Building Tan Phuoc into a smart port city
On August 21, Tan Phuoc Ward People's Committee (HCMC) coordinated with the Ho Chi Minh City Institute of Planning and Construction to organize a workshop on the topic "Creating a smart port city Tan Phuoc - The nucleus of Cai Mep Ha Free Trade Zone in the southern growth pole of HCMC".
Mr. Huynh Trung Son - Chairman of Tan Phuoc Ward People's Committee - said that the locality is facing a turning point in the development space when located in the structure of the Ho Chi Minh City megacity. The simultaneous convergence of seaports, logistics, industry, energy, Free Trade Zone, and multi-modal infrastructure is creating a development dynamic system that is beyond the locality.
Therefore, it is necessary to reposition Tan Phuoc with a strategic role in the east development structure of Ho Chi Minh City, establishing a core role in the ecosystem of Cai Mep Ha Free Trade Zone... From there, move towards exploiting the values of location and infrastructure; forming an integrated development model between seaport - logistics - industry - free trade - urban - ecological at the strategic and inter-regional level," said Mr. Huynh Trung Son.
According to Mr. Son, this process opens up many great opportunities but also poses many challenges for the locality in terms of planning, infrastructure resources, governance models and environmental protection. Therefore, the contributions of opinions from managers, experts, scientists and the business community will contribute to Tan Phuoc truly becoming an important link in the development structure of eastern Ho Chi Minh City.
Creating greater value when linking smart cities with Free Trade Zones
In the conference, experts contributed many opinions to build and develop Tan Phuoc ward in the coming time, with diverse topics such as: Optimizing growth drivers for Tan Phuoc ward; Policy mechanisms to implement the TOD model associated with dual-use railway lines, logistics, industrial parks/FTZs; Mechanisms and policies to effectively exploit and mobilize urban development resources; Integrating spatial planning, Digital Twin and smart management...
Speaking at the workshop, Mr. Nguyen Cong Vinh - Vice Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee - said that currently the development space of Ho Chi Minh City is not only expanding horizontally, but must be restructured according to growth poles with specialized functions, capable of global connection and complementarity. In that structure, the Eastern region is not only a new development region but must become an international trade gateway for both the Southeast region and the Mekong Delta.
If we successfully build a smart port city associated with the Free Trade Zone, we will create a completely new economic ecosystem. Where goods flows, capital flows, data flows, technology flows and high-quality human resources converge and interact. Then, the value created will be many times greater than the value of mere seaport infrastructure," Mr. Vinh emphasized.
According to Vice Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Nguyen Cong Vinh, planning must go one step ahead not only in terms of time but also in thinking; infrastructure is not just bridges, roads, ports or warehouses but must include data and digital infrastructure. At the same time, the competitiveness of urban areas in the future is not only in scale but also in the quality of institutions, investment environment, human resources and innovation.
Hopefully, the opinions in the conference will not stop at exchange but move towards forming scientific arguments that are persuasive enough to serve the policy planning work of Ho Chi Minh City," said Mr. Nguyen Cong Vinh.
