General information

- Geographic location: Bac Ninh is bounded by Bac  Giang to the North, by Hanoi to the West, by Hung Yen and some parts of Hanoi to the South, by Hai Duong Province to the East.

- Area:  823,1 km².

- Topographic features: The province has quite flat topography.

- Administrative units: It is divided into 1 city (Bac Ninh city) and 7 districts: Yen Phong, Tien Du, Tu Son, Que Vo, Thuan Thanh, Luong Tai and Gia Binh.

- Population: 1,028,800 (Statistics Yearbook of 2007)

Resources

- Natural resources: The province’s total natural land area is 803,87 km², in which agricultural land accounts for 64.7%, forestry land accounts for 0.7%, specialized and residence land account for 23.5%, unused land accounts for 11.1%.  The province’s mineral reserve is limited (mainly construction materials such as clay in Que Vo and Tien Du,  sandstone in Thi Cau, Vu Ninh, Bac Ninh town and peat in Yen Phong.

- Tourism resources: The province has great potentiality for developing cultural tourism such as traditional festivals (41 famous ones) especially Dau pagoda festival, Lim festival, Do temple festival and sacred storekeeper (Ba Chua Kho) festival.

- Human resources: the number of working age people is approx. 624,000 (in 2005) accounting 62.6% of the province’s total population. The majority of the workforce is in rural areas. The province’s workforce is young and well trained, satisfying the province’s demands for economic development.

Infrastructures

- Transportation system: It is convenient for traveling in the province with 3 means of transportation which are roadway, waterway and railway. The province has 125km of  national highways (4 national highways: 1A, 1B, 38 and 18). There are 3 large rivers (Cau, Duong, Thai Binh rivers) running through the province with 3 river ports: Dap Cau port and two specialized ones of Dap Cau and Qu Vo floating glass factories. The province has 24km of Hanoi-Lang Son railway route.

- Industrial zones: Bac Ninh has 8 industrial zones (IZ): Dai Dong IZ with the total area of 600 hectares in Hoan Son; Nam Son IZ with the total area of 800 hectares in Hap Linh; Thuan Thanh IZ with the total area of 200 hectares; Yen Phong IZ with the total area of 640 hectares; Yen Phuong II with the total area of 1,000 hectares; Que Vo IZ with the total area of 31 hectares and Que Vo II with the total area of 570 hectares; Tien Son IZ with the total area of 600 hectares.

Economic situations

- Growth rate: After 10 years from the re-establishment (1997-2007), the province’s economic growth rate has been at high level and increased year by year: 12.6% for the period 1997-2000, 14.1% for the period 2001-2006. Average annual growth rate for the period 1997-2006 was 13.5% which was higher than that of the whole country (7.1%) and ranked the second in 11 red river delta provinces (Vinh Phuc ranked the first: 16.7%).

- Economic structure: The structures have been changes with development of modernization and industrialization; the proportion of industry – construction increased from 23.8% in 1997 to 35.7% in 2000 and to 47.8% in 2006 while the proportion of agriculture-forestry-fishery quickly decreased from 40.1% in 1997 to 38% in 2000 and to 23.6% in 2006, the proportion of services remained the same (26-28%). These changes in quality created positive effects to promote foreign trades, asset accumulation, and investment, decrease population growth, create more jobs, improve living standards, and speed up urbanization.

Development plan up to the year 2010

- GDP growth rate : It is planned to reach the rate of 15-16%

- Sectors’ development plan:

    + Agriculture: This sector will be developed with focus on developing maize, paddy, potato, vegetables; short-term industrial crops such as Soya bean, peanut, long-term industrial crops such as mulberry and decorative plants; and cattle, fowl breeding

    + Forestry: This sector will be developed with focus on protecting the existing forests, growing new forests (approx. 144 hectares), increasing supplementary forests, sparsely distributed plants, taking care of forests, improving gardens, upgrading infrastructure for forest development program.

    + Fishery: This sector will be developed with focus on promoting aquaculture; Changing 4,400 hectares of existing low ground growing paddy to fish breeding in which 2,000 hectares will be used for 1 fish breeding crop + 1 paddy crop alternatively, expanding intensive fish breeding with high technology to reach the production value of 100-150 million VND/hectare, increasing the area of fish breeding and cattle breeding  to 6,500 hectares in 2010.

    + Industry: It is planned to reach the rate of 19-20% with focus on developing high tech industries such as software, computers, automation, magnetism materials of high standards, etc; Engineering industries such as producing accessories for textile, footwear, etc.; Agricultural product, foodstuff and drink processing such as beer, soft drink, etc; Developing centered, traditional professional industrial zones and clusters.