Unlock potential from the main road

fertile land

Running along Ho Chi Minh road, through Nghia Dan district, Thai Hoa town, Tan Ky district, Anh Son and Thanh Chuong, everywhere you go you can feel the innovation of people in the way they do business.

Ho Chi Minh Trail opens up economic development for Nghe An. Photo: Xuan Hoang

That is, restaurants, hotels, along with other types of goods and services are developing strongly; many large-scale farms and ranches raising buffalo, cows, and chickens; lush green tea hills, or forests of raw materials covering the entire long hill area. The legendary Ho Chi Minh road is becoming more and more bustling, with cars connecting to the South and the North, making it convenient for people to travel, transport, and consume goods. Ho Chi Minh road is the connecting route from the North to the South, with border gates to Laos: Thanh Thuy, Nam Can, Thong Thu, which plays a role in transiting goods.

People on both sides of Ho Chi Minh Highway develop livestock farming economy. Photo: Xuan Hoang

Ho Chi Minh Road runs through Tan Ky district for 38.5 km. In recent years, the locality has focused on economic development along this route, by developing various types of services, with the highlight being the Tan Ky town area and the commune centers: Ky Son, Nghia Hanh, Nghia Binh... at these highlights there are systems of hotels, restaurants, shops, and goods services to meet people's consumption needs.

The locality has advantages in developing livestock and poultry farming. Currently, there are 3 cooperatives raising cows that meet VietGAP standards, dozens of foreign beef cattle farms, and goat meat products certified with the "Tan Ky goat" brand. Therefore, the Provincial People's Committee has decided to build a food processing factory in the district, with a scale of 15 hectares in Ky Tan commune, which is an advantage for the district to promote livestock farming, in order to meet the output for products. Not only Tan Ky, but also create conditions for neighboring districts to develop livestock farming.

Mr. Nguyen Van Hoa - Vice Chairman of Tan Ky District People's Committee

Large-scale livestock farming is a strength of localities along Ho Chi Minh Road. Photo: Xuan Hoang

Thanh Chuong district is also exploiting the advantage of the Ho Chi Minh route running through it to develop the economy from industrial tea trees and eco-tourism... Thanh Chuong currently has about 4,000 hectares of tea, most of which are in the communes of Hanh Lam, Thanh Mai, Thanh An, Thanh Thuy... In particular, the highlight of Thanh Chuong's tea trees is the Thanh An tea island area, which has attracted many tourists to visit.

Mr. Le Dinh Thanh - Vice Chairman of the District People's Committee said that the locality has advantages in developing buffalo breeding, developing high-tech agriculture, especially developing eco-tourism. Therefore, when the Provincial People's Committee decided to implement a number of projects in the field of safe specialized vegetable production, associated with tourism services; special buffalo breeding projects; fish farming on reservoirs, regenerating and protecting resources associated with tourism services... are advantages for the locality to develop its economy more sustainably.

Each locality that Ho Chi Minh Road runs through has its own advantages in socio-economic development. If Nghia Dan and Thai Hoa town have strengths in growing fruit trees, Tan Ky has advantages in raising livestock, planting forests; Thanh Chuong has advantages in growing industrial tea, eco-tourism, etc. Recognizing these advantages, in recent years these localities have exploited the potential for economic development, creating motivation for people to stabilize their lives.

The forestry seedling nursery industry in Tan Huong commune (Tan Ky) has developed more strongly since the Ho Chi Minh road was completed. Photo: Xuan Hoang

According to the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, along Ho Chi Minh road there are more than 38 thousand hectares specializing in rice production, more than 20 thousand hectares of corn, more than 16 thousand hectares of sugarcane, 6 thousand hectares of cassava, more than 6 thousand hectares of industrial tea, more than 9 thousand hectares of rubber, about 7 thousand hectares of various vegetables and nearly 2 thousand hectares of fruit trees... poultry flock reaches over 6 million... with more than 7 thousand hectares of pond, lake and dam water surface. Localities along Ho Chi Minh road have exploited the potential, planted more than 6 thousand hectares of concentrated raw material forests of acacia and cajuput. That shows that the potential for developing agriculture, forestry, fishery... along Ho Chi Minh road is very large, needing attention, investment and exploitation, to promote household economic development and bring revenue to the state.

Prospects from projects

However, according to the assessment of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, agricultural production in the Ho Chi Minh Road area is not really sustainable, suffering many losses due to natural disasters, epidemics and market fluctuations. There is a lack of connection and production support between localities in the region, between enterprises and people; the value chain linkage between production, processing and consumption is still weak... High-tech agricultural production is still low compared to the potential and advantages of the region, and has not attracted many enterprises to invest in agricultural production. Production methods are still small and fragmented, mainly based on household economy, so product quality management and application of scientific and technological advances are still difficult.

Localities that have Ho Chi Minh Highway running through them all have potential for fruit tree development. Photo: Xuan Hoang

With the goal of promoting the potential advantages of the region to develop large-scale agricultural production in the direction of applying scientific and technological advances and advanced technologies to create growth poles for the overall agricultural production of the whole province, the Provincial People's Committee has issued a Project on developing agricultural production in districts along the Ho Chi Minh Road for the period of 2019-2025, with a vision to 2030. In the period of 2019-2025, the State will invest over 11,000 billion VND to implement the project. Accordingly, in the area of ​​5 districts and towns, priority will be given to investing in implementing 31 projects on agricultural development, high-tech agriculture associated with processing and eco-tourism development.

Ho Chi Minh Road runs through 5 districts and towns of Nghe An. Graphics: Lam Tung

The economic development areas of the Ho Chi Minh trail area are determined by the following sectors and fields: Cultivation, animal husbandry, forestry, aquaculture, agricultural and forestry processing industry and development orientation of other economic types. In addition, investment in developing infrastructure systems to serve agricultural production.

According to the project of Decision No. 3626/QD-UBND dated September 16, 2019 of the Provincial People's Committee, the total investment capital for agricultural development in the region, period 2019 - 2030 is more than 26,492 billion VND. Of which period 2019 - 2025 is more than 11,136 billion VND, period 2016 - 2030 is more than 15,356 billion VND.