The Provincial Party Standing Committee approved the content and personnel of the Vinh City Party Congress.

Comrade Thai Thanh Quy - Alternate member of the Party Central Committee, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee chaired the meeting. Also attending were comrades: Nguyen Xuan Son - Standing Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Council; Nguyen Duc Trung - Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee; Nguyen Van Thong - Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee; comrades of the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee and leaders of departments and branches. Photo: Thanh Duy

NEED TO BREAKTHROUGH IN BUILDING SMART CITIES

In the 2015-2020 term, Vinh City achieved quite comprehensive results. The economy grew at a fairly fast rate, and the structure shifted in the right direction.

Foreign affairs activities have been promoted, contributing to promoting the image, strengthening international integration, attracting investment, promoting socio-economic development, and enhancing the position of the City. The material and spiritual life of the people has been improved.

However, the City also frankly assessed that the results achieved were not worthy of a class 1 urban area, and the formation of regional center elements was slow.

The average growth rate of Vinh City in the period 2016 - 2020 is estimated at 8.62%. The added value accounts for about 24.6% of the total added value of the province. In 2020, the average added value per capita is estimated at 104.95 million VND; the total budget revenue in the area is estimated at 5,470 billion VND, 1.82 times higher than in 2015. The poverty rate of the whole city is currently only 0.25%.

Panorama of Vinh city. Photo courtesy: Thanh Duy

At the meeting, comments for Vinh City focused on issues such as urban management and beautification; land management, investment attraction; and the issue of expanding Vinh's urban space, which currently only meets about 70% of the criteria for population size and area according to regulations.

In particular, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc signed and issued Decision No. 827/QD-TTg (Decision 827) dated June 12, 2020 approving the Project on development of Vinh city, Nghe An province until 2023 in the spirit of Resolution 26-NQ/TW of the Politburo. It clearly mentioned the expansion of Vinh urban space when there are sufficient conditions according to the general planning of Vinh city until 2030, with a vision to 2050 approved by the Prime Minister in Decision No. 52/QD-TTg.

Comrade Nguyen Xuan Son - Standing Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Council spoke at the meeting. Photo: Thanh Duy

Comrade Nguyen Xuan Son - Standing Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Council emphasized: The development orientation for Vinh City needs to be based on Decision 827.

The determination to build Vinh City into the center of the North Central region needs to continue to rely on Resolution 26 of the Politburo. "That is the honor and opportunity of Vinh City... Vinh City also sees this as a responsibility and a pillar of strength for the City", the Standing Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee emphasized.

Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Duc Trung gave comments on choosing the field of building the North Central region center in the new term for the City; budget collection target, tourism development target.

Comrade Nguyen Duc Trung - Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee spoke at the meeting. Photo: Thanh Duy

Particularly regarding the first of the three breakthroughs that Vinh City has identified in the new term, which is "focusing on creating breakthroughs in the fields of: trade, tourism, services, information technology, healthcare and education - training, building a smart city", the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee shared the view that it should be narrowed down, setting the breakthrough goal as building a "smart city".

Regarding the issue of expanding the city's development space, this is considered a very clear goal because Vinh City is "like a shirt that is too tight"; the problem is choosing the right time?

According to the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, in the 2020 - 2025 term, it is necessary to focus on renovating and developing within the current administrative boundaries to make Vinh city more spacious; and the expansion of Vinh city space including Cua Lo town, part of Nghi Loc and Hung Nguyen districts should be considered for the 2025 - 2030 term.

Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee Nguyen Van Thong shared the difficulties of Vinh City, however, "in difficulty, wisdom appears", the spirit is not to wait entirely on objective conditions. Accordingly, the City needs to manage the existing planning well, publicize planning information for people to monitor; pay attention to reviewing all projects in the area that are not feasible and resolutely handle them; allocate land for projects in the direction of "saving" land funds.

Comrade Nguyen Van Thong - Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee spoke at the meeting. Photo: Thanh Duy

Besides, although urban management has shown a tendency to improve, the Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee noted that Vinh City needs to continue to pay attention to urban beautification work because this not only creates a new look for the city but also creates conditions for the development of the night-time economy and sidewalk economy.

Therefore, in addition to key projects, the City needs to pay attention to the overall planning of sidewalks for systematic implementation; pay more attention to green areas. In urban management, Vinh City also needs to focus on improving the effectiveness of urban order management with the viewpoint that "to be civilized, first of all, discipline is required".

DEVELOPING VINH CITY SCIENTIFICALLY AND SYSTEMATICLY

Concluding this content, Comrade Thai Thanh Quy - Alternate Member of the Party Central Committee, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee acknowledged and highly appreciated the preparation work for the Vinh City Party Congress for the 2020-2025 term.

The Provincial Party Secretary assessed that during the 2015-2020 term, Vinh City continued to demonstrate its leading role in the province's development. However, through assessments, it is shown that the development of Vinh City has not really made a breakthrough; the construction of the City into the center of the North Central region in 10 areas according to Resolution 26 of the Politburo is still not really clear; the contribution rate from land fund exploitation in budget revenue is still large; management of planning, land, urban order still has many problems;... Therefore, Vinh City needs to analyze and discuss carefully to clarify.

Comrade Thai Thanh Quy - Alternate member of the Party Central Committee, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee concluded the content of the document preparation work of the Vinh City Party Congress, term 2020 - 2025. Photo: Thanh Duy

For the 2020 - 2025 term, the determination of general goals must be consistent with Resolution 26 of the Politburo and Decision 827 of the Prime Minister to have viewpoints, directions, goals, targets, and implementation timelines. On that basis, persevere and determine a suitable implementation roadmap to complete the general goals.

Decision 827 assigns responsibility for implementation to the People's Committee of Nghe An province and a series of ministries and branches. However, the role of the City is extremely important, so the Standing Committee of the City Party Committee needs to focus on discussing and advising the province to direct implementation such as: whether to establish a steering committee, working group or not?...

Comrade Thai Thanh Quy suggested Vinh City study urban models in the country and abroad to build a set of criteria as a basis for the scientific development of the City. “This is a big topic, comrades need to do it in the future”, the Provincial Party Secretary emphasized.

Comrade Phan Duc Dong - Member of the Provincial Party Standing Committee, Secretary of Vinh City Party Committee spoke at the meeting. Photo: Thanh Duy

On the other hand, Vinh City needs to build and manage a tight planning to ensure a tight, long-term, sustainable development strategy; at the same time, it is necessary to pay close attention to the values ​​of the environmental landscape. In planning, the City also needs to pay attention to land planning to maximize efficiency; not to neglect or waste land.

Vinh City also needs to pay close attention to administrative reform and smart urban development. On the other hand, there needs to be a separate project for issues such as sanitation, flooding, trees, landscape, culture and urban space expansion, etc. to be implemented in a scientific, systematic and fundamental manner.

The Provincial Party Standing Committee agreed that the 24th Vinh City Party Congress, term 2020 - 2025, will take place from July 15 to 17, 2020.