Quang Ngai

Quang Ngai exists because Vietnam needed heavy industry, and the Dung Quat bay provided the deep water, flat coastal land, and strategic location to anchor the country's first domestic oil refinery. Today the Dung Quat Economic Zone contributes 87% of provincial budget revenue while processing 85% of Vietnam's domestic crude oil—a single industrial complex that transformed an agricultural province into a petrochemical powerhouse.

The formation story is state-directed industrialization at concentrated scale. The Binh Son refinery began processing in 2009; the $1.8 billion expansion (Phase 2) increases capacity from 6.5 to 8.5 million tonnes of crude annually. Adjacent to the refinery, Hoa Phat's Dung Quat Iron and Steel Complex (420 hectares) added metallurgy to the chemical industry cluster. The 45,332-hectare economic zone is designed as a "green, smart, sustainable" industrial complex by 2045.

The numbers demonstrate industrial success: GRDP averaged 7.3% growth from 2020-2025, ranking 10th among 34 comparable provinces. Economic scale reached VND 188,701 billion in 2025 (23rd nationally); per capita GRDP hit $3,979. Industry-construction and services account for over 70% of the economy.

Offshore, Ly Son Island provides geographic and economic contrast. Ten square kilometers of volcanic islands—Vietnam's "garlic kingdom"—offer geological heritage and marine tourism. The provincial plan envisions Ly Son as a sea-island tourism center, balancing industrial concentration on the mainland with ecotourism on the archipelago. An airport study is underway.

In May 2025, Quang Ngai merged with Kon Tum province to form a new entity covering 14,833 km² with 2.16 million people. Whether the coastal industrial economy can integrate with highland agriculture and ginseng production will test unified provincial planning. The refinery that made Quang Ngai now anchors a much larger administrative unit.