The EZ, established in 2012, consists of the entire Mong Cai city along with nine communal-level localities of Hai Ha district. It has a total area of 121,197 hectares, including 66,197 hectares of land and 55,000 hectares of sea.
Mong Cai is among nine border gate EZs nationwide prioritised for investment during 2016-2020 with a view to driving dynamic and sustainable economic development in the province and the northern key economic zone as a whole.
Quang Ninh also considers Mong Cai one of the two economic hubs of the province.
During 2012-2018, the EZ received nearly 3.3 trillion VND (142 million USD, current exchange rate), with 689 billion USD from the central budget, more than 2.34 trillion VND from the provincial budget and the remainder from local budget, to complete urban and transport infrastructure, serving tourism and service development.
Local transport infrastructure has been developed synchronously. Construction of Van Don – Mong Cai Expressway kicked off on April 3 this year, and it will directly connect with the expressway traversing Hanoi, Hai Phong city and Quang Ninh’s Ha Long and Van Don. The temporary road linking Mong Cai with Dongxing town of China has also been completed.
Meanwhile, key construction works have been completed and put into operation like a road linking National Road No.18 with Hai Ha port industrial park (the first phase), upgrade of Mong Cai International Border Gate, Bac Luan II bridge, provincial road No.335, and Sa Vi border information popularisation complex.
The Mong Cai Border Gate EZ is housing 31 foreign direct investment (FDI) projects which registered more than 1.6 billion USD in capital, and 74 domestic projects worth around 11.6 trillion VND. The most noticeable project is the 300-million USD yarn plant of Texhong Ngan Long Technique Science Co., Ltd, which creates jobs for more than 4,200 workers and generated 415 million USD in revenue last year.
The Mong Cai Border Gate EZ is also a concentration of labourers. Last year, there were nearly 76,000 labourers in the zone, compared to 2,300 in the Bac Phong Sinh Border Gate EZ and 4,500 in the Hoanh Mo – Dong Van Border Gate EZ, also in Quang Ninh province.
Thriving business operations at the EZ have made significant contributions to local socio-economic development. Since 2012, State budget collection in Mong Cai city has exceeded 10.2 trillion VND, import-export revenue is estimated at nearly 38.5 billion USD.
With these results, the Mong Cai Border Gate EZ is not only the busiest in Quang Ninh but has also helped the province rank first in terms of economic activities among the seven Vietnamese localities bordering China.
Aside from vibrant economic activities and good transport infrastructure, the EZ also boasts a lot of tourism potential. From 2010 to 2015, tourism revenue of Mong Cai city grew 3.7 percent annually to almost 2.88 trillion VND. The city also posted a surge in the number of tourist arrivals to 2.7 million last year.
The Mong Cai City People’s Committee said in June that the administration of Quang Ninh province had given permission in principle to five big Vietnamese developers to make investment plans in the city. Among them, Vingroup proposed three projects, FLC group four and Sun Group one.
With strong moves by giant real estate developers, the land and house segments are also warming up. Many projects with completed infrastructure are recording strong sales like Kalong Riverside City or Green Park.
The local property market is benefiting from what is the busiest border gate EZ in the north of Vietnam in terms of trade, services and tourism.
