10 years of building the industrial park
Chu Trinh Industrial Park (Chu Trinh Commune, Cao Bang City) has a scale of 80.941 hectares, and was added by the Prime Minister to the Vietnam Industrial Park Development Plan until 2020.
The project has been approved by the People's Committee of Cao Bang province for a detailed plan at a scale of 1/500 and established according to Decision No. 936/QD-UBND dated June 30, 2015. The province also approved nearly 170 billion VND to invest in the construction of roads to industrial parks and wastewater treatment systems.
However, up to now, the site clearance work has not been completed, with about 63 hectares not yet handed over, making it difficult to attract investment.
According to the land use plan, Chu Trinh Industrial Park will include: 1.16 hectares of service center land (accounting for 1.43%); 54.655 hectares of industrial land (67.53%); 15.569 hectares of green land, water surface (19.23%); 2.683 hectares of technical infrastructure land (3.32%) and 6.874 hectares of traffic land (8.94%). The industrial park is oriented to develop according to a green, clean model, linked with natural landscape, with a central area arranged close to internal roads, factories, and warehouses along both sides of the main road.
Recorded on April 7, the wastewater treatment plant industrial park with a capacity of 1,200 m3/day and night has been completed. A 4-lane road connecting National Highway 34 to Lang Son has been built, from here it can also move to National Highway 3 to Thai Nguyen and in the coming time will connect Dong Dang - Tra Linh Expressway. The national power system and clean water source are ready to serve all activities in the industrial park.
However, most of the area here is still rice fields and rocky hills, forest land, and some connecting roads in the area have long-standing construction and have appeared damaged and cracked. The entire industrial park has only 4-5 workers and 1 excavator on the side of the stone crab embankment.
Talking to reporters, Mr. Hoang Manh Dat (Chu Trinh commune) - shared: "Seeing that the construction has been going on for a long time but not finished, I really hope that if the state has a company they can work for, then people will have jobs without having to leave their hometown to Bac Ninh, Thai Nguyen... anymore".
Reasons for backward progress
Currently, Cao Bang province has invested 153 billion VND to build 1,124 m of roads in the industrial park, including 260 m of roads connecting National Highway 34B and 864 m of internal roads. The Cao Bang Economic Zone Management Board is requesting additional investment capital for the 2026 - 2030 period and calling for investors.
According to the Management Board of Cao Bang Economic Zone, the conditions for exploiting the industrial park have been guaranteed, but the biggest problem is site clearance. Currently, only 17/80.941 hectares have been cleared to build access roads and wastewater treatment systems. Of the remaining 63 hectares, more than 37 hectares are forest land that has not been converted to other purposes, affecting the project's progress.
In the period of 2021 - 2025, Cao Bang province will allocate 90 billion VND to build an Operating Center, Industrial Park Gate and Site Clearance, of which 50 billion VND has been planned, 40 billion VND will be balanced later. The People's Council of Cao Bang province also approved the policy of converting more than 35 hectares of forest land to implement the project. However, the environmental impact assessment is still in the process of being implemented, which more or less slows down the progress of industrial park completion.
According to the plan, in the period of 2026 - 2030, the industrial park needs to complete 1.5 km of roads, wastewater collection and treatment systems, surface drainage, leveling, water supply systems, fire fighting, trees and ecological lakes.
When the industrial park operates at maximum capacity, the wastewater treatment system will be increased to 2,400 m3/day and night. The Economic Zone Management Board proposed that the People's Committee of Cao Bang province promptly approve the adjustment of the investment policy and request relevant departments and branches to speed up the appraisal of environmental impact assessment reports, in order to promote project progress.
