Part 4: Expanding horizons, creating new momentum

Attracting capital inflows is merely the initial step; the decisive priority is transforming those resources into growth poles, value chains, and new developmental horizons, providing a springboard for the local economy and society in the new era.

Emerging growth poles

These days, across the construction site of the New Urban Area, Resort Tourism, and Sports Services Project in the northwest of Điện Biên Phủ ward, excavators and bulldozers are leveling ground. Individual components are advancing, concretizing the investor’s pledges made at the 2026 Điện Biên Provincial Investment Promotion Conference. Alongside this undertaking, numerous projects across urban development, tourism, agriculture, energy, industry, and infrastructure are being advanced throughout the province, injecting vital momentum into socioeconomic growth.

Permanent Vice Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Lò Văn Cương stated: “Non-budgetary investment projects provide additional resources, accelerate economic expansion, and align with the province’s green, smart, and sustainable development strategy. Once completed, these undertakings will generate employment, boost fiscal revenue, establish supply-chain linkages, and spread development momentum across multiple industries. The provincial People’s Committee directs all departments, sectors, and localities to partner proactively, resolve difficulties promptly, and accelerate execution timelines so that projects proceed as planned and yield early returns.”

Conceived under a “city within a city” concept, the New Urban Area, Resort Tourism, and Sports Services Project in the northwest of Điện Biên Phủ ward integrates residential living, leisure tourism, commerce, and athletics. Its centerpiece includes an 18-hole golf course spanning nearly 87 hectares, approximately 1,000 villas, 1,900 townhouses, and nearly 10 hectares dedicated to social housing. Beyond expanding urban space, the project creates substantial job opportunities, positively reshaping the local labor market.

Immediately following the investment promotion conference, VinCons Construction Development and Investment Joint Stock Company under Vingroup launched multiple recruitment rounds across Điện Biên. To date, the enterprise has recruited over 2,000 workers for positions including masons, formwork carpenters, mechanics, welders, and concrete laborers. Monthly earnings range from VND 14 million to VND 33 million depending on job categories, bundled with social insurance, room and board, and vocational training.

Nguyễn Trung Hiếu from the VinCons Representative Office in Điện Biên noted: “During the training period, workers continue to enjoy full company benefits, including wages, three daily meals, and arranged lodging. Through structured training, laborers enhance their technical trades, elevate family incomes, and commit to long-term careers.”

After 16 years working at construction sites across lowland provinces, Lò Văn Xuân from Thanh Nưa commune returned home upon learning of VinCons’s recruitment drive. With accumulated expertise, he was hired immediately. “Working close to home is far more convenient. The wage is stable and benefits are comprehensive. I genuinely want long-term employment right here in my hometown,” Lò Văn Xuân shared.

Across rural communes, agricultural processing projects are also accelerating. In Mường Ảng commune, Detech Coffee Joint Stock Company and Neumann Kaffee Gruppe completed field surveys of raw material areas, elite mother trees, nurseries, and a 13-hectare site slated for a modern coffee processing plant. To date, 101 out of 113 affected households have given consent, and 100 households have received compensation totaling over VND 5.3 billion. The project aims to build an integrated value chain spanning raw material sourcing, purchasing, deep processing, and distribution, boosting the value of Điện Biên coffee and accessing demanding markets like Europe.

Đào Ngọc Anh, General Director of Detech Coffee Joint Stock Company, shared: “The company aims to construct a deep processing coffee facility in Mường Ảng to link raw material zones with processing lines and end markets, satisfying stringent requirements regarding quality and traceability.”

For local farmers, the facility fosters optimism for stable off-take. Nguyễn Thị Hải from Bình Minh village, Mường Ảng commune, shared: “With a processing factory located right in our locality, we hope coffee prices stabilize so farmers can invest confidently and remain dedicated to coffee cultivation.”

These developments prove that incoming investment capital is steadily creating tangible infrastructure, jobs, markets, and value chains across Điện Biên.

From commitments to investment absorption capacity

Progress across construction sites, farm production basins, and the labor market shows that investment capital is actively materializing. Yet for Điện Biên, attracting investors is merely the first milestone. The steeper challenge lies in securing sufficient conditions for projects to execute on schedule, perform efficiently, and generate broad multiplier effects across the local economy.

Following the 2026 Investment Promotion Conference, that imperative has become even clearer. As investment pledges translate into active projects, work sites, and jobs, the organizational and administrative capacity of local governance becomes the decisive factor.

Permanent Vice Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Lò Văn Cương affirmed: “Businesses need genuine companionship, particularly on issues that directly impact progress such as administrative procedures, land allocation, site clearance, infrastructure, and human resources. The province will proactively track bottlenecks, define distinct responsibilities, establish strict resolution deadlines, and dismantle obstacles right at the grassroots so investment commitments produce tangible outcomes.”

This spirit is demonstrated by deploying the “green lane” mechanism to shorten procedural timelines and fostering inter-agency coordination so enterprises avoid protracted delays and repeated filings. However, absorbing large-scale capital requires more than streamlining paperwork. Substantial investments in urban development, tourism, renewable energy, and agricultural processing demand corresponding transport systems, power grids, water supplies, logistics networks, telecommunications, and supporting services.

Consequently, investment attraction serves as a catalyst for Điện Biên to upgrade infrastructure networks, enhance regional connectivity, and expand economic development space. As infrastructure matures, investment overhead declines, market access widens, and provincial advantages in agriculture, tourism, and border trade can be fully leveraged.

Alongside infrastructure, human resources serve as an indispensable link. VinCons recruiting over 2,000 workers immediately following the conference indicates that labor demand is surging alongside large-scale project rollouts. This affords Điện Biên an opportunity to turn local labor into a competitive advantage: residents no longer have to migrate for work, while enterprises enjoy favorable conditions to recruit, train, and build a dependable workforce locally.

Parallel to attracting strategic investors, the province focuses on forging partnerships among enterprises, cooperatives, and smallholders. Nguyễn Phi Sông, Director of the Department of Finance, noted: “When a project secures guaranteed market outlets, provides jobs for locals, opens opportunities for ancillary businesses, and increases budget revenues, its ripple effect is far greater than the value of the investment itself. Therefore, the province focuses on facilitating links between major corporations and the local economic sector to build sustainable value chains.”

This requirement aligns directly with Resolution No.14 of the Executive Board of the provincial Party Committee on administrative reform, improving the business climate, and enhancing provincial competitiveness for the 2026-2030 period. Beyond elevating PAR Index, SIPAS, PAPI, and PCI rankings, the resolution establishes targets to slash administrative processing times by at least 50%, while enhancing transparency, cohesion, and efficiency in serving citizens and enterprises.

From identifying bottlenecks to resolving them, from procedural reform to partnering with businesses, and from investment promotion to project execution, the leadership of the provincial Party Committee is taking shape through practical deeds and concrete achievements. Policy effectiveness is measured by registered capital, project milestones, business convenience, cleared acreage, active construction sites, and newly generated jobs. When the government partners in earnest, enterprises invest boldly, and citizens build consensus while participating in value chains, capital is converted into real productive capacity, expanding developmental space and driving socioeconomic progress.

This stands as the true benchmark of leadership, governance, and execution capacity within the provincial Party Committee in bringing Resolution 14 to life. An attractive investment environment is built not merely through favorable policies, but through trust cultivated across each task, each project, and each verifiable result.

Transitioning from “dismantling bottlenecks” to “opening doors for capital,” and from “commitments” to “concrete deeds,” Điện Biên is establishing an innovated operating model: using reform to generate trust, using trust to mobilize resources, and using investment efficiency to generate developmental momentum. This approach attracts new investments while establishing the foundation for Điện Biên to widen its development horizons, build new growth engines, and achieve breakthroughs in the new era.