It has five provinces – Gia Lai, Dak-Lak, Kon Tum, Dak Nong, and Lam Dong – that share borders with Laos and Cambodia.
They have managed to effectively tap their economic potential to benefit residents, including millions of ethnic minority people.
Blessed with a network of rivers and streams, the region has enormous hydro-power potential.
It plans to harness its major rivers – Se San, Poco, and Serepok that flow into the Mekong River, and Dong Nai and Song Ba Rivers into the East Sea – to build power plants with investment from both domestic and foreign sources.
Dozens of large hydro-power projects have already received approval from the Government. They are expected to generate 5,000 MW by 2010, accounting for 30 per cent of the country’s total output.
On the Se San River alone, seven power projects with a total capacity of 2,000 MW have either been built or are being built.
Of them, the 720 MW Ia Ly project, 270 MW Sesan 3, 108 MW Se San 3A, and 270 MW SeSan 4 in Gia Lai Province are already operational.
The three others are under construction in Kon Tum Province now.
On the Serepok River in Dak Lak Province, six plants will be built with a total capacity of 750 MW.
On the Ba River, 10 will be built with a capacity of 669 MW.
The region is also focused on developing small and medium-sized plants with domestic investment.
In Gia Lai Province, more than 30 with a total capacity of 200 MW have been built, with 83 others in the pipeline.
Dak Lak Province has identified more than 100 convenient locations for building the small and medium-sized plants.
Border trade
To promote trade, the Gia Lai and Kon Tum authorities have established two border economic zones with Laos and Cambodia.
The Le Thanh border economic zone in Gia Lai has become a trade and economic hub for not only the province but also for the entire region.
There are now plans to build a trading centre at a cost of hundreds of billions of dong and infrastructure like roads, business complexes, and a 600-ha resettlement area.
Kon Tum’s 71,000ha Bo Y border economic zone has become a vital economic triangle between Laos, Cambodia, and Viet Nam.
It has a major trade centre, a large supermarket, and road network.
In just three years since being built, the zone has attracted 52 projects with a total investment of thousands of billions of dong.
Planned projects include a US$1.5 billion international airport, a $1 billion urban centre, an $800 million entertainment and hotel complex, and a $500 million power plant.—
(Source: Viet Nam News)
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