Vinh Long

Vinh Long exists because the Mekong's central distributaries created the delta's agricultural heart—and because Vietnam's 2025 administrative reforms merged three provinces (Vinh Long, Ben Tre, Tra Vinh) into a 6,296 km² entity of 4.19 million people that Party General Secretary To Lam envisions as "a dynamic growth hub capable of leading the Mekong Delta." The new province exports $1.86 billion in the first half of 2025 alone (up 17.6%).

The formation story is fruit and coconut at continental scale. Ben Tre's 79,000 hectares of coconut plantations—the "coconut kingdom"—export to 90 countries generating nearly $500 million annually. By end 2025, the merged province will have 119,270 hectares of coconut trees (22 million trees)—nearly half of Vietnam's total. Add Vinh Long's fruit trees and vegetables, Tra Vinh's shrimp, and the original provinces' rice (110,000 hectares, 676,829 tonnes), and agricultural diversification becomes structural.

The renewable energy potential reshapes economic identity. Coastal wind speeds of 7-7.5 m/s—among the Mekong Delta's highest—already power 5 wind plants in Tra Vinh (390 MW) and 7 projects in Ben Tre (450 MW). Theoretical offshore potential exceeds 2,500 MW, positioning the merged province as the delta's clean energy center.

Tourism scales with geography: 9.3 million visitors (up 13.4%), including 1.2 million international arrivals (up 71.6%), generating VND 7,963 billion in revenue. The combination of coconut plantations, shrimp aquaculture, and wind farms creates diversified tourism products.

By 2026, the new Vinh Long aims for four development pillars: marine economy and renewable energy; high-tech ecological agriculture; connecting infrastructure and logistics; and cultural heritage. Whether administrative merger enables the strategic integration promised, or simply creates bureaucratic complexity, will test Vietnam's provincial consolidation experiment at scale.