As a pillar of growth for Thai Nguyen in recent years, industry has not only driven economic restructuring, attracted investment, and created employment but has also contributed to shaping the province’s development profile. Faced with requirements for sustainable development, environmental protection, and climate change adaptation, the province has set a target of building a green, environmentally friendly industrial sector, progressively meeting the trend of sustainable development and emissions reduction commitments
From “industrial capital” to green growth aspirations
From a traditional metallurgical industrial center, Thai Nguyen has in recent years gradually formed the profile of a modern industrial hub with the presence of major conglomerates in the fields of electronics, mechanical engineering, supporting industries, and high technology. Accordingly, developing green industry and transitioning to green energy are not only an inevitable trend but also a strategic requirement for Thai Nguyen in order to enhance growth quality, increase competitiveness, and pursue the goal of sustainable development in the coming period.
According to the province’s orientation, green industrial development is identified as a process of comprehensive transformation: from a growth model primarily reliant on resource extraction and cheap labor toward a model driven by technology, innovation, and efficient use of resources. This is clearly reflected in the policy direction of developing industry toward modernization, increasing added value, reducing emissions, and being environmentally friendly; prioritizing high-technology industries, supporting industries, cleaner production, and circular economy.
In practice, the province’s industrial sector continues to maintain positive growth. In 2025, Thai Nguyen’s industrial production value reached over VND 1,058 trillion; in the first quarter of 2026 alone, the industrial production index increased by more than 17% compared to the same period. These figures continue to affirm the leading role of the industrial sector in the local economy. Notably, alongside growth targets, the province is gradually shifting its development thinking from “rapid growth” to “green and sustainable growth.”
Plan No. 43-KH/TU of the Provincial Party Standing Committee clearly reflects this orientation by setting the objective of simultaneously maintaining industrial growth rates and reducing greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 10%, while ensuring that 100% of active industrial parks and clusters have wastewater treatment systems meeting standards. A notable highlight in Thai Nguyen’s green industrial transformation is the proactive participation of the business community. Many major enterprises have gradually shifted their production models toward modernization, energy efficiency, and emissions reduction.
TNG Investment and Trading Joint Stock Company moving toward building a green factory model and smart manufacturing
At TNG Investment and Trading Joint Stock Company, the green transformation process has gone beyond simply improving the production environment to encompass the building of a green factory model and smart manufacturing. The enterprise has invested in rooftop solar power systems and has advanced automation of 30 to 40 percent of its production lines, thereby reducing energy consumption and environmental emissions by 10 to 15 percent. More significantly, this transformation at the enterprise illustrates a new trend in Thai Nguyen’s industry: competing no longer on cheap labor or sheer output volume, but on quality, technology, and the capacity to participate deeply in global value chains. Production spaces organized along lean and open lines, energy-saving lighting systems, and standardized quality management processes all clearly reflect the shift from traditional contract manufacturing toward modern, smart, and sustainable production.
Not only TNG Investment and Trading Joint Stock Company, but many enterprises across the province are proactively transforming toward building green production models, applying modern technology, conserving energy, and reducing environmental emissions. Stemming from these positive shifts in the awareness and actions of the business community, the trend of green industrial development is gradually spreading powerfully throughout the local industrial sector. In addition, the green development orientation is clearly manifested in the planning and infrastructure investment for industrial parks and clusters across the province. Many new industrial parks in Thai Nguyen are being prioritized for attracting high-technology industries, clean industries, low-emission sectors, and efficient resource users.
At Phu Binh Industrial Park, the province’s orientation is to develop it as a concentrated, multi-sector industrial park, prioritizing the attraction of high-technology, electronics, automation, supporting industry, and clean, environmentally friendly industries. Similarly, at Quang Chu Industrial Cluster, the project has been designed comprehensively to meet environmental standards from the planning stage; a wastewater treatment system has been invested in with a total capacity of 4,200 m3/day-night, with treated wastewater meeting the QCVN 40:2011/BTNMT national technical standard.
The wastewater treatment system at Quang Chu Industrial Cluster, invested with modern technology to meet stringent environmental regulations
In particular, at Yen Binh Industrial Park – one of the province’s largest industrial parks – the investor has devoted significant resources to environmental infrastructure. The centralized wastewater treatment system with a capacity of 60,000 m3/day-night has been invested in using modern Japanese technology, with full automation of the monitoring process and continuous data transmission to the management authority. This demonstrates that in the current industrial development orientation, environmental factors have become an important criterion from the outset, in planning, infrastructure investment, and project selection, in pursuit of sustainable and long-term development goals.
Green energy transition for sustainable development
Alongside green industrial development, green energy transition is also receiving considerable attention from Thai Nguyen province. As a locality with high electricity consumption, particularly in the metallurgy, electronics, and processing sectors, progressively reducing dependence on fossil fuels is a pressing imperative to ensure energy security and fulfill emissions reduction commitments.
According to the province’s orientation, rooftop solar power development is considered an appropriate solution for local practical conditions, particularly at industrial parks and production facilities. Implementing Directive No. 10/CT-TTg of the Prime Minister on electricity conservation and rooftop solar power development, the province has set an annual target of approximately 10 percent of public agencies and 10 percent of households installing rooftop solar power systems each year, with an ambition to reach approximately 22,000 kWp of installed capacity by 2030. The use of renewable energy sources not only helps reduce pressure on the national power grid but also helps enterprises reduce production costs and enhance competitiveness in a context where many international markets are increasingly tightening “green” standards for imported goods.
Phu Binh Industrial Park prioritizes attracting high-technology industries and clean, environmentally friendly industries
In addition to solar power, the province also has potential for developing biomass energy from agricultural and forestry by-products – a field well suited to the province’s characteristics of large forested areas and high forest coverage. If effectively harnessed, this will be an important clean energy source, while simultaneously contributing to resolving the challenge of agricultural by-product processing and promoting the circular economy.
However, Thai Nguyen’s green industrial development and green energy transition process is also facing no shortage of challenges. Investment in green technology requires large capital; many small and medium-sized enterprises remain limited in financial capacity as well as in their ability to access modern technology. The renewable energy infrastructure system is not yet synchronized; high-quality human resources for green industry are still lacking; while environmental standards requirements are becoming increasingly stringent. This requires the province to continue perfecting support mechanisms and policies to help enterprises renovate technology; to accelerate digital transformation in industrial production; to develop high-quality human resources; and to attract high-technology, environmentally friendly projects. Promoting linkages between FDI enterprises and domestic enterprises, forming research and innovation centers, and developing eco-industrial parks will also be important solutions for enhancing the competitiveness of the local industrial sector.
From the province’s political determination, to factories applying clean technology, to industrial parks planned to environmental standards from the outset, Thai Nguyen’s green transformation journey is taking shape through concrete steps. Looking beyond economic growth targets, the province is gradually building an industrial base that develops in harmony with the environment, uses resources efficiently, and improves quality of life. On that journey, the “industrial capital” of the northern midland and mountainous region is striving to affirm a new position: a green, modern, and sustainable industrial center in the future.