Great Potential and Advantages
With a total area of over 950,000 hectares, ranking 9th nationwide, Dien Bien holds significant land potential, particularly with 736,000 hectares for agricultural and forestry production (accounting for 77% of its area). The favorable soil and topography provide a strong foundation for developing specialized agricultural and forestry production areas alongside processing industries and product distribution.
In terms of tourism development, Dien Bien has a significant advantage with a wide range of offerings, including historical, cultural, ecological, and scenic tourism. The Dien Bien Phu Battlefield National Historic Site Complex stands out among these attractions. Additionally, Dien Bien’s low urbanization rate and improving living standards offer ideal conditions to accelerate urbanization and expand urban areas, particularly Dien Bien Phu City and the central towns of districts across the region.
To harness these potentials and advantages, Dien Bien Province has outlined a clear economic development strategy for the period until 2025, with a vision toward 2030. The focus is on channeling resources into upgrading transportation infrastructure, advancing large-scale specialized agricultural production, synchronously developing tourism services, and expanding Dien Bien Phu City’s urban areas.
In recent times, several reputable investors such as Sun Group, Vingroup, Hai Phat, Danco Land, TNG, and Flamingo have signed agreements and proposed projects to build urban areas, shopping centers, hotels, and golf courses in Dien Bien, set to launch soon.
At the recent VACOD - Dien Bien International Conference and Seminar on Investment, Trade, and Tourism Promotion, senior central economic experts and scholars from research institutions observed that Dien Bien still faces challenges in investment promotion due to infrastructure, policy mechanisms, and funding. The province’s largest limitation is its infrastructure and investment resources.
Mr. Bui Nguyen Anh Tuan, Deputy Director of the Domestic Market Department (Ministry of Industry and Trade), stated: “To boost border trade, both Vietnam and Laos need comprehensive cooperation between the two Parties, the two States, and their peoples to jointly develop and implement preferential policies that attract investment and facilitate the flow of goods between the countries.”
Actively Inviting Investment
Since the beginning of this year, Dien Bien has approved nine investment projects in urban development, resort tourism, commercial services, and agriculture, with a total registered investment of over VND 2.2 trillion. To date, Dien Bien has approved 215 investment projects, issuing investment registration certificates with a total registered capital exceeding VND 50 trillion. Dien Bien’s PCI ranking in 2023 stood at 31st nationwide (up 31 ranks from 2022), and its administrative reform ranking is 20th nationwide. With these achievements and efforts to remove investment “bottlenecks,” Dien Bien will be increasingly attractive to investors and businesses.
Regarding investment promotion, Mr. Le Thanh Do, Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee and Chairman of the Dien Bien People’s Committee, emphasized that Dien Bien is committed to “accompanying, bonding, and sharing” with the business community, with the motto “Putting businesses at the center, business-oriented.” The province creates the most favorable conditions within legal frameworks for businesses, entrepreneurs, and investors to explore, research, and implement investment projects, and to sustainably expand production and business. Dien Bien welcomes effective partnerships with neighboring provinces, enterprises, associations, and investors, ensuring robust development in the future.
From 2021 to 2030, Dien Bien prioritizes investments in sectors including industry (the East Tuan Giao Industrial Cluster, Na Hai Industrial Cluster, hybrid industrial zone in Ang To commune, and A Pa Chai Border Gate Industrial Cluster), commercial services (upgrading Ban Phu Market to Grade I, Huoi Puoc Border Gate Market, Tay Trang Border Gate commercial service area), agriculture (such as the value chain of Tua Chua Snow Shan Tea and local pork production and processing), and tourism (Ta Leng Mountain resort area, Uva Hot Spring - Hong Sat Lake tourism area, Muong Thanh Airport urban - walking street area).
Connecting Toward the Future
At the VACOD - Dien Bien International Conference and Seminar on Investment, Trade, and Tourism Promotion, many economic experts discussed and proposed solutions to the government and local authorities regarding specific policies to attract, call for, and guide investment in Dien Bien. The aim is to make Dien Bien a standout in investment attraction in the northern mountainous region, affirming the province’s image, position, and aspirations for development in the upcoming period.
Mr. Nguyen Anh Tuan, Director of the Tourism Development Research Institute, noted: “Identifying tourism as a key economic sector is the right choice due to the positive impact tourism development can have on Dien Bien’s key economic sectors. It also plays an important role in boosting trade, social development, and community well-being, improving people’s livelihoods. Instead of bringing agricultural products to the market, tourism will bring the market to the production area, often with much higher sales prices, contributing to on-site export and foreign currency revenue from international visitors. Tourists will also become ambassadors for Dien Bien’s agricultural products in a completely voluntary way. Moreover, direct contact with tourists provides producers with valuable market insights and requirements”.
It is noted that immediately after the VACOD - Dien Bien International Conference and Seminar, some units, companies, and departments of Dien Bien Province have started collaborations in tourism trade development. Notably, the Department of Industry and Trade signed a memorandum of understanding with A+ Digital Technology Group (Nha Trang City, Khanh Hoa Province) to launch a “business ecosystem platform” connecting enterprises in Dien Bien. Likewise, the Dien Bien Tourism Association and A+ Digital Technology Group have agreed to develop digital content in tourism, supporting Tourism Association members in building digital platforms, digitizing destinations, and services on digital technology platforms.
With these promising signals in investment promotion, Dien Bien is expected to soon become a “bright spot” in tourism trade./.
Dien Bien
