New opportunities for coastal towns

(Baonghean) -In 2014, Cua Lo Town celebrated its 20th anniversary. At this age of vitality, the Party Committee and people of the town need to strive to successfully build a "coastal tourism city" with the goal of becoming greener - cleaner - more beautiful, more friendly and hospitable. Those were the messages of comrade Nguyen Xuan Duong - Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee during a meeting with the leaders of Cua Lo Town on June 11.

Binh Minh Square on the day of Cua Lo River Festival (April 30). Photo: Tran Hai

In the process of socio-economic development, Cua Lo Town is identified by the province as the second most important growth pole after Vinh City. Therefore, since September 2006, the Provincial Party Committee Standing Committee has issued Resolution No. 05-NQ/TU "on building and developing Cua Lo Town into a tourist city by 2015, with a view to 2020". From that major orientation, in recent years, along with the efforts of the Party Committee, the government and the people in the area, the provincial departments and branches have had many support and incentive policies for the town to gradually become a vibrant tourist area, dynamic in development. Up to now, the GDP growth rate has reached 9.8% (calculated in 2013 and the first 6 months of 2014); average income per capita reached 58.86 million VND/year; The economic structure shifted towards increasing the proportion of services and industry (reaching 60.7%), reducing agriculture and forestry (7%).

Contributing to that right direction, in addition to the budget for investment in building the infrastructure system, the Party Committees, authorities and people of the town have many activities to promote and attract investment in tourism development associated with protecting the sovereignty of the sea and islands. Beach tourism and resort services have developed extensively towards Cua Hoi and opened towards the South of Lan Chau island area. In particular, in early 2014, the project "Lan Chau - Song Ngu Eco-tourism Complex, Resort Villas, Sports, Entertainment" (abbreviated as Lan Chau - Song Ngu Tourism Complex) officially entered investment, promising to open up many new opportunities for the coastal town.

During a working trip to the town, comrade Nguyen Xuan Duong - Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, together with leaders of departments and branches, inspected the field and highly appreciated the initiatives of Song Ngu Son Tourism Service Joint Stock Company. In a short time, the company has actively built infrastructure, purchased high-speed boats, opened a tourist route by boat connecting Lan Chau Island to Ngu Island, serving tourists during the 2014 tourist season. Introducing to the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee and leaders of Departments and branches, Dr. Tran Quoc Lam - Chairman of the Board of Directors of Song Ngu Son Joint Stock Company excitedly said: "Currently, the company is actively signing contracts with partners, speeding up the construction of items such as hotels, resort areas, entertainment areas and cable car systems connecting from Lan Chau Island to Ngu Island. The works of the project will be attractive highlights, contributing to beautifying the town and exploiting the maximum tourism potential. At the same time, we strengthen connections with domestic and foreign travel agencies to introduce and invite tourists to Cua Lo and the tourist and resort areas invested and built by the company...".

Talking with the leaders of Song Ngu Son Tourism Service Joint Stock Company, Mr. Nguyen Xuan Duong welcomed the bold investment of the company when deciding to join the town to expand the beach and resort services to the south of Cua Lo beach - which has long been left open. The Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee also requested the investment unit to speed up the construction of works and put them into operation soon to contribute to the goal of exploiting tourism in all four seasons in the coming time. On the part of the province and town, actively coordinate with units to promote close connection between 3 key tourist areas: Cua Lo - Vinh City - Nam Dan. In that process, focus on forming new tourist routes, diversifying tourism products, increasing service exploitation time as well as tourists' stay time. In fact, these activities have been carried out through tourism promotion activities of the province and the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism to other provinces such as Hanoi, Ha Tinh, Quang Binh, Lam Dong, Da Nang, Ho Chi Minh City... and provinces of Laos, the Northeast of Thailand. Such domestic and foreign tourism promotion activities, along with the opening of more domestic and international flights to Da Lat, Buon Me Thuot, Da Nang, Vientiane, are bringing many promises for tourism in Cua Lo in particular and Nghe An in general.

Reporting to the Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, Mr. Nguyen Nam Dinh - Secretary of Cua Lo Town Party Committee affirmed: "The town is focusing on implementing groups of solutions to develop tourism and services; focusing on strengthening the connection between resorts and sea bathing with spiritual tourism and cultural tourism; exploiting conference services well in association with developing tourism service industries. The town is making efforts to embellish historical and spiritual relics, restore traditional festivals, and restore unique rituals and customs of coastal people, including outstanding festivals over many years such as Van Loc Temple Festival, Song Ngu Pagoda Festival, Cau Ngu Festival, Boat Racing Festival and cultural and sports activities with strong community character to attract tourists, increase vacation time and tourism services...".

After inspecting the actual production, service and infrastructure construction activities in Nghi Tan, Nghi Thu and Thu Thuy wards... working with the town leaders, comrade Nguyen Xuan Duong had orientations on promoting the construction of "tourist cities"; in which, strengthening connections is one of the key conditions determining the success of tourism development. But cultural factors, from service manners, behavior, "words - speech" of each citizen, each person participating in tourism services are the deciding factors in retaining tourists...

Comrade Nguyen Xuan Duong also suggested that the Party Committee, government and people of Cua Lo Town should focus on restoring, maintaining and developing traditional craft villages such as fishing, aquaculture and seafood processing; at the same time, building and replicating clean vegetable and fruit production models to supply logistics for tourism activities. In particular, focusing on growing green vegetables and fresh flowers in wards and communes without coastlines will be a sustainable direction that can be linked to tourism exploitation by encouraging tourists' sightseeing activities. The town also needs to have a strategy in building gifts that are both unique and convenient for tourists to buy as gifts after their vacation.

For a long time, local seafood products have been attractive but not really convenient in transportation and preservation. Therefore, in addition to meaningful gifts, if we have research and innovation to make it more convenient for tourists, we will certainly increase services and at the same time make gifts for those who have not been to Cua Lo. That is a valuable message as an invitation to Cua Lo... At the same time, ensuring good social security and order, safety for tourists plays an important role in building a civilized coastal tourism city. The Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee assigned the leaders and departments of the town to quickly complete the project to build a "tourist city" to submit to the Government for approval. If this work is timely on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the town's establishment, it will be an important mark and motivation for the Party Committee and people of Cua Lo to focus on developing in the right direction. Thereby, the town needs to focus on the key task of maintaining national solidarity; Building a strong political system; strengthening training and use of cadres, well meeting the implementation requirements.

After reviewing 4 years of implementing the Resolution of the 4th Town Party Congress, up to now, Cua Lo has achieved and exceeded 32/44 targets compared to the resolution. The town is steadily completing the criteria for building a tourist city according to Resolution 05-NQ/TU (September 26, 2006) of the Provincial Party Committee. 20 years of formation and development, that is also an opportunity for Cua Lo Town to rise up with important orientations and actively implement Resolution 26 of the Politburo with specific targets, in order to effectively exploit the potential and strengths of the locality, focusing resources on the goal of economic development associated with protecting sovereignty over seas and islands.

Nguyen Son