3 Transport achievements have important significance in economic development - foreign affairs

(Baonghean) - As the province with the largest area in the country, with diverse terrain and a relatively large border length, building and upgrading synchronous transport infrastructure is one of the top priority tasks for Nghe An to become the economic and social center of the region.

Nghe An's 3rd vital traffic axis: prospects for the West

Western Nghe An is one of the three key economic regions of the province, with advantages in mineral resources, raw material areas and a favorable geographical location for international trade. However, the potential of Western Nghe An has not been exploited and promoted adequately, for many reasons. Unsynchronized transport infrastructure is one of them.

The 11 mountainous districts of Nghe An province were previously "divided" into two independent routes along the two parallel routes of National Highway 7 and National Highway 48. Many ethnic villages of the Mong, Thai, Kho Mu, and O Du ethnic groups live in isolated highlands, with limited trade and travel, so their socio-economic development lags behind other areas. In particular, these are also border areas with complicated political security situations.

The Western route opens up new prospects for one of the three key economic regions of Nghe An.

In the context of that urgent need, the investment project to build the western Nghe An route was approved by the Ministry of Transport in Decision No. 1619/QD-GTVT dated May 12, 2005 and approved by the People's Committee of Nghe An province in Decision No. 5862/QD.UBND.CN dated December 7, 2010 with a total investment of VND 2,127 billion from government bond capital, with a total route length of 186 km.

Phase I from Km0 - Km94 was completed, connecting National Highway 48 with Laos as well as the western part of Thanh Hoa province. Phase II from Km94 - Km216, after a period of interrupted construction due to difficulties in capital and construction conditions, under the strong direction of the Nghe An Provincial Party Committee and People's Committee and the great efforts of the Transport sector, has "heated up" again since the beginning of 2014.

In addition, the Department of Transport also focused on directing the completion and putting into use the Chau Thon - Tan Xuan road construction investment project connecting Quy Hop, Tan Ky and Que Phong districts.

These two routes play a role in establishing a continuous route in the western region of Nghe An, connecting National Highway 7, National Highway 48 and Ho Chi Minh Road, connecting the border gates of Na Meo (Thanh Hoa), Thong Thu (Que Phong), Nam Can (Ky Son), Tam Hop (Tuong Duong) of Nghe An with the eastern provinces of Laos.

The new Western route not only brings a new mindset and determination to the highland people on the path to escape poverty, improve their lives and awareness, but is also a positive signal for investors to come to Nghe An. A typical example is that in many meetings with provincial leaders, the representative leaders of Ton Hoa Sen Group expressed their desire to exploit and further promote the geographical advantages of Nghe An, expanding business activities to neighboring countries Laos and Thailand by road.

The new routes to the West are also routes of hope and prospect to elevate a vast land with abundant potential of Nghe An.

International airport - worthy of regional gateway

Vinh Airport was built by the French colonialists in 1937, located next to National Highway 1A, near the North-South railway and 14km from Cua Lo beach. The growth rate of Vinh Airport in recent years has reached 15-30%/year, the highest in the country. In 2014, Vinh Airport welcomed 1.2 million passengers.

To meet the increasing demand of passengers in and out of the province, in April 2014, the project "Passenger Terminal - Vinh Airport" was started by the Vietnam Airports Corporation with a capital of nearly 800 billion VND. On January 15, 2015, the new terminal began trial operation, ensuring the synchronization and safety of the system, with the capacity to serve 2 million passengers/year, 1,000 passengers/peak hour.

On January 16, 2015, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung signed a decision approving the addition of Vinh airport to the national international airport planning network. This not only affirms the role of Vinh airport in the civil aviation network of the Northern region, but also shows the high appreciation for Nghe An - in the position of a gateway province of the Central region, on the way to rise to the level of a socio-economic center of the region.

Inside the new Vinh Airport.

If the Western Nghe An route mainly brings benefits in terms of trade and economic development, upgrading Vinh Airport to an international airport plays an important role in developing services, especially tourism services. With a frequency of 26 flights/day, an international route Vinh - Vientiane and plans to open other international direct flights in the near future, Vinh Airport will actively contribute to promoting the brand and image of Nghe An to domestic and international tourists, while serving the travel needs of passengers in the province.

According to the general assessment of tourism companies in the province, the tourism season at the end of 2015 promises to be more exciting than every year with the number of visitors registering for domestic tours increasing by 5-7%, one of the reasons for this growth is due to the reduction in transportation costs, diverse travel routes, creating favorable conditions for tourists. It can be affirmed that the contribution of Vinh International Airport in the above figures is completely positive and will certainly increase in the coming time.

Cua Lo Port - a promising destination for maritime transport

In July 2015, for the first time, Cua Lo port welcomed a ship with a capacity of over 23,000 tons after completing phase 1 of the project to upgrade the channel for fully loaded 100,000 DWT ships. This is a remarkable event in the process of building and operating Cua Lo port, marking a new step forward in exploiting and using the abundant marine potential of Nghe An province.

The project to upgrade the channel for 10,000 DWT ships fully loaded into Cua Lo Port has a total investment of more than 375.6 billion VND and the investment phase of phase 1 is 179.3 billion VND, to implement the dredging of the channel to -7.2m and invest in a synchronous buoy signaling system (in which, the width of the channel at the dredged bottom is 100m; the depth of the ship running is 9.3m; the water level for the ship running is +2.5m; the elevation of the dredged bottom is -7.2m; and 2 new sets of buoy signaling are installed). Phase 2 is 196.2 billion VND, building a 250m long South dike. To date, phase 1 has been completed.

Immediately, the attraction of Cua Lo port to shipping companies in particular and businesses in general has increased significantly. Many large tonnage ships that used to choose Hai Phong Port and Vung Ang Port now come to Cua Lo Port.

Loading and unloading goods at Cua Lo Port.

Data for the first 7 months of 2015 shows that the volume of goods passing through Cua Lo Port reached more than 1.6 million tons; since July, there have been 6 times of ships with a capacity of 14,000-16,000 tons entering and exiting. In particular, the items with large output are Containers, wood chips, fertilizers, beef, etc.

In addition to new partners and shipping lines, long-term customers of Cua Lo Port also promptly seized the favorable opportunity when the Port was upgraded to invest in improving cargo transport capacity. Among them, Nhat Viet Nghe An Joint Stock Company, from operating 1 container ship with a capacity of nearly 10,000 tons in 2008, has now invested in 2 more large-capacity container ships with 8 trips in and out of Cua Lo Port each month. This is one of the examples showing the two-way stimulation of supply and demand, bringing benefits and development motivation to both sides.

Identified as one of the main pillars in socio-economic development, with the drastic and close direction of the Provincial Party Committee and Provincial People's Committee, with remarkable self-efforts, the Transport sector has achieved many outstanding results in 2015. This is even more meaningful for the time marking the end of a term with the role of a premise for breakthrough developments.

In particular, in the coming time, when the integration trend becomes the main development orientation, with the strong development of ASEAN and international trade agreements, the development of transport infrastructure will increasingly affirm its role and advantages, actively contributing to bringing Nghe An to new heights in the domestic and international regions.

Thuc Anh