New drivers of development

Several major infrastructure projects across the province are slated for substantial completion by late 2025 and expected to come into operation in 2026. These projects will open up new development spaces and corridors, thereby generating new drivers for development in Dong Nai.

Construction on the section of Ho Chi Minh City’s Ring Road No. 3 running through Dong Nai province is being accelerated. Photo: Pham Tung

Transport infrastructure opens new development space

According to the plan, Phase 1 of the Long Thanh International Airport project will conduct its technical flight on December 19, 2025.

Speaking at the 22nd meeting of the State Steering Committee for National Key Projects in the Transport Sector on December 9, Nguyen Tien Viet, Deputy General Director of the Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV), stated that the two transport routes connecting to Long Thanh Airport have been completed. Calibration flights at the airport have also been completed, and all equipment on Runway No. 1 has been installed and tested, ensuring readiness for the upcoming technical flight on December 19.

In addition to Runway No. 1, the taxiways and apron area have completed preparations. By December 15, the apron area adjacent to the passenger terminal is also expected to be fully ready to support the technical flight on December 19.

During the meeting, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh requested ministries, agencies, and the governing bodies of component projects, especially ACV, to strictly comply with the directives of General Secretary To Lam; urgently review all remaining tasks; and develop a detailed, concrete plan to ensure the technical flight for Phase 1 of Long Thanh Airport on December 19, 2025. At the same time, the remaining construction items must be completed, and trial operations must be organized to ensure that commercial operations can begin in early 2026.

Alongside Phase 1 of the Long Thanh Airport project, several other key transport infrastructure projects in Dong Nai, including the Bien Hoa – Vung Tau Expressway and Ho Chi Minh City’s Ring Road No. 3, are expected to reach substantial completion by the end of 2025 and begin operation in 2026. These are arterial routes that connect Dong Nai and Long Thanh Airport with Ho Chi Minh City and the broader Southeastern region. As a result, they are set to not only drive socio-economic development but also open up new development spaces for Dong Nai province.

The Dong Nai Provincial People’s Committee requested the functional agencies to study and incorporate into planning the development of a connector route linking ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries (Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia) via the Hoa Lu International Border Gate to Long Thanh Airport, Phuoc An Port, and the Cai Mep – Thi Vai port complex.

Maximizing the advantages of Long Thanh International Airport

During his visit to the Long Thanh Airport project site in November 2025, General Secretary To Lam stated that Long Thanh Airport will only operate effectively when its transport, service, urban, tourism, and logistics linkages are developed in a fully integrated and modern manner. Ministries, sectors, and localities are focusing on three major groups of solutions, including measures to ensure multimodal infrastructure connectivity between key functional zones and the central urban areas of Ho Chi Minh City and Dong Nai. He also called for accelerating progress and ensuring the timely completion of major transport projects such as the Bien Hoa – Vung Tau Expressway, the Ben Luc – Long Thanh Expressway, and Ho Chi Minh City’s Ring Road No. 3 and No. 4.

To concretize the General Secretary’s directives, the Dong Nai Provincial People’s Committee issued an implementation plan in early December 2025 to carry out the directive tasks. For the group of tasks related to advancing priority transport infrastructure, the Provincial People’s Committee requested expedited progress on a series of projects, including the expansion of the Ho Chi Minh City – Long Thanh – Dau Giay Expressway; the Bien Hoa – Vung Tau Expressway; the Ben Luc – Long Thanh Expressway; the Dau Giay – Lien Khuong Expressway; Ho Chi Minh City’s Ring Roads No. 3 and No. 4; the North–South high-speed railway; the Suoi Tien – Provincial Administrative Center – Long Thanh  Airport metro line; and the Bien Hoa – Vung Tau Railway.

In parallel, the planning of transport routes connecting Long Thanh Airport with localities in the Southeastern region and key economic driver zones is being carried out in a coordinated manner, along with planning for the development of new urban centers based on the airport-city model. Spatial development orientations and economic corridors in the national master plan, national sectoral plans, and regional plans are being updated and supplemented with necessary adjustments. Specifically, the scope of the southern dynamic zone is being expanded to include areas connected to Ring Road No. 4 of Ho Chi Minh City and major expressways such as Moc Bai – Ho Chi Minh City, Ho Chi Minh City – Thu Dau Mot – Chon Thanh, and Long Thanh – Ho Tram. An additional proposal calls for further extending the southern dynamic zone to areas surrounding Tri An Lake, aiming to create a development direction for Dong Nai’s eco-tourism sector and contribute to the formation of an integrated industrial–logistics–tourism services linkage chain.

At the same time, further studies are underway to supplement tourism development related to forests, rivers, waterfalls, and high-value historical sites.

By Pham Tung – Translated by Thu Hien, Minho