Leveraging Dong Nai City's special resources

Covering more than 12,700 sq. km, Dong Nai currently has the largest land resources in the Southern region and is also the city with the largest natural area among cities nationwide.

Dong Nai is implementing a series of strategic transport infrastructure projects to promote socio-economic development and effectively tap land resources. In the photo: A view of Nhon Trach ward. Photo: Hoang Loc

This feature is a particularly important resource that serves as a strategic foundation for socio-economic development and creates momentum for the country’s youngest city to expand its development space comprehensively and sustainably.

Extensive land resources in a strategic location

Compared to Vietnam’s other cities, Dong Nai stands out for its advantage in natural areas. In addition to possessing a large land reserve, the city is strategically located as a gateway to the Southern key economic region, serving as a major connectivity hub linking the Southern region with the Central Highlands and the South Central Coast, thereby opening up a vast inter-regional development space.

The combination of abundant land resources and a strategic location enables Dong Nai to develop key growth corridors, particularly the trade and logistics axis linked to Long Thanh International Airport. This feature facilitates effective connectivity between industrial parks, urban areas, and agroforestry production zones, as well as airports, seaports, and international border gates, thereby enhancing competitiveness and strengthening regional linkages.

In terms of land-use purpose, agricultural land currently accounts for nearly 84% of Dong Nai’s natural area. Of this, land used for perennial crops accounts for a large share and is concentrated mainly in the city's northern and eastern parts. This area serves as the core zone for developing large-scale commodity agriculture, providing a stable raw material supply for the processing industry and creating space for the development of high-tech, low-carbon agriculture linked to agricultural product logistics chains.

In addition, Dong Nai has the largest forested area in the Southern region, with a system of world biosphere reserves, national parks, and nature and cultural conservation areas that play an important role in ecosystem protection, climate regulation, and water resource management. With large, contiguous forest areas and effective biodiversity conservation, Dong Nai is regarded as the “green lungs” of the region, creating space for the development of the forestry economy and forest environmental services while enhancing carbon absorption capacity.

An urban area project in Long Hung ward, Dong Nai City, is in the final phase of completion. Photo: Hoang Loc

In the non-agricultural sector, the extensive land reserve and strategic location provide a foundation for the city to develop new urban areas, industry, and logistics services. This undertaking also creates favorable conditions for the transition to high-tech and clean industries, as well as for the development of trade, services, and eco-tourism.

Dr. Sc., Architect Ngo Viet Nam Son, Chairman of Ngo Viet Design Consultants Company Limited (Ngo Viet Architects & Planners), said that with a large and relatively contiguous land reserve, along with a favorable geographical location, Dong Nai has strong potential to restructure its urban development space toward a modern, civilized, and sustainable model. According to him, land is a special resource and a strategic foundation for the city's breakthrough development.

Effectively harnessing land resources

Land is closely associated with all socio-economic activities. Possessing a large land reserve in a favorable location provides Dong Nai with significant potential to continue expanding industrial parks, developing modern urban areas, planning specialized high-tech agricultural zones, and protecting and expanding forest areas. These are important drivers of the city's emergence as one of the country’s leading growth poles.

Dong Nai currently has a total natural area of more than 12,700 sq. km, equivalent to over 1.27 million hectares. Of this, agricultural land accounts for more than 1 million hectares, non-agricultural land nearly 205,000 hectares, while the remainder is unused land. The city possesses the largest land reserve among the seven cities and ranks ninth among the country’s 34 provinces and cities.

Vo Tan Duc, Deputy Secretary of the Dong Nai City Party Committee, said land is a special and irreplaceable means of production and a core foundation for agriculture and forestry. It also serves as a strategic foundation for organizing residential space and protecting ecosystems. Amid the need to transform the growth model, the effective management, allocation, and use of this resource play a decisive role, directly creating room for development and helping prevent waste and losses. It is necessary to regularly review and address delayed projects, stalled works, and idle land plots, and to develop solutions to convert them into development resources. Land governance should be modernized using digital data and technology, while ensuring openness and transparency to curb speculation and profiteering and limit the practice of driving up land prices.

During multiple working sessions with departments and sectors, Nguyen Van Ut, Deputy Secretary of the Dong Nai City Party Committee and Chairman of the City People’s Committee, also noted that for land to truly become a key resource, approved planning schemes must be implemented strictly and effectively, ensuring synchronization, stability, and a long-term vision. He called for improving the effectiveness and efficiency of state management of land, strengthening openness and transparency, and closely controlling the stages, including land allocation, land lease, and land-use conversion. He also urged stronger reform of administrative procedures and the removal of bottlenecks in mechanisms and policies. This effort would help unlock and efficiently allocate land resources, creating momentum for sustainable development and improving the quality of growth.

Currently, the allocation and utilization of land resources in Dong Nai are aligned with two key growth drivers. The first is sustainable industrial development, focusing on attracting strategic and next-generation investors, increasing occupancy rates in existing industrial parks, and developing potential areas with priority given to high-tech, green, and supporting industries.

The second is the development of the service sector, centered on a comprehensive urban service area associated with Long Thanh International Airport, aimed at forming an integrated aviation, logistics, trade, and tourism ecosystem. This undertaking is expected to optimize land use while generating spillover effects for the locality and the wider region.

For agricultural land, Dong Nai prioritizes modern development, promoting circular production models, the application of high technology, and organic farming. Meanwhile, the non-agricultural land reserve will prioritize infrastructure development in transport, energy, logistics, digital infrastructure, and sustainable urban areas.

The allocation and use of land resources are also closely associated with national defense and security tasks, as well as the preservation of distinctive cultural spaces, with the aim of ensuring harmonious and sustainable development.

By Hoang Loc – Translated by Minh Hong, Minho