Tien Giang – a strategic bridge between the Mekong Delta and Ho Chi Minh City

Tien Giang – a strategic bridge between the Mekong Delta and Ho Chi Minh City

On November 29, in Can Tho, the People's Committee of Ho Chi Minh City in coordination with the People's Committees of 13 provinces and cities in the Mekong Delta (MD) organized a conference to review the socio-economic development cooperation agreement between Ho Chi Minh City and the MD for the period 2023 - 2024 and deploy the 2024 - 2025 plan. Leaders of Tien Giang province attended and shared many important opinions.

Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Phan Van Mai (in blue shirt) visits Tien Giang booth at the Conference on Socio-Economic Development Cooperation between Ho Chi Minh City and Mekong Delta provinces.

Many outstanding events linking Tien Giang - Mekong Delta and Ho Chi Minh City need to be promoted

The agreement on socio-economic development cooperation between Ho Chi Minh City and 13 provinces and cities in the Mekong Delta region has 8 cooperation contents including: Connecting supply and demand, promoting investment and trade; developing transport infrastructure; developing tourism; cooperating in adapting to climate change; developing science and technology, digital transformation; developing the health sector, training human resources; the field of labor and employment; the situation of bilateral cooperation between Ho Chi Minh City and each province and city in the Mekong Delta region.

In the period of 2023 - 2024, the conference connecting supply and demand focused on Ho Chi Minh City and provinces and cities, attracted 322 participating units with 657 booths, including 13/13 provinces and cities in the Mekong Delta region participating with 184 registered enterprises and 328 booths with local specialty products.

Notably, the Spring Flower Market "On the Wharf, Under the Boat" is one of 19 typical annual cultural, artistic and festival events in Ho Chi Minh City, attracting a large number of local and foreign tourists to enjoy the spring every Tet holiday. To prepare for the organization of the above activities, District 8 (Ho Chi Minh City) has organized promotions, connecting supply and demand in many provinces and cities, creating places for traders and gardeners to display and trade ornamental flowers and fruits to serve tourists. In 2023, there will be 788 booths, consuming 138 tons of goods, fruits and 120,000 flower pots; in 2024, there will be 745 booths, consuming 95 tons of goods, fruits and 90,000 flower pots of all kinds...

Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Phan Van Mai said that in the period of 2023 - 2024, Ho Chi Minh City and the provinces and cities of the Mekong Delta have implemented many regional cooperation programs, helping to develop businesses, improve people's lives, and contribute to promoting socio-economic development of localities. Through this conference, it shows that the effectiveness of the cooperation agreement between Ho Chi Minh City and the Mekong Delta region has only stopped at the initial, research or proposal stage. The conference hopes to listen to the opinions of local leaders, business representatives, and delegates, and to point out the key points and effective ways for cooperation to truly bring practical results, contributing to the socio-economic development of the Mekong Delta and Ho Chi Minh City. At the conference, representatives of provincial and municipal leaders summarized the results achieved in the past time, and focused on discussing the contents of cooperation implementation for the 2024-2025 period.

Speaking at the conference, Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Tien Giang Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Van Vinh said that in 2023 and 2024, the cooperation between Ho Chi Minh City and Tien Giang Province has achieved many positive results. In particular, Ho Chi Minh City and Tien Giang Province have cooperated to implement 3 contents: Can Gio Ferry (Ho Chi Minh City) - Go Cong Dong (Tien Giang Province); cooperation in investment and tourism development of Thoi Son (My Tho City) and Tan Phong floating market (Cai Lay District); cooperation in supporting the transfer of techniques and science - technology to Tien Giang Provincial General Hospital.

Chairman of Tien Giang Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Van Vinh emphasized that in the coming time, they will continue to coordinate to implement the Ho Chi Minh City - Long An - Tien Giang Urban Transport Axis Project synchronously and effectively; cooperate and link human resource training between Ho Chi Minh City Universities and Tien Giang University; Ho Chi Minh City Hospitals will support Tien Giang Provincial General Hospital to open new specialties to meet the medical examination and treatment needs of the people. He requested that Ho Chi Minh City leaders continue to research and pay attention to investment in the provinces and cities of the Mekong Delta to create opportunities to provide Ho Chi Minh City with the available advantageous products of the Mekong Delta region.

Tien Giang in the trend of close connection with the Mekong Delta and Ho Chi Minh City

In 2024 - 2025, Ho Chi Minh City and the provinces and cities of the Mekong Delta will focus on implementing cooperation in 8 committed areas:

Regarding the development of transport infrastructure, localities will coordinate with the Ministry of Transport to implement the project to expand the Ho Chi Minh City - Trung Luong - My Thuan expressway. At the same time, coordinate with the Ministry of Transport to implement the Ho Chi Minh City - Can Tho railway project; study investment in the coastal road route Ho Chi Minh City - Mekong Delta, connecting the waterway Ho Chi Minh City - Mekong Delta.

Regarding linkage and cooperation in tourism development, continue to implement Plan No. 2080/KH-UBND dated June 23, 2021 of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee on implementing the Program of linkage and cooperation in tourism development between Ho Chi Minh City and 13 provinces and cities in the Mekong Delta region for the period 2021 - 2025.

In the field of science and technology development and digital transformation, localities will organize workshops on developing circular economic and green economic models taking into account sustainable linkages; develop projects to encourage and support innovative start-up activities.

Regarding education, healthcare, human resource training, and labor, continue to develop a cooperation project to transfer experience in medical examination and treatment, intensive treatment, remote consultation, and improve grassroots medical capacity; a project to connect universities and institutes, share information, and develop the labor market.

The Mekong Delta and Ho Chi Minh City, including the Southeast region, are two entities with inseparable positions. Linking together to go further is the development goal of the Mekong Delta and Ho Chi Minh City and the whole country, especially in the current trend of deep integration. Raising the level of regional linkage thinking to create a common brand for the region, the cooperative linkage, both creating common values ​​and expanding space beyond the regional boundaries has been and is a regular urgent task for the government, people and businesses.

In fact, in recent times, Tien Giang province has participated in cooperation and association with provinces and cities in the two sub-regions of Dong Thap Muoi and the Eastern Coast to cooperate in socio-economic development with Ho Chi Minh City. With a favorable geographical location, stretching along the North bank of Tien River, about 70 km from the largest center of Ho Chi Minh City and about 100 km from Can Tho, this is a favorable condition for connecting raw material areas, production, consumption and export markets. Tien Giang can be considered the midpoint of the carrying pole, the connecting axis between the Mekong Delta and Ho Chi Minh City.

According to the planning orientation of the Mekong Delta region and Ho Chi Minh City, Tien Giang province, as the gateway of Ho Chi Minh City to the Mekong Delta region, from important traffic and economic axes passing through the province such as: National Highway 1, National Highway 30, National Highway 50, National Highway 60, Ho Chi Minh City - Trung Luong - Can Tho Expressway, Tien Giang province mainly develops agricultural and aquatic product processing industry; specialized fruit tree agriculture, aquaculture, high-tech agriculture; supporting industry and port industry; at the same time, strengthen calling for investment in functions of trade - services, river ecological landscape tourism. In addition, Tien Giang province has a very diverse agricultural ecosystem and is considered the largest fruit granary in the country with a total area of ​​over 84 thousand hectares and an output of over 1.76 million tons/year, an agricultural production area of ​​190 thousand hectares, including 136 thousand hectares of rice cultivation area and over 54 thousand hectares of food vegetables; Tien Giang province has a 32 km long coastline with thousands of hectares of coastal alluvial land, a water surface area suitable for aquaculture of over 15,044 hectares, the annual output of aquatic and marine products of the whole province reaches over 310 thousand tons. In addition, the long coastline is also favorable for the development of a diverse marine economy; Along with the infrastructure serving agriculture that has been invested in such as: My Tho fishing port, Vam Lang fishing port, Hoa Khanh fruit market, Vinh Kim fruit market, rice milling area in Cai Be... With the advantage of abundant raw materials, Tien Giang province ensures large-scale industrial processing production.

In particular, in terms of transportation, Tien Giang province prioritizes investment in inter-regional connectivity projects, especially provinces in the Mekong Delta. The routes create new development spaces, external traffic connections with regions and provinces that have a positive impact on local socio-economic development such as Ho Chi Minh City, Long An Province, Can Tho City, Ben Tre Province and Vinh Long Province...; at the same time, planning and investing in connecting traffic routes, developing important industries, products and fields of the locality such as industrial development, urban areas, key agricultural production areas, tourism, logistics transportation, functional areas... In addition, Tien Giang province also focuses on infrastructure connecting difficult areas, especially difficult areas with areas that play a driving role in the province. Tien Giang province also prioritizes investment in power supply projects for production, focusing on new industrial parks and clusters, to better meet the production and living needs of people and businesses. In the cultural and social fields, Tien Giang province will prioritize investment in restoration, embellishment and promotion of the value of special national relics, national relics and provincial relics; investment in important cultural and sports institutions...

Regarding cooperation activities in adapting to climate change, localities will organize workshops to exchange experiences, scientific, technological and technical solutions in flood and storm prevention, rescue, and response to natural disasters; international cooperation workshops on new farming solutions, new varieties adapted to climate change and solutions for flood prevention and climate change adaptation. At the same time, propose projects to protect and develop nature reserves, biodiversity and important wetlands such as Dong Thap Muoi Ecological Reserve; form a biodiversity corridor connecting Mui Ca Mau National Park - Dam Doi Bird Sanctuary - Thanh Phu - Can Gio Biosphere Reserve; form a biodiversity research center in Phu Quoc.

Sharing at the above Conference, Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Thi Bich Ngoc said that the Ministry of Planning and Investment is ready to accompany Ho Chi Minh City and the Mekong Delta in the development linkage between Ho Chi Minh City and the Mekong Delta. Specifically, it will continue to advise the Government and the Prime Minister to prioritize resources for investment in developing socio-economic infrastructure in the Mekong Delta, especially removing development bottlenecks and obstacles in the implementation of projects, promoting investment attraction and removing bottlenecks in the region according to the orientation of Resolution 13 of the Politburo on perfecting institutions, development policies and promoting regional linkages, rapid and sustainable economic development in the Mekong Delta region until 2030, with a vision to 2045.

Source: https://baodautu.vn/tien-giang—the-strategic-connection-between-the-cuu-long-river-and-tphcm-d232560.html