With the Party’s strategic direction, a key aim of restructuring administrative units is to expand development space, harness the leading roles of dynamic zones, economic corridors, and growth poles, prioritizing the merging of mountainous or plains localities with coastal regions. The unification of Hải Phòng city and Hải Dương province fully meets these objectives.
Great advantage as the gateway to the Northern coast
Within the Red River Delta area (excluding Hanoi and keeping Quảng Ninh unchanged), merged provinces and cities significantly increase their economic scale. After merging, Hải Phòng and Hải Dương together will span 3,194.7 km² with a population of 4,102,700 and an economy nearing VND 660 trillion. Hải Phòng moves from 5th to 3rd in national economic rankings—behind only Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi.
Significantly, the merger will open new maritime development space. Hải Phòng—already the North’s maritime gateway—will become a modern international logistics hub with four deep-water terminals in Lạch Huyện. Additionally, Hải Phòng’s geopolitical-economic position is crucial in multiple corridors: North–South, Kunming–Lào Cai–Hanoi–Hải Phòng–Quảng Ninh, Nanning–Lạng Sơn–Hanoi–Hải Phòng–Quảng Ninh, and the coastal corridor from Quảng Ninh to Ninh Bình. Resolution 30 sets an ambition: to make Hải Phòng a top Southeast Asian logistics and maritime center.
To realize this, Hải Phòng is accelerating infrastructure for coastal economic zones and industrial parks, establishing a new South coastal economic zone (≈20,000 ha), leveraging Nam Đồ Sơn Port and Cát Bi Airport. A free-trade zone proposal is scheduled for submission in August 2025, alongside a request to update Resolution 35 with special policies, including for that FTZ.
Prior to merging, both provinces had identified high-tech industry as their economic backbone. Hải Dương plans 32 industrial parks by 2030 (totaling ~5,661 ha), already with 17 formed and ~2,738 ha built-out, with ~62% occupancy across 12 operational parks.
Both Hải Phòng and Hải Dương recorded high annual GDP growth in 2024: 11.01% (1st) and 10.2% (3rd among 11 Red River Delta localities). In Q1 2025, both remained among the top nine double-digit growth areas. After merging, they will enhance scale, competitiveness, investment appeal, and development space.
Long-term strategic vision
Previously, they signed cooperation agreements to strengthen transport infrastructure links: Dinh Bridge (to replace ferry service) linking Kinh Môn (Hải Dương)–Thủy Nguyên; Quang Thanh Bridge connecting Thanh Hà and An Lão. These bridges eased traffic bottlenecks and boosted trade.
Post-merger, Hải Phòng will have the chance to plan on a larger scale transportation networks, urban areas, and industrial zones. At the 19th City Party Congress, unified resolutions were made to:
Provide for offices, housing, and policies for provincial-level staff after restructuring;
Rapidly apply digital transformation to ensure continuous governance after the merger.
Party Secretary Lê Tiến Châu emphasized drafting strategic infrastructure plans—transport, industry, urban development—to turn combined advantages into future growth drivers. The city will restructure its economy toward sustainable, quality-driven development. Working closely with Hải Dương on the next Party Congress documents, they will map out strengths, challenges, and solutions to become a leading growth engine for the region and nation.