North Central region linkage enhances Nghe An province's competitiveness

(Excerpt from the speech at the Conference by comrade Nguyen Xuan Duong - Deputy Secretary - Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee)

(Baonghean) - ...Nghe An is a province located in the center of the North Central region, the hometown of President Ho Chi Minh - National liberation hero, outstanding cultural celebrity. Nghe An province has the largest natural area in the country, nearly 16,500 km2 (accounting for 32% of the North Central region's area), a population of 3.1 million people, ranking 4th in Vietnam (accounting for about 30% of the North Central region's population).

Nghe An has the longest border with Laos in the country at 419 km, with 4 border gates, has Pu Mat, Pu Huong, Pu Hoat national forests, the largest world biosphere reserve in Southeast Asia, has tourism potential with beautiful beaches and many mineral resources and abundant human resources.

Good infrastructure, with an airport, Cua Lo international port and a road, railway and waterway system, is favorable for investment and development. The work of improving the investment and business environment has always been of interest to provincial leaders and has been strongly directed in recent times. Nghe An's Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI) continues to improve, in 2014 it increased by 18 places, in the good group, ranking 28th out of 63 provinces and cities nationwide.

Investment attraction results in Nghe An have made remarkable progress, attracting an average of about 1 billion USD per year, contributing to increasing budget revenue in the last 3 years with an increase of 1,000 billion VND per year; creating many jobs.

Comrade Nguyen Xuan Duong presented a paper at the conference.

In particular, Nghe An was issued Resolution No. 26 dated July 30, 2013 by the Politburo on development directions and tasks until 2020 with the goal of striving to build Nghe An into a fairly developed province in the Northern region by 2015, creating the foundation to basically become an industrial province by 2020; a center of finance, trade, tourism, education - training, science - technology, health, culture, sports, and high-tech industry in the North Central region.

However, in reality, Nghe An in particular and the provinces in the North Central region in general are still poor provinces, the investment attraction of the provinces in the region is still limited compared to other economic regions in the country. In our opinion, the North Central region is facing challenges and difficulties due to its low socio-economic starting point; the gap in economy, education, and development opportunities between regions, between ethnic groups is quite large. The western mountainous areas of the provinces, where ethnic minorities mainly live, are poor districts and communes, far from major economic centers, with limited travel and trade conditions; the labor force in the region is quite abundant, labor costs are cheap, but limited in skills, and training levels do not meet the requirements of development. Besides, this is also the area that often suffers severe consequences caused by natural disasters and floods. In particular, the connection between localities in the region for socio-economic development is still limited, not fully exploiting the potential and strengths of the region.

The 2015 North Central Region “Meeting Localities - Diplomatic Corps” Forum is an extremely important occasion for localities in the region to come closer together, connect and coordinate more closely to promote the combined strength of the region. The process of regional linkage is the right and necessary direction. Regional linkage will create relationships to promote production, business, agriculture, industry, trade, services... If the provinces and cities in the region have close linkages, they will certainly develop sustainably. With that spirit, Nghe An province proposes a number of solutions for localities in the region to achieve the goal of sustainable development.

Firstly, the provinces in the region continue to seek support and closely coordinate with the central ministries and branches to implement Decision No. 250/QD-TTg dated February 13, 2014 of the Prime Minister on the plan to implement Conclusion No. 25-KL/TW dated August 2, 2012 of the Politburo on continuing to implement Resolution No. 39-NQ/TW dated August 16, 2004 of the 9th Politburo to promote socio-economic development, ensure national defense and security in the North Central region and the Central Coast by 2020. Based on the regulations of the Central Government, the provinces need to discuss and agree on a number of mechanisms and solutions to attract investment in the whole region, taking into account the comparative advantages and strengths of each province; The goal is to create a favorable environment for localities to have the opportunity to maximize their strengths, and to support and complement each other in the development process.

Second, coordinate and prioritize investment capital for inter-regional transport projects such as completing the project to upgrade and expand National Highway 1A; expressways, coastal roads. Coordinate investment, management, and operation of a number of shared technical infrastructure and social infrastructure projects such as airports, seaports, hospitals, schools; environmental treatment projects... to reduce the burden of investment capital and increase the efficiency of capital use.

Third, regional linkage in tourism and service development is a potential strength of the region but has not been exploited for a long time. The region has many tourist attractions, historical sites, many festivals, and diverse cultural works of the ethnic groups living in the area, creating unique tourism products for each province and for the whole region. The provinces need to discuss linkage solutions to form chains of events and specific tourism products, suitable to maximize the effectiveness of this advantage; instead of promoting and introducing the advantages of each province, the provinces coordinate to introduce and promote tourism products and services of the whole region, then the attractiveness will be increased.

Fourth, in the region there are many prestigious and high-quality universities and training centers, but the quality of human resources in general is assessed as not meeting development requirements. This requires provinces and cities to direct training centers to coordinate and provide practical support in training human resources, especially highly qualified human resources capable of using modern technology and equipment to serve the cause of industrialization and modernization.

Fifth, for Nghe An, as the central province of the region, with quite complete natural and social conditions, we really want and need to connect and cooperate with provinces and enterprises in areas with strengths with the goal of focusing on exploiting potentials and advantages, promoting improvement of the investment environment to attract domestic and foreign investment, improving the quality and efficiency of competitiveness, shifting the economic structure towards industrialization and modernization; striving to build Nghe An as a center of finance, trade, education, training, science and technology, health, culture, sports, and high-tech industry of the North Central region in the spirit of Resolution 26 of the Politburo and Decision 620/QD-TTg dated May 12, 2015 of the Prime Minister on approving the adjustment of the Master Plan for socio-economic development of Nghe An province to 2020.

Nghe An considers regional connectivity and enhancing regional competitiveness as important contents, creating common strength so that localities can promote their advantages in attracting investment and cooperating for development in areas of strength. Hopefully, the cooperative relationship and connectivity between Nghe An province and provinces in the North Central region will be increasingly promoted effectively, contributing to making the North Central region a dynamic and sustainable development region...