Expanding Cua Lo tourism space in depth, creating a breakthrough development

(Baonghean.vn) - On the afternoon of November 30, under the chairmanship of comrade Nguyen Dac Vinh - Member of the Party Central Committee, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, the Provincial Party Committee Standing Committee continued to listen to and give opinions on the results of 10 years of implementing Resolution 05-NQ/TU of the Provincial Party Committee Standing Committee (term XVI) on building and developing Cua Lo town into a tourist city by 2015, with a vision to 2020.

Also attending were comrades: Nguyen Xuan Son - Standing Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Council; Deputy Secretaries of the Provincial Party Committee: Nguyen Xuan Duong - Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, Nguyen Van Thong, Le Quang Huy; comrades in the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee, representatives of relevant departments and branches.

Comrade Nguyen Dac Vinh - Member of the Party Central Committee, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee said: To build Cua Lo into a bright spot of coastal tourism, in addition to the beautiful coastline, Cua Lo needs to identify highlights and expand the tourism space in depth to create breakthrough development.

After 10 years of implementing Resolution 05 of the Provincial Party Standing Committee on building and developing urban tourism, Cua Lo town has had positive changes, achieving and exceeding many basic targets set. The economic structure has shifted towards rapidly increasing the proportion of tourism services (from 56.5% in 2006 to 62.1% in 2015; agriculture - fishery and industry - construction have decreased from 10.4% and 33.1% to 5.6% and 32% respectively).

Many small-scale industrial and craft village production models have been developed, creating jobs and stable income for workers such as cold storage models, high-yield snakehead fish farming models, seafood preservation and processing craft villages, etc.

Comrade Nguyen Xuan Son - Standing Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Council highly appreciated Cua Lo's efforts in striving to be recognized by the Prime Minister as a coastal tourist city. He also suggested that Cua Lo pay special attention to preserving the marine environment (planning trees, treating household waste; controlling business establishments...)

In addition, the Party Committee and the town government have focused on developing tourism, attracting investment, diversifying and upgrading service types, strengthening propaganda, promotion, linking and exploiting tours and tourist routes connecting Nghe An with key tourist areas in the province, the country and the region.

Binh Minh Street (Cua Lo town). Photo source.

From 2006 to 2015, the number of tourists increased by an average of 10% per year, from 1 million in 2006 to 2.43 million in 2015; tourism revenue increased by an average of 30% per year, from 245 billion VND in 2006 to 2,260 billion VND in 2015. Up to now, in Cua Lo area, there are 288 hotels/9,151 rooms (including 45 hotels ranked 1-4 stars), which can serve about 20,000 visitors.

Comrade Nguyen Xuan Duong - Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee assessed that in recent years, especially in 2016, Cua Lo has had a clear vision and development, and has been attracting many large investment projects. Therefore, expanding the administrative boundaries is necessary.

Tourism infrastructure, roads, electricity supply, water supply and drainage are built synchronously. In the past 10 years, the town has implemented many tourism infrastructure projects such as: Binh Minh Square, Lan Chau tourist wharf, Ngu island wharf, inner-city traffic system, wastewater project phase 1,2 (ODA Belgium), lighting system... Adjusting some planning to suit the development of the town, thereby attracting investment in hotel complex projects, 132.7ha Golf course, Vinamilk Nghe An, Trang An Confectionery Factory, Fishing Port Tourist Area, Muong Thanh Cua Lo Hotel; Saigon - Kim Lien...

Thanks to that, budget revenue increased from 75.2 billion VND in 2006 to 244.9 billion VND in 2015, an increase of 15%/year. Total social investment capital in the period 2006 - 2016 reached 11,942 billion VND; average value per capita increased from 10.6 million VND in 2006 to 60 million VND in 2015...

A corner of Cua Lo. Photo archive.

In addition to the results achieved after 10 years of implementing Resolution 05 of the Provincial Party Committee Standing Committee, Cua Lo town still has shortcomings and limitations, such as: The progress of some projects, plans, projects and works is still slow such as the issue of expanding administrative boundaries, relocating works to the East of Binh Minh Street; drainage and wastewater treatment projects; suspended projects of enterprises that have been allocated land; tourism products are still monotonous and seasonal; there is no investment in developing goods production to connect and serve tourism...

Comrade Nguyen Nam Dinh - Member of the Provincial Party Committee, Secretary of Cua Lo Town Party Committee proposed that the Provincial Party Committee Standing Committee direct the implementation of the project to expand urban space and administrative boundaries of Cua Lo town on schedule; prioritize support for capital from the state budget, mobilize ODA to build key projects; agree to let the town enjoy a number of mechanisms and policies to exploit land funds, increase the regulation rate in some areas to concentrate capital for the construction of essential and urgent infrastructure works; revoke investment projects that have been licensed and granted land but not implemented or implemented slowly...

At the meeting, comrades in the Provincial Party Standing Committee contributed ideas to help Cua Lo coastal tourism city strive to soon become a type 2 urban area in the 2018-2020 period, creating a premise to build a green - clean - beautiful, rich, civilized, modern coastal tourism city; a growth pole and spearhead of the province, a bright spot of tourism in the country.

Concluding this content, Comrade Nguyen Dac Vinh - Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee acknowledged and highly appreciated the results that Cua Lo has achieved over more than 10 years of implementing Resolution 05. He also emphasized that in order to build Cua Lo into a coastal tourism city, in addition to the beautiful coastline, Cua Lo needs to identify highlights and expand the tourism space in depth to create breakthrough development.

From identifying tourism products that are characteristic of Cua Lo in particular and Nghe An in general to designing architectural planning to be beautiful and reasonable to attract tourists and investors. Provincial Party Secretary Nguyen Dac Vinh also said that there must be synchronous solutions to create qualitative development for Cua Lo, not simply expanding administrative boundaries.

Cua Lo Beach. Photo source.

Regarding recommendations and proposals, the Provincial Party Secretary agreed that it is not necessary to issue a new Resolution on Cua Lo, but it is necessary to issue specific conclusions to have the right direction, suitable for reality.

Regarding the issue of expanding administrative boundaries, the Provincial People's Committee was assigned to work with 3 localities (Cua Lo, Vinh, Nghi Loc) to agree on a specific plan. Regarding the contents related to investment in upgrading Cua Lo urban infrastructure, land exploitation policies and mechanisms... The Provincial Party Secretary requested that Cua Lo town develop a specific plan to report to the Provincial People's Committee for approval, before submitting it to the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee and the Provincial People's Council for consideration.

At the same time, it is recommended that the Provincial People's Committee focus on directing the settlement of investment projects that have been licensed and granted land but have not been implemented or have been implemented slowly, with prolonged progress in Cua Lo town to attract capable investors to replace or adjust the planning and functions to exploit and promote the efficiency of land use.

Khanh Ly