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If Parliament approves, Đồng Nai will become the seventh city directly under the central government, following Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Hai Phong, Da Nang, Can Tho, and Hue.
At a delegation meeting on the morning of April 20, General Phan Văn Giang, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Defense, expressed support for the plan to establish Đồng Nai as a centrally administered city.
The province is said to meet all seven criteria required for the status, including key factors such as income, population, area, and geographic location.
Regarding its position, the former Đồng Nai province did not border another province. After the merger, the new Đồng Nai includes the area connected to Bình Phước, which is described as creating advantageous positioning, particularly for defense and security.
Secretary of the Đồng Nai Provincial Party Committee, Vũ Hồng Văn, said that establishing Đồng Nai as a central city is a major decision by the central government, rather than simply an administrative upgrade or the creation of an advanced governance model.
On economic scale, Đồng Nai is currently ranked fourth nationwide, behind only Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, and Hai Phong.
Vũ Hồng Văn also noted that Bình Phước Province previously had a more mountainous profile with many ethnic minority communities, and that many localities were not yet part of the rural development program. After merging with Đồng Nai, Bình Phước’s “vitality” is described as having risen strongly.
Vũ Hồng Văn said Đồng Nai aims to develop not only in scale but also in revenue-collection capacity and labor productivity.
He stated that this year the province could collect about 150 trillion dong for the state budget. Đồng Nai also positions itself as a “growth pole” intended to help shoulder the budget-revenue burden for other provinces, while warning that delaying implementation could mean missing development opportunities.
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