Cantho PROVINCE

Overview
Tourism potential
Hotels
Transportation system
Basic tour programs
Cantho Map

Geography of Site and Economic Potential

I. Geographical site:
Can Tho City is under the administrative control of the central Vietnamese government. The City has a total area of 140,000 ha. It is conveniently located in the center of the Mekong Delta, on the western portion of the Hau River. The City is 75 km from the sea and connected with international seas by Dinh An passage. Can Tho is located on the national highway 1A, giving easy access to Ho Chi Minh City and other Mekong Delta provinces. Moreover, it is convenient for transportation to Cambodia by roads and waterways.

1. Its geographical site:
- In the East, it borders Dong Thap province and Vinh Long province.
 - In the West, it borders Kien Giang province.
 - In the South, it borders Hau Giang province.
- In the North, it borders An Giang province and Dong Thap province.
 2. The population:
Can Tho City has a total population of 1,147,067. This includes: 577,141 urban people 50.30% and 569,926 rural people (49.70%). Agricultural labourers make up 48% and non-agricultural laborers make up 52% of the labor force. The population density is 812 people/km2.
3. Administrative Units:
Can Tho has four districts: Ninh Kieu, Cai Rang, Binh Thuy, O Mon and four rural districts: Phong Dien, Co Do, Vinh Thanh, Thot Not (The center district of Can Tho City is Ninh Kieu district). Can Tho City is the center for economy, finance, trade, service, science, technology and culture of the Mekong Delta. Can Tho has an extensive and well developed infrastructure providing easy investment co-operation with domestic and foreign investors. The infrastructure includes a system of roads and water ways, an airport, a sea port, export processing industrial zones, telecommunications, banks, electricity supply stations, water supply system and new urban areas.
 

II. Infrastructure:


Can Tho City is only 170 km from Ho Chi Minh City and is attractive by the converging of many important roads, waterways and seaways connecting with other provinces and cities of Vietnam. From Can Tho City, goods can be easily transported to other cities and provinces of the Mekong Delta, and other parts of Vietnam.
The system of technological and economic infrastructure is abundant. There is Can Tho port and Cai Cui sea port which can dock 10,000 to 20,000 tonne vessels and have a capacity to handle about 4.5 million tonnes/ year of goods, mainly serving import materials used for the production of machinery, equipment, consumer goods and for the export of agricultural and aquatic products from the Mekong Delta; Tra Noc airport has been upgraded and enlarged to connect flights to other parts of Vietnam and in the future will be expanded to include more flights to other South East Asian countries.

Workers in plant
Tra Noc thermo-power plant has a capacity of 200MW and O Mon thermo-power plant which is currently being built will have a capacity of 2,800MW. This is the second largest thermo-power plant in Vietnam. There are two clean water supply plants with a capacity of 90,000 m3/day and night, and there is the expectation of building more clean water supply plants by 2010, with a capacity of 200,000 m3/day and night in various areas of Can Tho City. Can Tho bridge is under construction and will be finished in 2008, connecting the important road axis between Can Tho City to Ho Chi Minh City and to the Mekong Delta provinces. The system of modern public media and telecommunication has ability to connect between Can Tho City with the rest of Vietnam and other countries of the world.


III. Industry:
Industry is the strongest sector of the city and keeps a key role of the economy, it is also considered as a foundation of the industrialization and modernization process of Can Tho city. Industrial production ranks the first of Mekong delta and the 12th of whole country, with average growth rate of 19%/ year approximately, contributing nearly 32% to GDP of the city. Industrial production values reach VND 9,983 billion in 2006.
Can Tho city has 5,629 industrial production units and 52,712 employees. It has been developed to include many sectors, jobs and abundant products. It is concentrated on the industries of processing food and foodstuffs, electricity, electronics and informatics, garments, footwear, chemicals, PP package, machinery and construction materials.
The city is calling for further investment in the industrial fields of processing, electricity, electronics, chemicals, garment, and footwear.

Industrial garment production line
( Tay Do garment Co.Ltd)
 
Exporting rice in Tra Noc

* The direction of industrial development by the year 2010:
- The industry will be the motive force for the development, the key role to create a breakthrough of economic growth and structure conversion. In the other hand, the industry of Can Tho is the center of industry of the entire Mekong delta.
- The industry of Can Tho city will concentrate on developing some sectors attracting labours to solve job problems. The city gives priority to develop the industries of processing agri-seafood, producing consumer products, energy industry, electricity, electronics, informatics, machinery, repairing and assembling motor, garment .... and other products. Applying multistage industries at each locality, appropriate for labouring skills. Gradually increasing investment in high technology, and step-by-step eliminating old technologies.

IV. Agriculture:
Can Tho City has an agricultural area consisting of about 114,400 ha, which is mainly used for paddy cultivation, other farm products and fruit. Annually, it produces more than 1.2 million tonnes of rice. Rice processed for export is from 500,000 to 600,000 tonnes. Fruit 110,000 tonnes, aquatic products 90,000 tonnes, and meat from cattle and poultry 20,000 tonnes. In addition to this, other agricultural products include maize (over 3,000 tonnes), Soya beans (over 3,000 tons), and sesame seeds (over 4,000 tonnes).
To effectively exploit the potential of agriculture in serving economic development, Can Tho City is calling for investment projects to develop processing industries such as: canned concentrated fruit juice, vegetable oil, canned food and foodstuffs, feed for fish and shrimp and veterinary medicine production.

* The direction of agricultural development by the year 2010.
- Stepping up innovation of cultivated crops in the direction of intensive rice farming and combining with aquaculture; strongly developing the garden economy and tourism; increasing the landscapes natural cover with different ecological habitats.
- Constructing agricultural, industrial and high technological parks. Researching the application of breed production, building general production forms and modern cultivation technology.
- Developing strongly breeds of pigs, cattle, poultry, cow and dairy cows for industrial cultivation.
- Strongly developing the services of agriculture and technology and expanding the practice of bonsai growing for the requirements of development of urbanization and tourism.

V. Commerce – Tourism:
With its advantageous location in the center of the Mekong Delta and an extensive system of land and waterways connected to the whole region, Can Tho is also an ideal place to concentrate on materials for processing and for export, buying and selling goods, supplying commercial services to the Mekong Delta and other provinces of Vietnam and to implement trade with other countries of the world. Of late, Can Tho City imports and exports to more than 80 countries and territories of the world. This includes relations with Asean, Pacific Asian, European, African and North American countries and territories.

Can Tho City is proceeding to build 3 wholesale markets: Thot Not rice wholesale market, an aqua-product wholesale market, an agri-product wholesale market. Besides, Can Tho is also making projects such as Center for Commerce, Regional Center for Information. There are 102 markets in all and 7 supermarkets (5 supermarkets operating and 2 ones building). As expected, in 2010, export turnover reachs USD 1 billion and import turnover reachs USD 800 million.
In addition to its a system of banks, assurances and auditing, commercial areas, such as supermarkets, recreation parks, exhibition and fair center, Can Tho also has a number of existing and potentially attractive popular tourist sites such as 2 floating markets at Cai Rang and Phong Dien, 14 local markets, the ecological tourist areas of My Khanh, Au isle and Thuy Tien and a system of many orchard gardens lying along the Hau river. Moreover, Can Tho City has units operating effectively and becoming more sophisticated with every passing day. There are 115 hotels with 2,876 rooms; in which, there are 24 hotels that have attained the standard of 1 to 4 stars. With this hotel system, Can Tho City is entirely able to develop Mice tourism to meet the demands of tourism and to supply business with rental office space and the required support services.

In order to develop commerce and tourism, Can Tho City is calling for investment in projects to build new urban areas, supermarkets, hotels, ecological areas, and recreational centers.

* The direction of tourism development by the year 2010:
- To strongly invest in tourism, and to make tourism the sector with the fastest and highest growth, making it a bigger proportion of the Gross Domestic Products (GDP) of Vietnam. Developing tourism in Can Tho city in the direction of green tourism and ecological tourism.
- To speed up improvements in society, encourage and create advantages for other economic backgrounds participating in tourism services. Concentrate on investment of small-scale tourism projects in general recreational areas.
 - To totally complete building the tourism park in Cai Khe isle, the ecological park in Au isle, Khuong isle, Son isle, and Tan Loc isle, and the Bang Lang stork garden. To establish sightseeing tours to Binh Thuy ancient village, Vong Cung road, Cai Rang floating market and Phong Dien rural district.
 - To organize and set up historical events, to expand tourism advertisement with and reaching the aim that “Can Tho is an ideal, safe and hospitable destination” and the converging site of “waterway civilization of the Mekong Delta”.
 

VI. Science and Technology:

Can Tho is becoming the center of science and technology for the Mekong Delta as it has an excellent system of universities (Can Tho University, Medical University), colleges, technical vocational training schools, and software park, research institutes such as the Mekong Delta Rice Research Institute. Yearly, Can Tho City trains more than 20,000 scientific technical staff.
At present, Can Tho City has numerous trained staff at all levels and careers in scientific technological development that could contribute and serve economic development.
The City is calling for investment in projects for the construction of plants for assembling electronic and informatics, production of high-tech industrial products and areas of high technology.

* The direction of science and technology development by the year 2010:
The priorities for investment in research and the main targets for technical scientific activities are applying scientific technology, making high quality and effective products, increasing capacity for economic competition, making breakthroughs in the fields of biotechnology, information technology, and technological production of new construction materials.

Cantho Traditional villages

Hotels in Cantho