The establishment of Dong Nai City as a centrally governed municipality holds strategic significance in the context of the Southern Key Economic Region facing overload pressure from a single growth pole, Ho Chi Minh City.

With Dong Nai becoming a centrally governed municipality from April 30, 2026, the Southeast region now has two major cities with economies among the largest in the country.

Although they are two urban centers, they share the same development space and a common goal of turning the Southeast into a dynamic development region with a high economic growth rate and the country’s largest growth driver, as defined in Politburo Resolution No. 24 on the development of the Southeast region through 2030, with a vision to 2045.

Two Cities “Share the Load” and Work Together to Remove Bottlenecks

According to urban planning experts, the formation of Dong Nai City as a centrally governed municipality carries strategic significance in the context of the Southern Key Economic Region facing overload pressure from a single growth pole, Ho Chi Minh City.

The two cities will “share the load” in addressing long-standing bottlenecks and congestion that have affected the socio-economic development of both localities and the entire Southeast region.

For Ho Chi Minh City, the most visible impact is the reduction of excessive urbanization pressure and the sharing of the infrastructure burden. As a mega-city with more than 14 million people, Ho Chi Minh City is facing traffic congestion, housing shortages, environmental pressure and overload at Tan Son Nhat Airport.

For the newly established Dong Nai City, functions such as heavy industry, logistics and satellite urban development will be strongly shifted eastward, creating more open space for Ho Chi Minh City’s central area to focus on financial services, high technology and international trade. As a result, this will reduce mechanical population growth and ease congestion on gateway routes such as the Ho Chi Minh City - Long Thanh - Dau Giay Expressway and National Highway 1A.

Economist Dr. Nguyen Van Son analyzed that synchronous infrastructure connectivity, especially Long Thanh Airport — the country’s largest aviation gateway located in Dong Nai — will, once put into operation, become a key driver, helping fully ease the burden on Tan Son Nhat Airport in terms of international transport and cargo transportation.

Together with Ho Chi Minh City’s Ring Roads 3 and 4, the Bien Hoa - Vung Tau Expressway, the Ho Tram - Long Thanh Expressway, Cat Lai Bridge and the proposal to extend Metro Line No. 1 from Ben Thanh - Suoi Tien to Dong Nai, these projects will form a seamless multimodal transport network for the mega-urban area.

With dozens of industrial parks, river ports and seaports, Dong Nai will become an industrial backbone supporting Ho Chi Minh City as a service and financial center. The proximity of two centrally governed municipalities will create a “pole-to-pole” or polycentric effect, enabling the Southeast region to compete on an equal footing with major economic regions in Asia.

Under the planning orientation, the Ho Chi Minh City - Bien Hoa - Long Thanh urban chain will take shape, transforming the bordering area into a new growth belt, attracting FDI and creating jobs for hundreds of thousands of workers, while stimulating two-way consumption and services.

In addition, Dong Nai is focusing on planning ecological urban areas along the Dong Nai River. The TOD model, or transit-oriented development, will help ease housing and environmental pressure on Ho Chi Minh City.

Residents of Ho Chi Minh City will have more options to settle and build their careers in neighboring areas, with fast travel times of only 30-45 minutes, while enjoying green spaces and modern services.

A corner of Bien Hoa 2 Industrial Park, Dong Nai. Photo: Sy Tuyen/VNA

Connecting transport infrastructure between Ho Chi Minh City and Dong Nai will help remove the Southeast region’s bottlenecks related to limited infrastructure and traffic congestion, which affect both economic growth and quality of life.

Huynh Thi Van Anh, General Director of Viet A Real Estate Investment Joint Stock Company in Ho Chi Minh City, said that accelerating infrastructure connectivity will contribute to economic development not only for the two localities, but also by strengthening interregional links, allowing many other provinces and cities to benefit.

“With the real estate business, for example, better transport connectivity will help raise the value of resort and tourism real estate segments in Lam Dong Province, which our company is currently developing, while attracting more investors from Ho Chi Minh City and the southern region. Conversely, the apartment market in Ho Chi Minh City will also have more favorable conditions to attract customers from neighboring provinces and cities,” Van Anh shared.

Ho Chi Minh City is not the only locality to benefit from having a developed Dong Nai nearby; Dong Nai City is also “sharing the load” with the mega-city. According to the Dong Nai City People’s Committee, the locality is currently one of Vietnam’s major industrial centers, with 89 planned industrial parks concentrated in dynamic development areas such as Bien Hoa, Nhon Trach, Long Thanh, Dong Xoai, Dong Phu, Chon Thanh and Trang Bom.

At present, enterprises from 45 countries are engaged in industrial production in Dong Nai’s industrial parks, with 2,269 projects and total registered investment capital of USD 44.38 billion. These enterprises not only make an important contribution to the locality’s economic growth, but also play a key role in the production and export chains of the Southern Key Economic Region and the country as a whole.

Experts say Dong Nai’s production, import and export activities will become even more favorable through cooperation and linkage with Ho Chi Minh City, which is oriented toward becoming a logistics center and a gateway for the transshipment of goods and capital flows for the southern region and Southeast Asia.

Developing the Southeast into a developed region

The Ben Luc - Long Thanh Expressway section passing through Dong Nai Province. Photo: Sy Tuyen/VNA.

Ho Chi Minh City and Dong Nai are two urban centers and two growth poles sharing the same development space and common vision, as identified in Resolution No. 24-NQ/TW of the Politburo (8th tenure) on socio-economic development and ensuring national defense and security in the Southeast region through 2030, with a vision to 2045.

Accordingly, by 2030, the Southeast region is set to become a dynamic development region with a high economic growth rate and the country’s largest growth driver; a highly competitive regional center for science, technology and innovation, high-tech industry, logistics and international finance.

By 2045, the Southeast region is expected to become a developed region with strong economic potential and a modern economic structure; a leading regional and global center for science, technology and innovation, high-tech industry, logistics and international finance; and a region with modern and synchronous infrastructure.

According to the Dong Nai City People’s Committee, based on the region’s shared development vision, Dong Nai is oriented toward developing under the model of an industrial city, a modern urban area, a logistics center and a high-tech agricultural hub, gradually building a dynamic and highly competitive urban area in the region. This will help form a new growth pole in the southern region, with strong spillover capacity and the ability to promote regional linkage.

Nguyen Kim Long, Standing Vice Chairman of the Dong Nai City People’s Committee, said Dong Nai is identified as one of the important dynamic development spaces connected with the super-urban center of Ho Chi Minh City.

Dong Nai’s development creates new growth poles, promoting balanced and sustainable development across the entire region and the country.

Meanwhile, Ho Chi Minh City is identified as the core and growth pole of the Southeast region, aiming to become a civilized, modern, dynamic and creative city; a place that attracts high-quality human resources from both Vietnam and abroad to live and work; an international financial center serving as the region’s growth pole; and a hub for international financial institutions and major global economic groups.

Cat Lo Fishing Port in Phuoc Thang Ward, Ho Chi Minh City. Photo: Doan Manh Duong/VNA.

According to Nguyen Van Duoc, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee, the city is making efforts to promote its role as a leading economic locomotive, building itself into an international-level center for science, technology and innovation, thereby creating spillover momentum for the entire country.

With its vision toward 2045, Ho Chi Minh City aims to rank among the world’s top 100 cities and become an economic, financial and tourism hub of Asia, as well as a global destination.

To realize the shared vision of developing the Southeast region into an area with strong economic potential that leads national growth, experts believe that special mechanisms and policies are the “golden key” for the two growth poles, Ho Chi Minh City and Dong Nai, to break through.

Dr. Ngo Viet Nam Son, a scientist and architect, noted that if there was previously an “economic quadrangle” comprising Ho Chi Minh City, Binh Duong, Ba Ria–Vung Tau and Dong Nai, there are now only the Ho Chi Minh City and Dong Nai blocs.

The development of Ho Chi Minh City and Dong Nai will always be closely linked, with each side needing the other and vice versa. The linkage and cooperation between these two major centers will open up many unprecedented project clusters in Vietnam, while also serving as a major driver of economic growth for both localities in the coming time.

“However, implementing these connectivity projects requires mechanisms and policies to be consistent among localities. Ho Chi Minh City and Dong Nai are currently carrying out major projects, so cooperation between the two localities is needed, especially a common mechanism. It is not feasible for the same project to have one section in Ho Chi Minh City implemented under a special mechanism for Ho Chi Minh City, while the section in Dong Nai applies a different mechanism,” Dr. Ngo Viet Nam Son shared.

While waiting for newer and more synchronized special mechanisms for the two cities, economist Dr. Nguyen Van Son said that, by becoming a centrally governed municipality, Dong Nai would enjoy a strong autonomy mechanism similar to Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Hai Phong and Da Nang, including the authority to make faster decisions on planning, investment and resource attraction.

With the new mechanism, together with all its existing advantages, Dong Nai would not only rise strongly but also become a driving force with spillover effects across the entire Southeast region.

Source: https://www.vietnamplus.vn/