80 years accompanying the country: Ninh Binh strives to become a rich, civilised, and happy province

* Development achievements associated with heroic history

Ninh Binh is known as the capital of our country in the 10th century, the land associated with three dynasties: Dinh, Tien Le, and Ly. Through historical periods, this land has had many different names. In the 3rd year of Minh Mang (1822), Thanh Binh county was renamed Ninh Binh. In the 12th year of Minh Mang (1831), Ninh Binh town was renamed Ninh Binh province according to the administrative reform programme of King Minh Mang.

In 1975, after the country was unified, Ninh Binh merged with Nam Ha province (including Nam Dinh and Ha Nam) to form Ha Nam Ninh province. In 1992, Ninh Binh province was re-established and put into operation under a new administrative unit.

Implementing the policy of rearranging and reorganising administrative units at all levels and building a two-level local administration model, on July 1, 2025, Ha Nam, Ninh Binh and Nam Dinh provinces were merged and named Ninh Binh province.

The mergence of the three provinces is a major turning point in administrative organisation, opening up a strategic inter-regional development space, forming a new dynamic center in the South of the Red River Delta.

After the mergence, Ninh Binh possesses its own potential and competitive advantages, formed from the combination of economic - cultural, social factors and resources.

These are advantages in digital industry and logistics with modern industrial parks, synchronous infrastructure connections; training centers, providing digital human resources and great potential for software development, artificial intelligence.

The province promotes its advantages in tourism - heritage and services, and can become a centre for smart tourism and digital services in the region. The new development space has a natural area of about 3,900km2, with a population of over 4.4 million people.

The province has an important and strategic geographical location, converging many layers of values, a long tradition with many cultural and historical heritages, natural landscapes, traditional festivals and unique tourism products.

Ninh Binh's economy today is a colourful picture. The province is known as one of the three largest automobile manufacturing centres in the country (Hyundai Thanh Cong Vietnam Automobile Manufacturing Joint Stock Company has a production and assembly capacity of 180,000 units/year).

In the agricultural sector, Ninh Binh is the largest fruit and vegetable processing centre in the country (Dong Giao Food Export Joint Stock Company (Doveco) has a total fruit and vegetable processing capacity of 136,000 tons of products/year).

Ninh Co Economic Zone with a land area of 13,950 hectares is clearly taking shape as a new important factor in the economic development of the province, at the same time opening up strong opportunities for the locality to break through to become a new coastal economic centre of the Red River Delta, contributing to the early realisation of the aspiration to turn the coastal area of the Gulf of Tonkin into an area of rapid and sustainable economic growth of the whole country.

In addition to focusing on industrialisation and modernisation, Ninh Binh pays special attention to preserving heritage, developing culture, and constantly improving the spiritual and cultural life of the people. Attention is paid to investing in preserving and restoring tangible and intangible cultural heritages; promoting the value of UNESCO titles, especially Trang An Scenic Landscape Complex, Tran Dynasty relic cluster, Bai Dinh Pagoda, Tam Chuc Pagoda, and Phu Day Palace.

According to the provincial People's Committee, the province now has an economic scale of over 352 trillion VND; the total budget revenue in 2025 is estimated at over 75 trillion VND; the growth rate of gross regional domestic product (GRDP) in the province in the 5 years 2020 - 2025 is 9.26% on average; the per capita income in 2024 is 70 million VND.

Ninh Binh has completed the goal of building a new rural province, fundamentally changing the appearance of traditional rural areas, the living standards and quality of life of rural people have been significantly improved, and the poverty rate has decreased sharply.

*Steadfastly on the path of innovation

With development achievements over decades, Ninh Binh has benefited from the strength of a unified administrative unit, with potential and advantages complementing each other, creating development opportunities.

Chairman of The Ninh Binh Provincial People's Committee Pham Quang Ngoc shared that the province strives to become a rich, civilised and happy province in the near future. By 2030, it will become a province with modern industry, high-quality tourism services, green urban areas associated with heritage; be among the leading provinces in the country in terms of growth rate and per capita income. By 2035, it will be a centrally-run city.

The province strives for an average growth rate of 11% per year in the 2025 - 2030 period; the economic structure will shift in a positive direction. By 2030, budget revenue will reach about 100 trillion VND; export turnover will reach over 40 billion USD; and the number of tourists will reach about 30 million.

The province basically met the criteria of a tier-1 urban area, with an urbanisation rate of 60.1%; and completed the investment in the construction of 25,300 social housing units.

To achieve this goal, the province focuses on reorganising the development space suitable for the new administrative unit, two-level local administration.

Ninh Binh strongly shifts to a new growth model based on breakthroughs in science, technology, innovation, creativity, green transformation, improving total factor productivity, especially digital transformation in the public sector, supporting and promoting the private sector to transform technology, green transition, develop the digital economy, and creative economy.

The province promotes the development of modern, smart, green industry, deeply participates in the global value chain, affirming its role as a center for modern automobile mechanical industry, information technology industry, textiles, green materials, and food processing in the region and the country.

Ninh Binh accelerates the development of high-quality services, forming unique and branded products associated with promoting new business models, especially turning tourism, cultural industry, and entertainment industry into key economic clusters.

The province accelerates the construction of a logistics system to ensure synchronization and modernity, especially international airports and specialized deep-water seaports in the Ninh Co Economic Zone.

In the agricultural sector, the province restructures traditional agriculture, promotes the development of multi-value ecological agriculture. Ninh Binh focuses on developing a harmonious society, implementing good social policies, expanding the scope of social security coverage; continuing to fundamentally and comprehensively innovate education and training; ensuring equitable healthcare.

The province closely combines heritage conservation with promoting cultural resources and heritage resources to serve socio-economic development, improve the spiritual and cultural life of the people, and affirm the value of local brands.