Planning is important

At the second coordination conference of the Northern Midlands and Mountainous Region held on the afternoon of December 1, Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung emphasized that the planning of the Northern Midlands and Mountainous Region for the period 2021-2030, with a vision to 2050, is of great significance, helping to "pave the way" and proactively create development, with new thinking and vision to create new opportunities, new development momentum and new values ​​for the region.

In particular, the planning has focused on solving inter-sectoral, inter-regional and inter-provincial issues; reorganizing regional development space and effectively exploiting and promoting all resources for rapid and sustainable regional development. Regional planning is also an important basis for proposing a medium-term public investment plan for the 2026-2030 period, especially large, inter-regional projects.

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Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung.

According to the Minister, the Northern Midlands and Mountains region is an area of ​​special importance in terms of politics, economy, society, national defense and security, is the "fence" and northern gateway of the country and plays a decisive role in the energy source, water source and ecological environment of the entire Northern region.

Localities in the region have increasingly recognized the role, position, importance and exploited the potential and advantages of the region. In particular, the importance of socio-economic infrastructure, especially transport infrastructure, has been identified to focus on investment, helping to significantly improve the connectivity between provinces in the region with the whole country and internationally.

The representative of the regional planning consultancy, EnCity International Consulting Joint Stock Company, has presented a number of general orientations in the planning work of the Northern Midlands and Mountains Region. In particular, the orientation of organizing development space includes 4 sub-regions - 6 economic corridors (4 main corridors, 2 secondary corridors) - 3 economic belts and a system of growth poles, centers associated with sub-regions and regions.

Specifically, sub-region 1 (the western sub-region including Dien Bien, Son La and Hoa Binh): Is a green growth area associated with sustainable agriculture, eco-tourism and clean energy with Hoa Binh as the growth pole and Son La as the center for agricultural processing and social services.

Sub-region 2 (Northwest sub-region including Lai Chau, Yen Bai, Phu Tho, Lao Cai, Tuyen Quang, Ha Giang): Is a large-scale tourist area, a hub for economic and cultural trade with Yunnan and the southwestern provinces of China with two growth poles in Lao Cai and Phu Tho.

Sub-region 3 (Northeast sub-region including Thai Nguyen, Bac Kan, Cao Bang): Is the place with the industrial, educational and medical centers of the whole region, and is also the place to preserve history and origins with the potential to develop origin tourism.

Sub-region 4 (Eastern sub-region including Lang Son and Bac Giang): Is a place with great growth, the industrial center of the region, and has the most important international border gate with the role of connecting economic and cultural trade with Guangxi and the southern provinces of China.

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The second coordination conference of the Northern Midlands and Mountains region took place on the afternoon of December 1.

Regarding the planning orientation for infrastructure development, the consulting unit said that before 2030, priority will be given to investment in the construction of the North-South expressway, opening more access to the sea. Accordingly, investment will be made in the North-South expressway connecting Hoa Binh - Thanh Hoa; National Highway 16 connecting Thanh Hoa and the North Central region.

In addition, priority will be given to upgrading and connecting Ring Road 1 (National Highway 4) and Ring Road 3 (National Highway 37) to speed up East-West connectivity, and upgrading and investing in Dien Bien, Lai Chau, Na San, and Sa Pa airports.

The planning consultant also proposed investing in an additional high-speed route (80 km/h) connecting Hoa Binh to Ninh Binh with just over 40 km, to increase connectivity with North-South routes.

Many proposals on transport infrastructure

Commenting on the planning, Mr. Trinh Viet Hung, Chairman of Thai Nguyen Provincial People's Committee, suggested that if the implementation is to be organized, when approving, it is necessary to consider railways, roads, infrastructure systems, especially electricity.

Sharing the same view, Mr. Tran Huy Tuan, Chairman of Yen Bai Provincial People's Committee, said that to solve bottlenecks, infrastructure is a very big issue; in which horizontal connection is needed for regions.

Meanwhile, Mr. Ho Tien Thieu, Chairman of Lang Son Provincial People's Committee, said that the regional spatial connectivity organization plan mentioned the Chi Ma (Vietnam) - Ai Diem (China) border gate but did not raise the issue of upgrading to an international border gate. However, the Prime Minister recently issued a decision on planning the border gates across the Vietnam - China land border, affirming that by 2030, 8 pairs of border gates will be upgraded to international border gates; including the Chi Ma - Ai Diem border gate. Therefore, the leader of Lang Son province proposed to supplement it correctly.

In addition, Mr. Thieu assessed that the vertical traffic connection is stable, but the horizontal connection is not stable. Therefore, Lang Son proposed a connecting route from Lang Son at the Huu Nghi international border gate to Thai Nguyen, Tuyen Quang and from Tuyen Quang to Yen Bai and the above provinces.

“These horizontal highways are very important because Thai Nguyen, Bac Kan, and Tuyen Quang can easily reach the border gate, closer to Lao Cai; so they should be included in the planning.

Developing the railway line, Lang Son has the Hanoi - Dong Dang railway line. This issue has been discussed a lot, if we delay investing in this line, we will miss the opportunity. Therefore, we propose to adjust the planning to be able to implement this railway line before 2030", Mr. Thieu proposed.

Nguyen Le