The formation of coastal corridors, logistics development, tourism and seaports is one of the four important driving forces of Ho Chi Minh City identified in the draft Political Report of the 1st Ho Chi Minh City Party Congress, term 2025-2030. In particular, Can Gio will play the role of the city's most important springboard to develop towards the sea from the reclaimed urban area to the Ho Tram - Binh Chau area.
Talking to Dan Tri, experts said that the current geo-economic position completely supports Ho Chi Minh City to develop in this direction. In the new period, the Can Gio and Ba Ria - Vung Tau areas in the past played an important role in helping Ho Chi Minh City become a center of trade, services, and marine economy.
“If we can take advantage of the opportunity to become an important intersection in the international maritime route, the potential and advantages that Can Gio can bring to Ho Chi Minh City and the whole country are enormous,” said Professor Dang Hung Vo, former Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment (now the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment ).
After the Covid-19 pandemic, the number of international and domestic tourists to Ba Ria - Vung Tau has increased year by year. Of the 127.5 million tourists nationwide in 2024, Ba Ria - Vung Tau province previously welcomed 16.2 million visitors, contributing significantly to Vietnam's tourism industry.
Regarding logistics and seaports, the figures also demonstrate the strategic position of Ba Ria - Vung Tau on a national scale. Of the total 864.4 million tons of goods circulating through Vietnam's seaport systems, Cai Mep - Thi Vai port cluster handles more than 138.2 million tons.
According to Professor Dang Hung Vo, after the implementation of administrative unit arrangement and merger of provinces and cities, Ho Chi Minh City will inherit great advantages in terms of potential for developing marine economy, logistics, and maritime. In particular, Can Gio area is the "door" for Ho Chi Minh City to gradually form a city of commerce, services, finance, science and technology, and education and training.
“From Ho Chi Minh City looking out to sea, on the right is the rice granary of the Mekong Delta - a large agricultural area, on the left is the potential industrial and service development area of Ba Ria - Vung Tau in the past. Can Gio is located in the middle of those two development directions”, Professor Dang Hung Vo analyzed.
On the international level, the Can Gio area of Ho Chi Minh City in particular and the entire sea area of Ho Chi Minh City in general are located on the Pacific - Indian Ocean shipping route. This is a rare area on the world map belonging to the shipping route with high trade density, but quite peaceful.
From the above reasons, Professor Dang Hung Vo believes that if the opportunity to become an important intersection in the international maritime route is taken advantage of, the potential and advantages that Can Gio can bring to Ho Chi Minh City and the whole country are enormous. However, according to him, the above-mentioned geo-economic advantages of Ho Chi Minh City have not been fully utilized in the past and need a clear change in the coming period.
“HCMC can absolutely build a model city like New York (USA) or Shanghai (China) , urban areas that develop by reaching out to the sea, expanding international economic space. I expect stronger changes, in line with the concept of HCMC reaching out to the sea,” Professor Dang Hung Vo shared.
According to the expert, the development of Can Gio needs a master plan with a vision and regional development mindset. In fact, the Can Gio area of Ho Chi Minh City is only a small part of the large bay area, stretching from the Ba Ria - Vung Tau area down to Tien Giang in the past (now Dong Thap province).
Recently, the investor has proposed to build a high-speed railway from the center of Ho Chi Minh City to Can Gio with a travel time of only about 12 minutes, instead of 2 hours as at present. In the future, when major projects such as Can Gio bridge, the sea-crossing bridge connecting Ba Ria - Vung Tau, the metro line connecting the center of Ho Chi Minh City - Can Gio are completed, helping to shorten travel time, Can Gio can also become a strategic transit location and a new destination for tourists to explore the southern coastal region.
With its location between the center of Ho Chi Minh City and the famous tourist complexes of Ba Ria - Vung Tau, Ho Tram, Binh Chau, Can Gio is expected to become the first stop for tourists from Ho Chi Minh City to the sea, a bridge between the largest urban area in the country and the Southeast sea space, creating a sustainable tourism - marine economic value chain.
“HCMC develops not only for HCMC but also for the whole country; the development orientation of Can Gio not only serves the development of HCMC but also needs to be placed in the regional development mindset. The entire large bay has a favorable terrain, with strengths in land and landscape to develop a model coastal urban area for the region and the world. However, this development mindset must be accompanied by careful solutions regarding the environment and planning,” Professor Dang Hung Vo commented.
“The gateway to welcome the world to Vietnam” is the image that Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Dinh Thien, Member of the Prime Minister’s Policy Advisory Council, mentioned when talking about the advantages of Ho Chi Minh City’s sea space. With a series of large projects in Can Gio and the potential of the Ba Ria - Vung Tau area, Ho Chi Minh City has all the conditions to open up new development spaces in the context of old spaces being limited.
“HCMC needs to consider a different development approach, opening up new dimensions for development opportunities. The city is still mainly developing on the ground, while the sky, sea, underground, digital space, and cultural space are almost insignificant,” Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Dinh Thien commented.
According to the expert, Ho Chi Minh City has a unique strength compared to other localities, which is the Cai Mep - Thi Vai International Transit Port, and soon the Can Gio International Transit Port. If Ho Chi Minh City can take advantage of it, reshape the development space, and become a strategic coordinate on the world maritime map, huge resources will be created for industry, urban development and logistics.
Associate Professor Dr. Tran Dinh Thien also said that it is time for Ho Chi Minh City to consider developing low-altitude space economy. This is something that major cities around the world have been raising the issue of in recent times.
“Cities that are not yet megacities have raised the issue of developing low-altitude space economy, opening up new development space from the sky with drones, flying taxis… Why hasn’t Ho Chi Minh City considered this, while ground space is being compressed?”, Mr. Tran Dinh Thien asked.
According to experts, the low-altitude space economy will bring about a breakthrough development effect, creating new types of products and new ways of communication. More importantly, Ho Chi Minh City can be early in forming an industry to manufacture vehicles serving the low-altitude space economy, which is a market that will increasingly expand internationally.
“HCMC needs to boldly approach it from that perspective. The city is a land of a culture of exploration and conquest. If this culture is applied to the development of science and technology, HCMC will attract a lot of international knowledge, creating a new development for the science sector of the whole country,” said Mr. Tran Dinh Thien.
Restructuring the development space to find new driving forces is one of the city’s key tasks in the coming period. In particular, Can Gio is oriented as a strategic location of the city to form large projects and works.
Ho Chi Minh City will develop a smart port-logistics cluster at Cai Mep - Thi Vai - Can Gio following the model of a digital super port and an integrated logistics system, operated by big data. Large-scale integrated trade complexes (megatrade) connected to free trade zones will be formed to promote import-export activities, logistics, modern warehousing services associated with the organization of exhibitions, fairs and international conferences.
In addition to Can Gio international port, the locality is also speeding up the progress of the urban area project reclaiming the sea, the urban railway connecting the center of Ho Chi Minh City - Can Gio, Can Gio bridge and auxiliary works.
In the future, the coastal corridor of Ho Chi Minh City will be planned and invested in to become a multi-functional integrated development area including seaport - industry - urban - tourism - ecological conservation. The city also aims for harmonious development between rural and urban areas in the direction of "village in the city, city in the village", associated with the orientation of "leaning on the mountain, protecting the forest" and "sticking to the river, facing the sea".
Content: Q.Huy
Photo: Trinh Nguyen, Phuoc Tuan
October 14, 2025 - 15:15
Source: https://dantri.com.vn/thoi-su/hien-thuc-hoa-khat-vong-tphcm-vuon-ra-bien-20251011144453261.htm
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