province, was accelerated by Ham Thuan Bac. This route not only meets the needs of transporting goods and traveling of people and tourists, but also reduces traffic from National Highway 1A to the North-South Expressway via National Highway 28 and vice versa. Moreover, it also opens up development space for the district, when the starting point intersects Nguyen Tuong Street, Quang Trung Street of Ma Lam town and the end point intersects National Highway 1A in Ham Duc commune. Next to it are other projects such as the bridge over the Cai River embankment - Ma Lam...

Concrete road in residential area in Ham Phu.

The story of urban beautification, expanding development space, connecting rural areas - urban areas and connecting localities is the goal that Ham Thuan Bac district has strived to achieve for many years. Despite many difficulties, the district has mobilized investment resources to develop socio-economic infrastructure every year, exceeding the set plan. For example, in 2020, the district mobilized 7,650 billion VND, exceeding 9.3% of the set plan (7,000 billion VND). Or in 2024, the total social capital mobilized was 8,160 billion VND, reaching 100.2% of the set plan (8,000 billion VND). In addition, there is the drastic implementation of basic construction investment work with 3 national target programs and disbursement of public investment capital right from the beginning of the year. Therefore, despite the problems of compensation and clearance, in the end, every year the disbursement rate of public investment capital reached 95%. Accordingly, the movement of making cement concrete for village roads and alleys following the motto "People do, State supports" in the district has also flourished, becoming a bright spot of the province.

The above results not only help Ham Thuan Bac connect the adjacent Phan Thiet urban area both literally and figuratively in a smooth manner, without much difference, but also serve better and better the requirements of socio-economic development. That is also the reason why recently there have been investors in Ham Thuan Bac and the industrial clusters of Ham Duc, Ma Lam... are preparing to form, opening a new page for increasing the proportion of industry in the purely agricultural suburban area.

Source: https://baobinhthuan.com.vn/ham-thuan-bac-suc-bat-vung-ven-do-129223.html