Developing Western Nghe An: Should have more perspectives from foreign experts

Mr. Truong Dinh Tuyen "gives advice" to develop the economy of Western Nghe An

(Baonghean.vn) - To develop the economy of Western Nghe An, we must first shift from the mindset of developing comprehensive agriculture to the mindset of multifunctional agriculture based on comparative advantages. We need to get rid of the inherent way of thinking about agricultural production activities, and define agriculture as a food production industry.

Provincial Party Secretary: Increase responsibility and enthusiasm for the development of the West

(Baonghean.vn) - That was the emphasis of Provincial Party Secretary Nguyen Dac Vinh to departments and branches when speaking at the scientific workshop "Orientation for development of Western Nghe An to 2020, vision 2030" organized by the Provincial People's Committee in coordination with the Vietnam Economic Institute on the morning of June 19 in Con Cuong district.

In recent years, the province's economy has had impressive development, clearly shown through GDP growth, strong investment attraction, infrastructure modernization and a marked improvement in the lives of many people in coastal areas, along National Highway 1A such as Vinh city, Cua Lo town, Nghi Loc, Dien Chau, Quynh Luu districts, Hoang Mai town and other district centers.

However, if we continue to focus on developing along the North-South axis in coastal areas and along National Highway 1A with more favorable conditions, while neglecting the East-West axis including the western districts of Nghe An, then in just a few years the difference in economic development between the North-South axis and the East-West axis will lead to many consequences that seriously affect the overall development of the province, national security and defense, and social security.

Therefore, Resolution 26 of the Politburo on the direction and tasks of developing Nghe An province until 2020 determined that "Investing in socio-economic development of the Western Nghe An region into one of the three key economic regions of the province, linking raw material areas with exploitation and processing of minerals, agricultural and industrial products" along with the Project on socio-economic development of the Western Nghe An province until 2020 approved by the Prime Minister in Decision No. 2355 dated December 4, 2013 is an inevitable, timely and completely correct policy of the Party and State for the development of the Western Nghe An region.

Western Nghe An.

Along with the determination in directing the implementation of the above policies, the provincial leaders have also been very receptive in listening to the opinions of the people, grassroots cadres, experts, and scientists, through organizing meetings with voters, investigations, and field surveys of state agencies, press agencies of the provincial Party Committee, direct meetings with secretaries and commune chairmen, and specialized scientific seminars.

On June 19, through following the scientific workshop "Orientation for development of Western Nghe An to 2020, vision to 2030" organized by the Provincial People's Committee in coordination with the Vietnam Economic Institute in Con Cuong district, we clearly felt the enthusiasm and concerns of the provincial leaders, experts and scientists through the serious and urgent atmosphere of the workshop and the content of the presentations and speeches.

Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Dinh Thien delivered a keynote speech at the scientific workshop "Orientation for development of Western Nghe An to 2020, vision to 2030" organized by the Provincial People's Committee in coordination with the Vietnam Economic Institute on the morning of June 19 in Con Cuong district. Photo: Document.

In such a general context, we would like to contribute some opinions to the Organizing Committee and leaders of Nghe An province about the specialized scientific seminars on the development of Western Nghe An.

1. To develop the Western region, we need many sources of capital: budget, domestic investors, foreign investors. The reality in our province shows that only by strongly attracting foreign investment can we create breakthrough development. However, although the Workshop invited many experts and scientists with experience in policy, macroeconomics, and deep understanding of Nghe An province in general and Western Nghe An in particular, the Workshop did not have the participation of foreign experts and scientists. Their opinions may stimulate other perspectives, creating breakthroughs; especially in the context of international integration and attracting foreign investment to the Western region.

I think that attracting foreign investment with the perspective of foreign experts will be more favorable. In addition to maintaining contact with experts who are former provincial leaders and scientists from the Vietnam Economic Institute, the province should contact and maintain contact with foreign experts and scientists who conduct research on development. In the immediate future, it is possible to contact through the introduction of large foreign investors who are present in the province.

2. The conference has not yet ordered presentations from the largest foreign industrial park investors currently investing in Nghe An such as VSIP (Singapore) and Hemaraj (Thailand). More than anyone else, they have decided to invest thousands of billions of VND in Nghe An, so they certainly have valuable internal research, along with a team of experienced project development research experts, trained abroad. They will have objective assessments of the situation and development potential of the province, including the Western region, and at the same time, they clearly understand and will express the wishes that foreign investors need when deciding to invest in the Western region.

Signing of investment cooperation agreement between Nghe An province and Hemaraj Group (Thailand). Photo: Archive

3. We share Mr. Truong Dinh Tuyen's opinion: "We need to get rid of the inherent thinking about agricultural production activities, we must define agriculture as a food and foodstuff production industry". As a food and foodstuff production industry, in addition to planning and developing raw material areas, planning and building production factories is an inevitable requirement. Meanwhile, the Workshop did not mention much about developing large-scale industrial parks (over 1,000 hectares), creating infrastructure for factories processing agricultural, forestry and mineral products.

Former Minister of Trade Truong Dinh Tuyen speaks at a workshop on the development of Western Nghe An. Photo: document.

Reality has shown that if only small industrial clusters and individual factories are developed, there will be many difficulties in investing in synchronous industrial infrastructure, fire prevention and fighting, wastewater and solid waste treatment systems, and environmental protection during operation. Planning to develop large industrial parks is an important basis to attract large foreign industrial park investors and through them, attract secondary investors as is happening in VSIP Nghe An Industrial Park and Hemaraj Industrial Park.

4. In the 10th Nghe An Investors Meeting in March 2018, the provincial leaders as well as many experts and investors agreed that the logistics system is an important bottleneck that needs to be resolved in industrial development in Nghe An, and the province has been promoting public investment as well as attracting foreign investment in this field. However, the Conference did not have the participation of experts and did not mention much about this important logistics sector. Meanwhile, with a distance of more than 200km from the westernmost part of Nghe An to Vinh city, Cua Lo port, Vinh airport, if the logistics connection system is not fully and synchronously developed, even with large investments, the West will still be separated from the general industrial development of the province.

In conclusion, organizing seminars on the development of Western Nghe An such as the seminar on June 19 in Con Cuong is the right and practical thing to do and should be done regularly. The following seminars should expand the participation of foreign experts and scientists, experts from foreign enterprises investing in industrial parks in Nghe An and experts from many different fields such as logistics, international trade, etc. With such multi-dimensional perspectives, the provincial leaders will receive many new opinions, valuable references to make appropriate decisions to promote the breakthrough development of Western Nghe An as the policy of the Party, the State and the people's expectations.