The south-eastern province of Binh Duong kicked off construction of a new city project on April 26.

The Binh Duong new city, 8 kilometres from the province’s capital of Thu Dau Mot, will be built on a site of 1,000 hectares, covering the Thu Dau Mot commune of Dinh Hoa and several other communes in Tan Uyen and Ben Cat districts.

By 2020, the new city is expected to become a political, economic, cultural and social centre for the province and a modern, dynamic and sustainable city with diversified services, meeting the demands of over 500,000 local residents and migrants.

It will include seven sub-regions – a political-administrative centre, a high-tech park, a financial and banking centre, an area of offices for lease, a centre with luxurious restaurants and hotels, conference and exhibition centres and an university and a public area with squares, parks, ecological lakes, cultural centres, kindergartens, hospitals and other facilities.

Nguyen Hong Hai, a leading architect for Becamex IDC, which is the project’s main investor, said some 20 groups and multi-nation companies have committed to inject about 10 billion USD into the project.

At present, a 15 trillion VND (roughly 795 million VND) infrastructure system funded by Becamex IDC, the Eastern International University and a high-tech manufacturing-business area invested by Singapore ’s Mapletree group are underway.

With economic growth doubling the country’s average level in the past 10 years, Binh Duong province has become one of the most dynamic localities in the country. The province has taken the lead in terms of industrial growth with its turnover accounting for 62.3 percent of the province’s economic structure, followed by services with 32.4 percent and agriculture, 5.3 percent.

Binh Duong province is also known as an attractive investment destination for both local and foreign investors.

According to the Foreign Investment Agency under the Ministry of Planning and Investment, after Vietnam implemented the Foreign Investment Law in 1988 the province ranked fifth in terms of attracting foreign direct investment projects with 1,946 projects worth over 13 billion USD.

In the first four months this year, the province attracted nine projects with a total investment of 99.4 million USD.

Binh Duong has been listed first on the provincial competitiveness index./.