New space for Hai Phong to accelerate and reach further

Hai Phong City will have more room to develop its seaport advantages, promote logistics, import-export and sea tourism development. Photo: LE DUNG

80 years after the first National Day, along with the whole country, Hai Phong entered a new historical period, not only expanding its administrative boundaries after merging with Hai Duong province but also having a golden opportunity, with a large development space. With its inherent strength, superior advantages, and special mechanisms and policies, it will create new "spaces" for the Port City to become the country's strategic growth pole.

Resonance of power

The year 2025 is a historical milestone marking the merger between Hai Duong province and Hai Phong city. Looking back at history, the two localities share the same origin as the vast Eastern region, with a border of nearly 98 km, creating a close "neighborly" relationship. Geographically, both Hai Duong and Hai Phong are located in the Red River Delta, with favorable locations, being important gateways to the sea. After the merger, the area of the new city nearly doubled, to nearly 3,200 km2, with a population of more than 4.6 million people. The economic scale reached about 660,000 billion VND, rising to the third position nationwide in terms of economic scale, becoming a dynamic industrial, commercial and service megacity, rich in potential, with large development space.

At the merger announcement ceremony on June 30, 2025, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh emphasized: "The merger of Hai Duong province and Hai Phong city into a new administrative unit named Hai Phong city demonstrates the strategic and long-term thinking and vision of the Party and State, opening up development space, optimizing resources, resonating potentials and advantages, creating a new growth pole, leading and promoting the development of the region and the country...".

The Prime Minister also assessed this event as “the beginning of a new journey”, and at the same time requested the city to “show great determination, great efforts, drastic actions, solidarity and unity to jointly build the new Hai Phong city as a model coastal city, developing green, smart, modern and sustainable, contributing to the cause of building and defending the socialist Vietnamese Fatherland”.

The merger creates a powerful "lever" for Hai Phong to optimize its competitive advantage. Previously, Hai Phong was known as a leading seaport city, an international trade gateway, and the main driving force for the development of logistics, import-export and sea tourism. Meanwhile, Hai Duong has a solid industrial foundation, vast land and abundant human resources, acting as a solid rear for the development of supporting industries, high-tech agriculture and new industrial zones. Now, those individual advantages are combined to create a combined strength.

With new space, Hai Phong will be an ideal destination for foreign enterprises. In the photo: Electronic component export activities of Yura Vietnam Co., Ltd. in Phu Thai Industrial Park.

Living and working in Hai Duong ward, Ms. Le Thi Thuy Duong, Head of Operations in Vietnam of Syousei Co., Ltd. (Japan) commented: “This merger will create a big push for attracting domestic and foreign investment. Investors will see a larger market, more concentrated resources and synchronous development policies. The close connection between industrial parks, coastal economic zones and urban centers will optimize the supply chain, reduce production costs and enhance competitiveness”.

New launch pad from special mechanisms and policies

Along with the advantages of space and resources, the new Hai Phong city has also been given a "golden key" which is a special mechanism and policy from Resolution 226/2025/QH15 of the National Assembly. The most breakthrough highlight is the permission to pilot the establishment of a Free Trade Zone, creating a "runway" for Hai Phong to take off.

The Free Trade Zone is an open economic model, with preferential policies on tax, customs and administrative procedures, attracting investors and multinational corporations to set up headquarters, build factories and logistics centers. This not only helps increase import and export turnover, but also creates tens of thousands of new jobs, promoting the development of the service, finance, banking and tourism industries. With the advantage of being a leading seaport city, the establishment of a free trade zone in Hai Phong will help the city move faster, further and more sustainably.

Along with the potentials, strengths and specific policies is the strong commitment of the city's leaders. At the 2025 Trade and Investment Promotion Conference with the theme "Hai Phong - Strategic Destination of the New Era", Comrade Le Ngoc Chau, Chairman of the City People's Committee affirmed that Hai Phong is committed to building a creative government, best serving all activities of investors and businesses. Hai Phong will continue to invest heavily in strategic transport infrastructure, implement public and transparent administrative procedures, and always take the convenience and satisfaction of businesses as a measure of public service efficiency, ensuring that Hai Phong is truly a reliable companion of investors.

Businessman Dang Thanh Tam, a member of ABAC Vietnam, was very impressed with the synchronous and modern infrastructure, potentials and strengths of Hai Phong city, especially after the city merged with Hai Duong province. He believes that with the strong commitment of the leaders and special mechanisms, the city will be an attractive destination for leading enterprises to explore investment and business opportunities.

With new potential and the cultural traditions of the heroic Eastern port city, the entire political system of the city is determined to join hands to build Hai Phong into a modern international seaport city, leading the country in industrialization and modernization; an international economic, cultural, educational, scientific and technological center, on par with typical cities in Asia.

PHAN ANH

Source: https://baohaiphong.vn/du-dia-moi-de-hai-phong-tang-toc-vuon-xa-519519.html