Dien Bien Potential and aspiration for development

Part I – Overview of Dien Bien

Dien Bien is a mountainous province on the Northwest border of the country, about 500 km from Hanoi by road. The province shares a border with two countries Laos and China (the border with Laos is 414.71 km long, and the border with China is 40.86 km long).

On the Vietnam – Laos border, there is Tay Trang international border gate and Huoi Puoc national border gate. On the Vietnam – China border, there is an opening road in A Pa Chai – Long Phu (adjacent to Jiangcheng District – Yunnan Province), which is a favorable condition to connect the Northwest region of Vietnam with the North region of Laos, the Southwest region of China and the Northeast region of Thailand through Trans-Asia route under investment in construction.

The province has 10 district-level administrative units with a population of over 620 thousand people, including 19 ethnic groups living together; in which the Hmong ethnic group accounts for about 38.12%; the Thai ethnic group accounts for 35.69%, the Kinh ethnic group accounts for 17.38%, the rest are other ethnic groups.

The average GRDP growth rate of the province in the period of 2016 – 2020 reached 6.8%/year. The total product in the area at current prices in 2020 reached about 21 thousand billion dong; and the average GRDP per capital reached 33.47 million dong.

The economic structure continued to shift in a positive direction. By 2020, agriculture, forestry and fishery sector accounted for 18.76%, industry and construction sector accounted for 19.1%, and service sector accounted for 57.64%.

The agriculture and forestry sector has been restructured towards improving productivity, quality and efficiency with the participation of enterprises in the model of association, linking production with processing and product consumption; So far, there have been 35 products certified to meet OCOP standards, typically specialty rice, rubber, coffee, tea, etc. gradually building up their brand name in the domestic market.

The growth rate of industrial production has been maintained on the basis of effectively exploiting the potential of electricity production, construction materials and processing industry.

Service sector has been rapidly growing. Total retail sales of goods and service revenue achived an average growth rate of 7.5%/year.

Typical, rich, and high-quality tourism products have been formed, associated with Hoa Ban Festival season and the anniversary of historic Dien Bien Phu Victory every year; in the period of 2016 – 2020, over 3 million visitors were welcomed, with the average growth rate of 12%/year.

The mobile communication network and the Internet have covered 100% of communes in the province. Passenger and cargo transport activities have developed stably, with a growth rate of 6.5%/year. Import and export activities through border gates in the are have been gradually exploited, reaching 341 million USD in the period of 2016 – 2020, 2.3 times higher than in the period of 2011 – 2015.

The total investment capital of the whole society in 5 years is about 50 thousand billion VND, with the growth rate of 13.1%/year; The ratio of investment capital to GRDP reached 56.3%.

In the period of 2016 – 2020, nearly 40,000 workers have been trained and vocationally trained, increasing the percentage of trained and vocationally trained workers in 2020 to 57.05%.

Political security social order and safety in the province have been ensured; people of all ethnic groups have been united to build a developed province.

In recent years, Dien Bien Province has always focused on implementing the goal of improving the business investment environment, enhancing competitiveness in attracting investment with many drastic synchronous solutions. Its competitiveness index has always remained in the good group, reaching 62.62 points in 2020, ranking 46^th among 63 provinces and cities. This is a great effort of the province while the natural and socio-economic conditions are still difficult, Accumulated up to now, there have been 203 projects with a total capital of 31.6 trillion VND that have been granted investment certificate in the province.

        Part II – Potentials, advantages and development orientation

Regarding agricultural production: With a total natural area of over 954.1 thousand hectares, ranking 9^th in the whole country, Dien Bien Province has quite great potential in terms of land, especially land for agro-forestry production with 736 thousand hectares, accounting for 77.17%. As for 191 thousand hectares of unused land, accounting for 20.05% of the natural area, it is suitable for the development of cattle breeding and cultivation of multi-purpose crops such as rubber, macadamia, fruit trees, forestry trees and medicinal plants under the forest canopy …

With a climate of with a large temperature difference between day and night, the soil is quite fertile, suitable for many crops with high yield and quality.

Land, climate and soil conditions of the province have good potential to develop large-scale specialized agricultural and forestry production areas associated with the development of product processing and consumption industry.

Regarding tourism development

As a province with great potential and advantages to develop tourism with various forms such as: Historical, cultural, ecological and landscape tourism, the notable special national-level historical relic complex of Dien Bien Phu Battlefield has been interested in restoring, embellishing and promoting its values in recent years in accordance with the scheme approved by the Politburo. In 2021, the whole work of Dien Bien Phu Historical Victory Museum has been completed with an oil-painted Panorama with an area of 3,250 m², which is the largest monumental historical painting in Asia. Through the language of painting, sculpture and installation with 4 scenes: All the people went to war; The majestic prelude; The historical confrontation and The Dien Bien victory, it has vividly recreated the whole 56 days and nights of the historical Dien Bien Phu Campaign.

In addition, Dien Bien also has many historical relics associated with the national construction and defense of the country, which are valuable potentials to exploit and develop tourism services of the province.

The province has a rich natural ecosystem with scenic spots:  Pa Khoang Lake, Muong Nhe nature reserve, Muong Phang forest; The cave complex is recognized as a national relic; the hot mineral springs of U Va and Hua Pe in Dien Bien District, Sang Village in Tuan Giao District, Son La hydroelectric lake bed, and the westernmost landmark of A Pa Chai – the only place most adjacent to all 3 countries of Vietnam – China – Laos …

Dien Bien has a community of 19 ethnic minorities living together. Each ethnic group has its own unique cultural features, which have been preserved and maintained over the years, gradually exploited for the development of tourism services.

Human resources of Dien Bien Province are quite abundant, the proportion of population in working age accounts for over 58% of the population. Labors of Dien Bien have a tradition of industriousness and diligence, taken care and supported for development, step by step meeting the requirements of high-quality human resources, serving the goal of industrialization and modernization of the country.

Regarding urban development

The urbanization rate of Dien Bien has been being still low, while the living standard of population has been constantly improving, which is a favorable condition to accelerate the process of urbanization and urban expansion, especially Dien Bien Phu City and center of districts and towns in the area.

 Key economic development orientations in the period up to 2025 with a vision to 2030

1. Concentrate investment resources to upgrade traffic infrastructure, with the main focus of:

Upgrade and expand Dien Bien Airport to meet 3C standards, receive Airbus A320 and Airbus A321 aircrafts in accordance with the investment policy approved by the Prime Minister, strive to start construction by the end of 2021 and complete to put into operation in 2023. Complete procedures for operation of new route by Embraer jet aircraft of Tre Viet Airline right in 2021.

Focus on mobilizing resources to upgrade arterial traffic routes, with the focus of National Highway 6 and National Highway 279, intra-regional traffic routes in dynamic economic areas in the province.

The upgraded and invested key transport infrastructure will ensure Dien Bien to improve internal and external traffic conditions and enhance connectivity with major economic centers in the country and in the region by road and airline.

2. Concentrate on mobilizing resources to promote the development of large-scale concentrated and specialized agricultural production, associated with the development of product processing and consumption industry with teh participation of enterprises and concentration groups. Focus on develop developing products of specialty rice, fruit trees, long-term industrial plants, medicinal plants and macadamia, increasing the output of high-quality agricultural products that have been recognized as meeting OCOP standards.

The province has given a policy on a mechanism for development cooperation with enterprises of the Vietnam Macadamia Association, agreeing on a roadmap to achieve the goal to make Dien Bien become the macadamia capital of the world in the period up to 2030 with the target of about 100 thousand hectares of new planting.

3. Promote the development of tourism services synchronously with the upgrading of Dien Bien Phu airport and external traffic routes, striving to make tourism a spearhead economic sector of the province by 2025 based on exploitation of 3 main pillars: Historical and spiritual tourism; Tourism of natural landscapes associated with understanding national cultural identity; and Tourism of entertainment, convalescence and sports. In the past time, many reputable investors such as Vingroup, FLC, Hai Phat, Flamingo ... have signed agreements and proposed to construction of urban areas, trade centers, hotels, golf courses with Dien Bien Province to soon deploy in the near future.

4. Expand, develop and accelerate urbanization. Focus on urban expansion and development of Dien Bien Phu City with the oriention of renovating the existing Center into the Trading and Service Center. Build a new political and administrative center in the East, expand the urban functional subdivisions in the north in association with the expansion of land fund in urban areas, attracting investment in entertainment areas, hotels and resorts on the basis of exploiting diverse potential advantages in terms of terrain and land, striving to reach the criteria of second-grade urban area by 2025.

Dien Bien Province warmly welcomes investors to explore investment and business cooperation opportunities for sustainable development./.

Dienbien.gov.vn