From a "livable city" to the desire to reach new heights
Recalling the early days of liberation, the image of Da Nang associated with the floating ferry, a few old bridges, narrow roads, people having to bury their feet in sand... Moving from suburban areas such as Nam O or Son Tra to the city center is a challenge, to the point that people are still used to calling it "going to Da Nang". However, that urban picture has completely changed.
Nearly 30 years since the separation of Quang Nam - Da Nang province, the city has invested heavily in transport infrastructure with a series of iconic bridges across the Han River, wide and spacious roads. The urban space has been expanded 4 times, connecting smoothly, facilitating trade and people's lives. Not only developing hard infrastructure, Da Nang also left its mark with humane social security policies, pioneering solutions in environmental protection, worthy of the title of "a livable city".
However, every development journey has come a time when new boosts are needed. Da Nang is facing significant challenges: There is not much room for urban development in scale, the real estate market is sluggish, the prolonged impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the tourism industry has recovered strongly but its contribution to the budget is not commensurate with its potential. That reality requires the city to find a new direction, more breakthrough in economic institutions.
In response to this urgent requirement, the leaders of Da Nang city have proactively focused on building and proposing specific mechanisms and policies, with the goal of removing institutional "bottlenecks" and creating momentum for a new breakthrough period. The two strategic spearheads are identified as piloting the establishment of a Free Trade Zone (FTZ) and building a regional-scale Financial Center (RFC).
Dual driving force from the Free Trade Zone and the Financial Center
The Da Nang Free Trade Zone is shaped as a functional area with determined geographical boundaries, where outstanding incentive mechanisms and policies are piloted to strongly attract investment, finance, trade, tourism and high-quality services. According to the project, FTZ will include many functional areas such as production areas, logistics centers, commercial - service areas, etc. These areas are separated from the outside by hard fences, ensuring specialized management by customs and authorities. All commodity exchange activities between FTZ and outside will comply with import-export regulations.
Mr. Vu Quang Hung - Head of the Management Board of the High -Tech Park and Da Nang Industrial Parks - said that the potential position for FTZ is the northwestern region of the city, associated with Lien Chieu port being invested and built - a core advantage for this model. After the thorough research and expert consultation, the People's Committee of Da Nang City submitted the Project to establish FTZ to the Ministry of Planning and Investment (now assigned to the Ministry of Finance to assume the prime responsibility for appraising and adding words for the right structure). It is expected that FTZ Da Nang has a scale of about 2,317ha (including more than 300ha of sea encroachment), arranged at 10 non -adjacent locations but there is a strategic connection with Lien Chieu seaport and Da Nang international airport.
FTZ's economic potential is forecast to be huge. This model could contribute 8-9% of the city's GRDP by 2030 and increase to 25% by 2050, boosting annual GRDP growth by 1.7% (2026-2030 period) and 2.4% (2031-2050 period). The FTZ is also expected to create around 41,000 jobs by 2030 and 137,000 jobs by 2050, mainly in high value-added sectors. Showing political determination, Da Nang established a FTZ deployment working group led by Vice Chairman of the City People's Committee Tran Chi Cuong. Mr. Cuong emphasized the development of FTZ according to the integrated urban business model and necessary steps such as preparing human resources, promoting investment, adjusting planning, and preparing site. The City People's Council has also approved a list of 33 priority infrastructure projects for investment in FTZ.
In parallel with FTZ, Da Nang received an important " impetus" when the Politburo issued Conclusion No. 47-KL/TW dated November 15, 2024, agreeing in principle to build a regional financial center in Da Nang (along with the International Financial Center in Ho Chi Minh City). This is an opportunity for Da Nang to develop modern financial services, apply a specific, superior, competitive management mechanism but with strict risk monitoring, in the spirit of "taking advantage of both working and drawing experience", not being hasty but not being perfectionist, abandoning the mindset of "if you can't manage, then ban".
Da Nang City Party Secretary Nguyen Van Quang said that the city is actively coordinating with central ministries and branches to draft a Resolution of the National Assembly on specific mechanisms and policies for Da Nang, including RFC content, striving to submit to the National Assembly at the May 2025 session. The city also promotes the organization of seminars, collecting investor opinions on necessary policies, focusing on finance for startups, innovation, green finance, intellectual property protection, supporting small and medium enterprises, commodity exchanges, etc. At the same time, Da Nang focuses on training high-quality human resources and inviting strategic investors to participate in building infrastructure for RFC.
Not only stopping at the plan, Da Nang is acting drastically. Even in the first months of 2025, the city has been preparing to start a series of large -scale projects with a total investment of up to 150,000 billion VND, such as Village Project, Asian Park Complex, FPT, Viettel projects, high -class resorts ... At the same time, the city is determined to remove obstacles for 1,340 projects under the National Assembly Resolution 170, speed up the planning of the stadium to be ready to be available to the price of the stadium and the price of the stadium to be ready to be available to the price of the stadium and the price of the stadium. 2025.
Da Nang is facing a new opportunity today. With high political determination, careful preparation and pioneering economic institutions such as the Free Trade Zone and the Regional Financial Center, Da Nang is ready to make a strong breakthrough, joining the country in entering a new era of development - the era of reaching for deep integration.
