Many suggestions to help Nghe An trade and services develop

Overview of the workshop. Photo: Thu Huyen

The workshop took place on the morning of August 18 with the participation of comrades: Truong Dinh Tuyen - Former member of the Party Central Committee, former Minister of Trade, former Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee; Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Dinh Thien - Former Director of the Vietnam Economic Institute; Ho Xuan Hung - Chairman of the Vietnam Association of Agriculture and Rural Development, and many scientists from departments, offices and institutes.

On the side of Nghe An province, there were comrades: Thai Thanh Quy - Alternate member of the Party Central Committee, Head of the Provincial Party Committee's Mass Mobilization Commission; Le Xuan Dai - Member of the Provincial Party Committee's Standing Committee, Permanent Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee; Le Hong Vinh - Member of the Provincial Party Committee's Standing Committee, Head of the Provincial Party Committee's Inspection Commission; representatives of leaders of departments, branches and sectors.

Speaking at the opening of the workshop, Permanent Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Le Xuan Dai emphasized: In recent times, with the attention of the Party, the State and central ministries and branches, along with the efforts of authorities at all levels from the province to the grassroots in promoting and exploiting the potentials and strengths of the locality, conditions have been created for the trade and service sector of Nghe An to develop and achieve many remarkable achievements.

Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Le Xuan Dai delivered the opening speech at the workshop. Photo: Thu Huyen

Trade and service activities have developed rapidly and diversified in many fields and regions. The average service production value in the 2016 - 2018 period increased by 7.1%/target of 9 - 10%. Total retail sales of goods and consumer service revenue in the 2016 - 2018 period increased by 11.8%. In 2016, it reached 61,632 billion VND, of which retail sales reached 42,705 billion VND; in 2017, it reached 69,388 billion VND, of which total retail sales reached 47,564 billion VND. In 2018, it is estimated to reach 75,400 billion VND, of which total retail sales of goods are estimated at 53,700 billion VND.

Trade and services have developed rapidly with the participation of many economic sectors, and business methods have become increasingly modern. Up to now, the province has over 5,500 enterprises and over 143,000 individual business households operating in the trade and services sector; the total average annual production and business capital of enterprises and business households has reached nearly 150,000 billion VND; the labor force in the trade and services sector is about 290,200 people, accounting for approximately 15.6% of the total labor force in the province.

However, Nghe An's trade and service activities still have many limitations and shortcomings. Standing Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Le Xuan Dai hopes that scientists and experts from central ministries and branches will clarify the current state of Nghe An's trade and service from practical summaries. At the same time, analyze and identify the context and conditions for development in the coming period; provide information and scientific arguments; share valuable experiences to help Nghe An fulfill the set targets.

Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Dinh Thien - Former Director of Vietnam Economic Institute spoke at the conference.Photo: Thu Huyen

At the workshop, experts and scientists discussed many issues to propose solutions for the development of trade and tourism in the province. The workshop analyzed the opportunities and challenges for the development of trade and services in Nghe An in the context of international integration; solutions to attract investment projects to develop trade and services infrastructure in Nghe An province until 2020, with a vision to 2025; solutions to improve the competitiveness of enterprises and products. The workshop also analyzed and forecasted the development of trade and services in the world and assessed the impact of the 4th industrial revolution on the development of trade and services in Nghe An until 2025...

Creating a market for service development

Sharing at the workshop, former member of the Party Central Committee, former Minister of Trade Truong Dinh Tuyen said that the issue of international economic integration with joining the WTO and participating in many free trade agreements, including new generation agreements such as CPTPP, VEFTA opens up great opportunities but also poses many challenges in the service development of the province, especially challenges for service providers of Nghe An in particular and Vietnamese enterprises operating in the area in general.

Former member of the Party Central Committee and former Minister of Trade Truong Dinh Tuyen spoke about the opportunities and challenges in service development in Nghe An in the context of international economic integration. Photo: Thu Huyen

"Competition between localities in improving the business environment to attract investment will increase while Nghe An is not yet among the top localities in the country in terms of PCI index, only ranked 20th but the criteria for measuring the quality of the public apparatus are at a low level. Competition between domestic and foreign service providers is also increasing, while Nghe An enterprises operating in their homeland are mostly small-scale and have little capital. People's living standards are lower than the national average... those are challenges for Nghe An" - Mr. Truong Dinh Tuyen emphasized.

With a long-term vision, former Minister Truong Dinh Tuyen suggested solutions for competition between localities in improving the business environment; having a mechanism to encourage investment in manufacturing industry, creating a market for service development as well as strongly developing logistics services, building logistics centers in Vinh city, Thai Hoa town, Hoang Mai with appropriate scale; creating connections between the inner-province regions as well as neighboring provinces to develop goods circulation, increase the value of distribution services and develop tourism services...

Loading and unloading goods at Cua Lo port. Photo: Thu Huyen

Need to change the ideology of "prioritizing agriculture and despising commerce"

On the other hand, Mr. Ho Xuan Hung - Chairman of the Vietnam Association of Agriculture and Rural Development emphasized the importance of trade based on the analysis of the problem of agricultural products being in a situation of good harvest but low price, good price but bad harvest. He said that taking care of commercial consumption is not getting much attention. Trade is going a step behind, only focusing on production without paying much attention to trade, therefore, Nghe An needs to reorganize trade, especially paying attention to developing wholesale markets. Because according to the delegate, wholesale markets are the gatekeepers of food safety, taking care of safe products, ensuring human longevity; and are a direct bridge between production and consumption.

"Nghe An has the mindset of "prioritizing agriculture and despising commerce" - if it doesn't change, it will be difficult to develop" - the Chairman of the Vietnam Association of Agriculture and Rural Development worries.

Also this morning, the workshop heard a number of presentations such as Solutions to improve the competitiveness of businesses and products of Nghe An by Dr. Nguyen Dinh Cung - Director of the Vietnam Institute for Economic Management Research; Forecasting the development of trade and services in the world and assessing the impact of the 4th industrial revolution on the development of trade and services in Vietnam and Nghe An by 2025 presented by Dr. Pham Ngoc Hai - Deputy Director, in charge of the Institute for Strategy and Policy Research of Industry and Trade...

Concluding the workshop, Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Le Xuan Dai acknowledged and highly appreciated the frank and enthusiastic opinions of the delegates for Nghe An. This is one of the important events to evaluate and review the results of implementing the goals of the Party's Resolution, and at the same time as a message about the concerns and aspirations of the leaders and people of Nghe An to seek and determine the direction for the development of Trade - Service activities of the province, contributing to helping Nghe An soon complete the goal of becoming a trade and service center of the North Central region.

"After this workshop, I request the Department of Industry and Trade to coordinate with departments, branches, sectors and localities to absorb and synthesize the opinions of delegates for research, continue to advise on the implementation and completion of the program contents and goals of the Resolution of the 18th Nghe An Provincial Party Congress and Resolution 26/NQ.BCT of the Politburo", Comrade Le Xuan Dai emphasized.