Growth Triangle for a Shaping Megacity

Three Specialized Pillars: Industry – Seaports – Finance

In this economic triangle, the former Ba Ria–Vung Tau plays the role of an export artery with the deep-water port of Cai Mep – Thi Vai, the only port in Vietnam capable of receiving mother ships directly bound for Europe and America—just as the new Ho Chi Minh City is expanding its export gateway.

Former Binh Duong stands out with modern industrial parks like VSIP and My Phuoc, serving as major manufacturing hubs and attracting the highest volume of FDI in the South.

Meanwhile, the new Ho Chi Minh City is the nation’s top financial-banking center and a hub for startups, technology, and high-quality services. The synergy between these three powerful centers creates a triangle not only with geographic advantages but also with diverse functional depth.

Can Gio Transforming into an International Transit Center

Once connected to the Cai Mep – Thi Vai port through an inland waterway and the future Can Gio Bridge, it will become a strategic logistics link—not only for the triangle but also connecting to Central Vietnam and the Central Highlands.

Beyond logistics, Can Gio is also envisioned as an eco-tourism zone, combining mangrove forests, fresh seafood, and leisure destinations tied to an urban-coastal-ecological network. This not only enhances quality of life but also boosts regional tourism and diversifies revenue sources for the new Ho Chi Minh City.

Can Gio is becoming a symbol of harmonious integration between economic development, logistics, and environmental conservation—aligning with green and sustainable economic trends.

Regional Linkage Chain Boosts Urban Growth

The production – logistics – service chain in the triangle acts as a powerful growth driver: goods produced in former Binh Duong are transferred through former Ba Ria–Vung Tau and exported via the deep-water port—or brought to the consumption and technology markets of the new Ho Chi Minh City.

Key advantages include lower logistics costs, reduced transit times, increased production efficiency, and market expansion. Notably, value-added services like cold storage, packaging, and container handling at logistics centers help improve export product quality.
This value chain has also triggered booms in industrial real estate, logistics services, and satellite urban zones in Phu My, Di An, and Thu Dau Mot—diversifying local economies and creating hundreds of thousands of jobs.

The synergy among the three poles inspires the formation of a regional circular economy, boosting productivity while optimizing resources and reducing emissions.

Multi-Core Megacity Formed by Strategic Integration

Looking to 2050, regional planning envisions the growth triangle evolving into a multi-core urban model: a financial–innovation hub in the new Ho Chi Minh City, an industrial core in former Binh Duong, and a seaport–tourism hub in former Ba Ria–Vung Tau.
Satellite cities like Phu My, Can Gio, Di An, and Thu Dau Mot are interconnected through ring roads 3 and 4, highways, and metro lines, forming an integrated urban network that supports population distribution, reduces pressure on the urban core, and improves quality of life.

This development model gradually shapes an internationally ranked megacity where economy, infrastructure, and people advance in harmony, respond flexibly to challenges, and maximize regional advantages.

The megacity will integrate into global value chains and become an attractive destination for international investors in logistics, finance, clean industry, and high-end tourism.

The dynamic triangle of former Binh Duong – former Ba Ria–Vung Tau – new Ho Chi Minh City epitomizes a strategic regional development model post-merger. When each area maintains its unique strength—industry, seaports, finance-tech—yet remains tightly linked, it creates a sustainable, multidimensional regional value chain. This model not only unlocks the new Ho Chi Minh City’s full potential but also shapes a modern, green, and globally competitive megacity.

By Trung Nguyen