OVERVIEW OF HUNG YEN

 General information on economic - social situation of Hung Yen Province

Hung Yen is a place of very long cultural tradition and history. It was said that Thang Long capital was the economic - social center of the country in the past, nowadays Hung Yen is one of the largest economic centers with the busiest port in the region, where the rich and diverse economic exchange activities with domestic and foreign wholesale merchants take place. Until now, the expression "capital is the first, Pho Hien is the second” is still preserved in the folk. Here is also a famous studious land. Xich Dang Literature Temple is a symbol and a pride of studious tradition of Son Nam Town’s people and of Hung Yen’s people today.

Thanks to the advantage of geographic location adjoining Hanoi capital and the major industrial centers, with favorable infrastructure, natural conditions and young labor force, Hung Yen has gradually affirms its important position in the key economic region in the North.

1. Social and natural conditions.

1.1. Geographical location

Hung Yen is a province of the Red river delta It is located in the northern key economic zone and the economic triangle of Hanoi-Hai Phong-Quang Ninh. As the eastern gateway of Hanoi, there are National Highways 5A, 5Bconnecting to expressway 5B to Phap Van - Ninh Binh expressway and Hanoi - Hai Phong railway. There are also National Highways 39A, 38 connected from National Highway 5A through Hung Yen city to National Highway 1A. Moreover, Hung Yen is also near seaports of Hai Phong, Cai Lan and Noi Bai international airport.

The province’s administrative unit includes Hung Yen City and 9 districts (My Hao, Yen My, Van Lam, Khoai Chau, Van Giang, Kim Dong, An Thi, Tien Lu and Phu Cu), with a total area of 923 km² and a population of about 1.2 million.

1.2. Climate and weather

Hung Yen is experienced hot and humid tropical monsoon climate, high rainfall. There are four distinct seasons. Climate is relatively dry in early winter, it is wet in end winter; summer is hot, humid and rainy. Average number of sunshine hours is 1,650 hours/year; the average temperature is 23.2⁰C; the minimum monthly average temperature is 16⁰C. The total annual average temperature is 8500-8600⁰C. The average rainfall is 1,450 – 1,650 mm, but the distribution of rainfall is uneven during the year. The rainy season (from May to October) concentrates to 70% of annual rainfall, flooding, adversely affecting production. The dry season (from November to April the following year) is cold and drizzly, suitable for planting short-term crops of highly economic value.

          The climate - weather condition of Hung Yen province is generally very favorable for agricultural production: the conditions of temperature, humidity, sunshine facilitate many short term crops to be farmed during the year and to be favorable for arranging a diverse structure of crops, livestock of tropical origin and some crops (vegetables, flowers, fruits,...) of temperate origin.

1.3. Potentiality and natural resources

          - Land resources

          Hung Yen Province is located on the plain region, without hills and mountains; flat terrain. Agricultural land occupies 61,037 hectares, annual crops occupy 55,645 hectares (accounting for 91%), others are perennial crops, aquaculture water, dedicated land and land used for other purposes. Unused land occupies about 7,471 hectares, the entire area above may be used for developing agricultural production.

-  Water resources:

          Hung Yen is located in the systems of Red river and Thai Binh river, the 2 largest river systems in the North, so ithas abundant freshwater resources. Surface water source is very rich from Red River system, Luoc river (particularly Red River flow is 6,400 m³/s, accounting for nearly 15% of river water in the country) and other rivers in the infield are very favorable not only for agriculture but also for industry, domestic use and waterway traffic. Hung Yen's groundwater resources are also very rich. There are underground water sources of high quality in Hung Yen territory. The underground water reserves in the area along Road 5 from Nhu Quynh to Quan Goi may be exploited by 100,000 m³/day, which not only meets the demand of the province’s urban and industrial development but also provides a large amount of water to the surrounding areas.

- Mineral resources:

          The main mineral of Hung Yen is black sand resource with high reserves along Red river and Luoc river, which may be exploied to meet the construction demand in the province. Besides, Hung Yen also has a brown coal mine in Khoai Chau belonging to brown coal basin of Red River Delta. This coal mine is estimated to have high reserves (over 30 billion tons). Other minerals are almost negligible.

-  Potentiality for tourism development:

          Hung Yen is concentrated with many historical and cultural relics including 105 national relics and many valuable ancient artifacts. Especially, the relics of Pho Hien, Da Hoa-Da Trach, Tran dynasty’s relics... as the resources of cultural tourism are very valuable for the development of tourism.

- Human resources

Thanks to its location adjacent to Hanoi capital, Hung Yen can attract trained human resources, especially high qualified human resources from Hanoi for large investment projects. There are more than 4,000 technicians and managers who come from Hanoi to work in Hung Yen.

          There are many human resources training schools in the province such as University of Technical Teaching, University of Chu Van An, Accounting – Finance College, College of Business Administration...providing 15,000 trained workers and engineers from many different industries yearly.

          Pho Hien University Village in Hung Yen province wasapproved by the Prime Minister in the Decision No. 999/QĐ-TTg on July 10^th, 2009 at Hung Yen City. This will be a training center of multi-fields, multi-level, applied research and technology development of high quality, thereof the demand for trained human resources with highly technical expertise for the region and the country may be satisfied. Until now there have been some reputed universities subscribed to operate in this university village: University of Water Resources, Foreign Trade University, University of Transport...

2. Economic and social infrastructure

2.1- Transportation system:

Transportation system of Hung Yen province consists of 3 categories: roads, waterways, and railways. Including:

a- Roads:

6,133 km of road (of which 85km of national highway; 191km of provincial highway, 341km of district road, 52km of urban road and roads in the industrial zones, 5,464 km of rural road).

+ National highway: Consists of 3 routes:

- National Highway 5: 22.5 km of road passing Hung Yen’s territory, 23m wide asphalt concrete pavement, 25m wide road bed, including 4 lanes, transport load of H30-XB80, as a route linking Hanoi-Hai Phong, through Hung Yen territory at Km11 + 33 - km33 + 690;

- Hanoi – Haiphong expressway of 26km long is under construction which is scheduled to be put into exploitation and use early 2015;

- National Highway 39: 43km long passing Hung Yen’s territory, as a route linking Hung Yen - Thai Binh, and as a road for the Southern provinces to the North, to Hai Duong, Hai Phong and Quang Ninh.

- National Highway 38: 20km long linking National Road 1 - Yen Lenh bridge - National Highway 5;

+ Provincial road: Hung Yen province has 10 provincial roads (including Provincial Highway 38B; Provincial Highway 195; Provincial Highway 199; Provincial Highway 200; Provincial Highway 205; Provincial Highway 205 C; Provincial Highway 206; Provincial Highway 196; Provincial Highway 204; Provincial Highway 209);

b- Waterways

+ Waterways are under the Central control

- Red River: The section passing Hung Yen’s territory is 64km long; the section from Xuan Quan to Phuong Tra is 2^nd grade river, the river channel is quite stable, an average depth of 2-3m.

- Luoc river: The section passing Hung Yen’s territory is 28 km long; the section from Phuong Tra intersection to Nguyen Hoa is 3^rd grade river; the river channel is relatively stable, an average depth of 1.5 - 2 meters.

c- Railways

- Ha Noi - Hai Phong railway, the section passing Hung Yen’s territory is 17km, 1m gauge, axle load on the route of 12.5 tons/axis, 2 block concrete sleepers used, P43 and P38 rails. There are two stations on the route are Lac Dao and Tuan Luong.

2.2- Systems of power supply, water supply, telecommunications

a- Power supply system:

The province has 6 transformer stations of 110kVA with a total capacity of 432,000 kVA, 5 intermediate transformer stations of 35/10kV with a total capacity of 24,100 kVA, a medium voltage power line of 1104.53 km  and a distribution transformer station of 1,473  with total capacity of 591,512 kVA. Safe and stable power source is supplied to the economic development and daily life of people.

b- Water supply system:

- In Hung Yen province, some centralized water supply stations have been built to supply water to industrial areas, Hung Yen City and the district centers. The clean water project of Hung Yen City with a capacity 20,000m³/day and night is the biggest one.

- Urban drainage and wastewater treatment: the concentrated wastewater treatment plants are not available in all the towns and townships. Hung Yen City has about more than 3 km sewerage network, but it has not been built and improved yet over times. There are only about 32% of people in the whole city can use the water drainage system. All communes just coming to the city, including a portion of the wards have no a sewerage system. The sewerage system of the towns and townships do not meet standards; urban wastewater runoff makes the areas less beautiful and pollutes the environment.

c- Post and Telecommunication

The telecommunications network has been developing, so far the province has 1 central post office; 9 post offices of districts and cities; 37 post offices of the zones and 115 cultural post offices of communes. Postal activities are strengthened; the mail line is mechanized to ensure that mails, dispatches, newspapers and magazines can arrive at the center of the district before 10 AM of the day. Press publishing of many books, newspapers, magazines of all kinds is done well.

2.3- Banking - financial system

The financial, credit institutions with favorable and flexible operating mechanism in Hung Yen are capable of providing substantial financial resources to serve the production and business of enterprises

Banks are presented in Hung Yen

-         Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development of Vietnam (Agribank);

-         Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank);

-         Industrial and Commercial Bank of Vietnam (Vietinbank)

-         Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV)

-         Vietnam Technological and Commercial Bank (Techcombank)

-         Saigon Thuong Tin Commercial Bank (Sacombank)

-         Vietnam Development Bank (VDB)

-         Dong A Bank

-         ACB

-         And other banks.

2.4- Systems of healthcare, education, vocational training

The medical network of Hung Yen province has been strengthened and developed; Doctors are present in communes, wards and towns accounting for 100%, medical staffs are present in villages; accounting for 100%, 85% of communes meet national medical standards; more than 70% medical insurance healthcare services are provided in commune health stations and free medical care for children under 6 years of all commune health stations is being done. The socialization that is expanded to strengthen the investment resources in healthcare and non-public medical services which are gradually developed and managed as prescribed reduces the burden in public medical system.