(Quang Binh Website) - On October 27, 2008, Prime Minister had a Decision No.1545/QD-TTg, approving the Planning on development of Hon La economic zone, Quang Binh province, with the following principal contents: 

I. SCOPE OF HON LA ECONOMIC ZONE

Hon La economic zone encompasses six coastal communes (including sea area and islands) of Quang Trach district, namely Quang Dong, Quang Phu, Quang Tung, Canh Duong, Quang Hung and Quang Xuan, with an area of about 10,000 hectares, including 8,900 hectares in the mainland and 1,100 hectares of sea areas and islands.

II. GUIDING VIEWPOINTS AND MAJOR DEVELOPMENT OBJECTIVES

1. Development viewpoints

- To build Hon La economic zone into one of modem international trade centers in the northern Central Vietnam. To prioritize economic development in association with ports, services and tourism;

- To develop Hon La economic zone from the viewpoint of open economy and international economic integration, promoting economic cooperation, attracting resources from various economic sectors both at home and abroad (including foreign consultancy) and adapting to an international competitive environment.

- To develop Hon La economic zone in association with Vung Ang economic zone (Ha Tinh province), the economic corridor along National Highway 12A and Phong Nha-Ke Bang tourist resort; with countries in the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS) of the East-West economic corridor, especially Cambodia, Laos and Thailand;

- To build Hon La economic zone after the model of a general economic zone with an industrial park closely linked to the sea, tourist resorts with unique tourist products, a port-based economy, a non-tariff area in association with Hon La seaport and urban residential quarters.

At the initial stage, to focus on strongly developing a “core” area of Hon La economic zone in Quang Dong and Quang Phu communes. The core area will embrace Hon La seaport industrial park, Hon La port, a tourist, trade and service center; residential quarters and a non-tariff area. In the next period, to expand to other communes in Hon La economic zone while making further investment to complete the construction of the high-quality core area and step by step promoting port and tourist services;

- To concentrate on the construction of modem and synchronous material foundations and infrastructure facilities in Hon La economic zone. To apply dynamic development mechanisms and policies to develop all forms of production and business and investment in the construction of infrastructure facilities;

- To attach importance to the development of trade, import and export, services, tourism and other industries in close association with the sea, considering it an important solution for quickly and effectively developing Hon La economic zone.

- To effectively develop Hon La economic zone in all areas of economy, politics, security, defense, environmental protection and extension of regional and international relations;

- To implement incentive mechanisms and policies to Hon La economic zone in a long-term manner;

- To perform unified management and apply simple and convenient one-stop-shop administrative procedures to create an open investment environment for all production, business and service activities in Hon La economic zone.

2. Major development objectives

- To tap to the utmost the advantages regarding natural conditions and economic-political geographical location in domestic and international trade and services, boosting the socio-economic development in Quang Binh province, the northern Central Vietnam and the entire Central Vietnam with a view to contributing to narrowing the gap between this region and other regions in the country;

- To build and develop Hon La economic zone with such major industries as thermal power; seagoing and fishing ship building and repair; cement; glass manufacture and other allied industries. To develop urban residential quarters.

- To develop a non-tariff area along with making investment in and effectively exploiting Hon La port, which will, together with national highways 1A and 12A and Cha Lo (Quang Binh), Cau Treo (Ha Tinh) and Lao Bao (Quang Tri) border gates, become an important gate to the East Sea in South Lao, Northeast Thailand and the Mekong sub-region;

-To create about 39,000-40,000 jobs, train and raise the quality of human resources and increase laborers’ income;

- From now to 2010: To make phase-I investment in Hon La seaport; to continue building infrastructure facilities and attracting investment in Hon La seaport industrial park to reach an occupancy rate of 90-95%; to form a number of basic facilities of Vung Chua-Dao Yen tourist resort as planned; to develop urban residential places and step by step form modern and civilized urban centers; to invest in the construction of inter-regional and intra-regional trunk roads and functional areas; to initially exploit the port, non-tariff area, tourist resorts and industrial parks;

- From 2011 to 2020: To continue building and investing in infrastructure facilities in the zone; to implement detailed plannings and make further investment in the construction of infrastructure facilities and production and business activities in industrial parks, tourist resorts, entertainment and recreation centers and the non-tariff area.

III. DEVELOPMENT MODEL OF HON LA ECONOMIC ZONE

1. Hon La economic zone will be a general economic zone of national and international significance with the following industries: thermal power; seagoing and fishing ship building and repair; seaport; tourism; trade and services; urban development and other industries associated with the national highway 12A economic corridor and Cha Lo international border-gate economic zone.

Hon La economic zone is planned to have the following functional areas: a non-tariff area and a tariff area including industrial parks, a port and port-based logistic service center, residential quarters, urban centers, tourist-service centers and administrative centers.

2. Hon La economic zone may apply investment incentives and supports under the Investment Law, the Enterprises Law and guiding documents as well as other regulations and special incentives suitable to regional economic zone models and in accordance with Vietnamese law.

IV. ORIENTATIONS ON DEVELOPMENT OF MAJOR INDUSTRIES AND DOMAINS IN HON LA ECONOMIC ZONE

1. Industrial development

To prioritize the development of industries associated with the strengths of Hon La economic zone such as those closely associated with the exploitation of the sea and seaport, power generation, allied industries, export-oriented industries and industries with advanced technologies. To create key industrial products of great influence and high competitiveness to meet regional and international integration requirements, aiming to create conditions for long-term development. To make further investment in and complete the construction of Hon La seaport industrial park; to form a thermal power center, a shipbuilding center and several industrial clusters in Hon La economic zone. To closely combine economic development with the protection of natural resources and the environment.

With the above orientations, from now to 2020, to focus on developing the following major industries:

- Seagoing and fishing ship building and repair, attaching importance to projects on building ships for offshore fishing (ships of 400-1,000 CV);

- Power generation (thermal power);

- Producing construction materials and cement, facing stone slabs, asphalt concrete, high-class construction materials and pre-cast concrete components; tunnel bricks; steels and steel and iron products and structures;

- Manufacturing heavy equipment; processing and assembling automobiles, assembling motorbikes; office equipment; electrical and refrigeration equipment and high-quality electrical appliances; manufacturing motors;

- Manufacturing, processing and designing products and packages;

- Production and processing activities in the domain of biotechnology and new materials;

- Manufacturing processing precision mechanical equipment and assembling digital devices;

- Manufacturing high-class plastic products, detergents, chemicals and cosmetics; glass products; processing glass; packaging and printing goods labels; papers and paper products;

- Processing aquatic, marine, agricultural and forest products (timber products);

- Cottage industries;

- Oil refinery and petrochemistry (when conditions permit).

2. Orientations on development of services and formation of a non-tariff area

To concentrate efforts on developing a number of major services and service products such as port and ocean shipping services, tourism, trade, finance-banking, post and telecommunications, etc.

a. To develop port services and ocean shipping services:

- Regarding port services: To develop various port services such as ocean shipping agency and maritime brokerage; seagoing ship towage; ocean shipping agency; ship chandling and crew supply: cargo forwarding and tally; cargo loading and unloading, warehousing, import and export, transfer out of border gates, transit; ship dock repair; marine environmental sanitation and sea rescue, etc.

- Ocean shipping: To study and develop ocean shipping services along the line of building a sea­going fleet for transportation of cargoes imported and exported through Hon La port.

b. Tourism development:

To increase investment in the development of tourist infrastructure; to prioritize the development of some big modern tourist resorts; to intensify dissemination and promotion of tourist images: to conduct communication and education to raise public awareness about tourist services; to apply scientific advances, especially information technology, to tourism development; to combine socio-economic and tourism development with the protection of natural resources and the environment.

To diversify tourist products (mountain tourism, sight-seeing, trekking, sea tourism, leisure sports, resort and beach tourism); to associate tourism development in Hon La economic zone with Phong Nha-Ke Bang and other tourist sites in the region. To continue upgrading and step by step building Vung Chua-Dao Yen tourist resort and other tourist sites according to planning. To create an environment conducive to investment in tourism development. To increasingly improve the quality of tourist services.

c. Trade development:

To promote the advantages regarding geological locations, natural landscape and transport convenience to keep up with market demands and boost trade development. To form trade centers in new urban centers. To renovate and upgrade the system of marketplaces in communes, car terminals and wholesale markets. To prioritize the development of import and export activities; goods sale and purchase support services and goods storage and packaging in service of export or re-export. To pay attention to the development of trade infrastructure facilities (marketplaces, department stores, bonded warehouses, trade fair, exhibition and trade promotion centers).

d. Development of other services:

To develop other services such as finance-banking, securities, insurance, post and telecommunications, legal consultancy, investment consultancy, business consultancy, scientific and technological services, notarization, assessment and asset auction.

e. Orientations on the development of the non-tariff area:

To form a non-tariff area closely linked with part of Hon La port which will cover 200-250 hectares in Quang Dong commune in the northeast of Hon La economic zone. In the non-tariff area, to develop the production of goods for export and local consumption (processing and re-processing), trade in goods (including import, export, transfer out of border gate, temporary import for re-export, distribution and retail supermarkets), trade in services (classification, packaging, transportation and delivery of goods in transit, preservation and warehousing, post and telecommunications, finance, banking, transport, insurance, recreation and entertainment, food and drink catering), trade promotion and other trade activities.

To form the following sub-areas in the non-tariff area:

- A trade center with transaction offices, representative offices and branches;

- A center for production, processing, re­processing, assembly and repair activities;

- A center for product introduction, supermarkets, exhibition centers and services;

- A goods entrepot sub-area with bonded warehouses and other warehouses and storing yards.

- A sub-area for production, processing, reprocessing, assembly and repair

3. Development of agriculture-forestry, fisheries and rural trades

a. Agricultural and forestry development:

To develop agriculture in a comprehensive manner in the direction of restructuring high-value crops and domestic animals in order to supply safe food for Hon La economic zone, combining agricultural production with tourism. To develop husbandry along the line of increasing product quantity and quality to turn out commercial commodities for consumption and export. To boost the application of scientific and technological advances and biotechnology, revitalize animal breeds and plant varieties to increase productivity and product quality. To plant coastal protection forests; to develop pine tree forests according to planning and carry out afforestation under cooperation projects.

b. Fisheries development:

To focus on aquaculture, fishing, processing and fishing services. To form a economic-technical cluster in service of fishing and aquatic product processing in Roon lagoon. To help inshore fishermen shift to other trades like aquaculture, aquatic product processing, fishing services or tourist services. To make further investment to develop offshore fishing vessels on  the basis of consolidating and raising the effectiveness of offshore fishing fleets. To plan aquaculture areas in order to form intensive aquacultural areas to meet the demand of Hon La economic zone and create sources of raw materials for export processing.

4. Orientations on development of social domains and environmental protection

a. Population and labor forecasts for 2020

- Forecasts about the zone’s population

No.	Indicator	Unit of calculation	Population forecasts
			2010	2020
1	Population of the whole economic zone	Thousand people	51	66.8
	Population growth rate	%	2.5	2.75
	Mechanical increase	%	1.44	1.71
2	Urban population	Thousand people	12.4	31.2
3	Rural population	Thousand people	38.6	35.6
	Urbanization rate	%	24.4	46.7

- Labor demand forecasts

No.	Sector	Unit of calculation	Labor demand
			2010	2020
	Total labor demand	Thousand people	29.6	39.2
1	Industry - construction	Thousand people	14	19
	Percentage	%	47.3	48.5
2	Services	Thousand people	7.6	10.1
	Percentage	%	25.7	25.75
3	Agriculture	Thousand people	8.0	10.1
	Percentage	%	27	25.75

b. To form and develop new urban centers:

To form and develop Hon La new urban center and townships.

c. On social infrastructure (culture, education, healthcare):

To invest in the construction hospitals, schools, job-training schools, environmental observation centers, culture and sports centers, television broadcasting stations and international schools in order to meet the development requirements of Hon La economic zone.

d. Environmental protection and technological development:

To invest in the construction of a system of solid waste and wastewater treatment and a system of industrial waste gas control and treatment for every production establishment and the whole Hon La economic zone. To build an environmental observation and supervision center. To formulate a mechanism for strict management and examination of environmental protection. To increase the environmental management capacity.

To support enterprises in applying information technology, renewing production technologies and applying environmentally friendly technologies and international standards. To effectively protect industrial property rights. To develop technical services and enhance the state management of product quality registration.

5. Development of the infrastructure system

a. To build and develop seaports:

To build and develop Hon La deepwater port, including a multi-purpose port, a system of specialized ports, support and logistic services.

b. Road transport:

To invest in the develop of a system of outbound roads of Hon La economic zone with key routes up to prescribed technical standards; to upgrade national highway 1A’s section running through Hon La economic zone; to renovate and upgrade national highway 12A to a trans-Asian highway; to complete the system of roads in Hon La economic zone, the road leading to the port and other roads according to the planning on Hon La economic zone; to upgrade and maintain inter-communal roads.

c. Railway and airway transport:

To study the construction of a railway linking Song Gianh cement plant to Hon La port; to step by step upgrade and modernize Dong Hoi airport in order to satisfy regional air transport demand.

d. Electricity supply:

To invest in the development of a system of intermediate transmission lines and transformer stations according to the electricity demand forecasts for 2010 and orientations up to 2020 in order to fully meet the needs for electric load for industrial production, irrigation and other production activities as well as daily-life activities in Hon La area. To build Hon La 110 kV station.

e. Water supply, drainage and environmental sanitation:

To complete the project on water supply, renovate the existing water supply system to meet water demand for production and daily-life activities in the region in accordance with the development planning up to 2010 and afterward. To build a water drainage system and a wastewater and solid waste collection and treatment system in conformity with the schedule of development investment in Hon La economic zone.

f. Communication and information:

To strive to ensure smooth intra-provincial, national and international communication. To ensure the coverage of mobile phone signals and communications in service of daily-life activities.

6. Orientations on territorial organization and functional quarters

a. Land use orientations:

Land use orientations up to 2020

No.	Type of land	2020 (hectare)
	Total land area of Hon La economic zone	10,000
1	Land area of the non-tariff area	200
2	Land area of the tariff area	9,800
a	Land for construction of functional quarters in Quang Dong commune	2.486
	- Port land	122
	- Industrial land	1,000
	+ Hon La seaport industrial park	630
	Hon La seaport industrial park, phase I	97
	Hon La seaport industrial park, phase II	203
	Expanded Hon La seaport industrial park	330
	+ Thermal power center	250
	+ Shipbuilding industrial park	120
	- Tourist resorts	300
	- Hon La urban center	250
	- Area of green belts and ecological parks	80
	- Land area for building agencies and training centers	30
	- Land area for technical infrastructure facilities	20
	- Land area for external and trans-regional transport	200
	- Other land (rivers, streams, rocky mountains)	484
b	Construction land in Quang Phu, Quang Tung, Canh Duong, Quang Hung and Quang Xuan communes	6,214
	- Land in urban and rural areas	300
	- Agricultural land	1,500
	- Forestry land and greenery	1,100
	- Special-purpose land (industrial clusters, roads or other infrastructure facilities)	700
	- Other land	2,614
c	Other land (water surface and islands)	1,100

The above land-use data are just projections which will be adjusted to be more precise in the process of elaborating the master plan on construction of the economic zone and detailed plannings on construction of functional quarters.

b. Orientations on development of functional quarters:

- Functional areas in Quang Dong commune, including:

+ A non-tariff area, which covers about 200 hectares to the northwest of Hon La port with the following sub-areas: a trade center with transaction offices, representative offices and branches; a center for production, processing, re­processing, assembly and repair activities; a center for product introduction, supermarkets, exhibition and services; and a goods entrepot with bonded warehouses and other warehouses and storing yards. This area shall be separated with hard fences from other areas and its entry and exit will be subject to joint control;

+ A tariff area, which covers about 9,800 hectares, including the following sub-areas: a tariff port; a ship anchorage, repair and building center; industrial parks (processing agricultural, forest and aquatic products; construction materials; mechanical engineering, electronic assembly, automobiles; export-oriented light industries and some heavy industries); tourist sites; new urban centers; administrative and residential quarters and other sub-areas.

- To build in Quang Phu, Canh Duong, Quang Tung, Quang Hung and Quang Xuan communes:

+ Specialized agricultural production areas;

+ Industrial clusters;

+ Technical service centers for fishing and aquatic product processing activities;

+ Urbanized residential quarters in Roon, Canh Duong, Quang Phu, Quang Xuan. Quang Tung and Quang Hung.

V. SELECTION OF DEVELOPMENT PERIODS AND INVESTMENT FOCUSES

1. The period from now to 2015

- To formulate a Regulation on the operation of Hon La economic zone; to work out a list of projects calling for investment capital and carry out investment promotion;

- To elaborate a general planning and detailed plannings on construction of functional sub-areas;

- To build important infrastructure facilities inside and outside functional sub-areas of Hon La economic zone;

- To make intensive investment in the development of the core area of Hon La economic zone in Quang Dong commune with Hon La seaport industrial park, Hon La port, a tourist, trade and service center, residential quarters and the non-tariff area;

- To form a number of basic facilities of Vung Chua-Dao Yen tourist resort with diversified forms of tourism closely associated with other tourist resorts in the province, Phong Nha-Ke Bang national park and the Central Vietnam tourist region.

- To develop urban residential quarters, step by step form new modern and civilized urban centers suitable to a driving economic zone;

- To gradually carry out economic restructuring and prepare preconditions for the development of the area in five communes of Quang Phu, Quang Tung, Quang Hung, Quang Xuan and Canh Duong according to planning in the period after 2010;

- To complete the payment of compensations for ground clearance, land recovery and resettlement in Hon La economic zone according to planning;

- To basically complete the construction of the non-tariff area. To concentrate on elaborating mechanisms and policies on investment in infrastructure facilities in the non-tariff area to call for foreign direct investment therein.

2. The 2016-2020 period

- To continue building and investing in the development in infrastructure facilities in Hon La economic zone. To implement detailed plannings on and make further investment in the construction of infrastructure facilities and the operation of industrial parks, tourist sites, recreation and entertainment centers and the non-tariff area;

- To continue building and completing the construction of functional areas according to the approved master plan and detailed plannings;

- To expand Hon La industrial park;

- To invest in the development of construction items and develop production lines in southern communes in Hon La economic zone according to planning;

- To invest in the construction of a modem urban center and development of finance, banking, securities, post and telecommunications services up to international standard.

VI. LIST OF PROJECTS PRIORITIZED FOR INVESTMENT STUDY IN HON LA ECONOMIC ZONE, QUANG BINH PROVINCE, IN THE PERIOD FROM NOW TO 2020

A. INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION

1. Quang Trach thermal power center.

2. Hon La shipyard.

3. Exported paper chip processing mill.

4. Ferro manganese refinery plant and steel rolling complex.

5. Automobile manufacture and assembly plant.

6. Eboxy plastic plant.

7. Electrical and refrigeration equipment manufacture, processing and assembly plant.

8. Construction material plant.

9. Warehouses and mechanical engineering repair services.

10. Ship interior manufacture and ship repair plant.

11. Glass package plant.

12. Small-sized ship and barge building plant.

13. Automobile and motorbike tire and tube and high-quality rubber product plant.

14. Composite product plant.

15. Coal-fired thermal power plant.

16. Construction and civil glass plant.

17. Mechanical factory.

18. Children toy and sport equipment plant.

19. Wood processing factory.

20. Aquatic and marine product processing factory.

B. INFRASTRUCTURE FACILITIES

1. Infrastructure facilities of Hon La seaport industrial park.

2. Hon La port.

3. Hon La fishing logistic service center and storm shelter.

4. Upgrading the road linking national highway 1A to Hon La port.

5. The system of roads linking coastal communes of Hon La economic zone.

6. The system of roads linking existing communes in Hon La economic zone.

7. The system of sea dykes and embankments in Hon La economic zone.

8. Hon La industrial park’s 110 kV transmission lines.

9. Hon La industrial park’s 110 kV transformer station.

10. Head facilities of the water supply system.

11. Water supply system of Hon La economic zone.

12. Wastewater and waste treatment plant of Hon La economic zone.

13. Infrastructure facilities in Vung Chua –Dao Yen tourist resort.

14. Mobile phone signal coverage.

15. Terrestrial digital television.

C. TRADE, TOURISM AND SERVICES

1. Hon La economic zone trade center.

2. Vung Chua - Dao Yen eco-tourist resort.

D. HEALTHCARE, SOCIO-CULTURE, EDUCATION- TRAINING, PHYSICAL TRAINING AND SPORTS

1. Hon La economic zone’s general hospital.

2. Building of physical training and sport facilities.

3. Upgrading of school buildings.

4. Job-training centers.

5. Upgrading of communal health stations.

E. AGRICULTURE - FORESTRY - FISHERIES AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT

1. Vegetable production (infrastructure of some areas under vegetable).

2. Cattle and poultry rearing projects.

3. Industrial-scale aquaculture.