The strong rise of Nghe An 'brand'

(Baonghean) - What is truly new, the unique mark of 2016 - is the development of the 'Nghe An brand'.

The year 2016 has passed with many remarkable events inside and outside the province. As the third year of implementing Resolution 26 of the Politburo, the first year of implementing the Resolution of the 18th Provincial Party Congress, the achievements that our province has achieved in the past year are signals for an upcoming period of prosperity in both economy and society.

Inauguration and opening ceremony of Yen Xuan road bridge over Lam river on September 3, 2016. Photo: Archive

Inheriting the positive results of investment promotion in 2015, last year continued to be a successful year in attracting investment in the province. In 2016, 120 new projects were granted and adjusted, with a total investment capital of more than 30,955 billion VND; 6 new ODA projects were approved with a total investment capital of 657.21 billion VND. The scale of investment projects in the province also increased significantly when more and more large domestic and foreign investors chose Nghe An as their base. Besides some names that quickly made their mark and established a foothold in the area such as Ton Hoa Sen, Massan, The Vissai, VSIP, TH,... investors who came to Nghe An for the first time such as Vingroup with the Vinpearl Cua Hoi Project, or the leading Thai group Hemaraj (choosing Nghe An as the first destination when coming to Vietnam) are all enterprises that have a great influence on the domestic and regional economy.

Processing canned fish at Royalfood factory (Southeast Economic Zone). Photo: Archive.

In addition, 2016 continued to witness the strong development of small and medium-sized projects of investors with a long history of operations in the province, typically Muong Thanh Group with a series of 4 and 5-star hotels, commercial centers and eco-resorts opened in many districts and cities of Nghe An in the past year. In addition, the province issued a plan to implement Resolution No. 35/NQ-CP of the Government on supporting and developing enterprises, so in the year, it granted new business registration certificates to 1,874 enterprises, an increase of 11.08% over the same period. This shows that the business and development of investors in Nghe An is quite favorable.

In addition to the results in attracting investment, in 2016 we continued to pay attention and focus on infrastructure, especially transport and urban infrastructure. This is also one of the important tasks identified from the 17th Provincial Party Congress and continued to be emphasized in the 18th Provincial Party Congress, with the goal of building a solid foundation for socio-economic development towards industrialization and modernization, catching up with and meeting national and international standards. Along with the new rural construction program and the focus on urban development of all kinds, Nghe An has had a clear "change of skin" with a more synchronous intra-provincial road system, connecting central areas to special areas.

In the future, when we have inter-provincial and even inter-national projects such as the Hanoi - Thanh Thuy highway, the Tay Nghe An road connecting to Laos and Northeast Thailand, the second runway of Vinh international airport,... surely Nghe An's connectivity and integration will reach even higher.

Vinh City is striving to become the center of the North Central region. Photo: Thanh Cuong.

Recently, when talking about Nghe An, we must talk about the growth rate (7.5%/year 2016); the province with a budget revenue of over 10,000 billion VND; the focus on building new rural areas (149 communes meeting new rural standards); and the speed of hunger eradication and poverty reduction.

The above achievements are all inherited and continued from the foundation of 2015 and the previous term of the Provincial Party Congress. What I consider to be truly new, a unique mark of 2016, is the development of the Nghe An brand; Nghe An children are good at studying; get high scores in university entrance exams (typically students of Phan Boi Chau High School for the Gifted); being 10 centers of the North Central provinces in finance, trade, tourism, education - training, science - technology, health, culture, sports, high-tech industry. Previously, when mentioning Nghe An, domestic and foreign friends often only thought of President Ho Chi Minh; Kim Lien, Nam Dan or Cua Lo beach. This means that the understanding of people outside the province about Nghe An is still quite limited, partly because in the past we have not promoted the promotion of our province to friends outside the province.

Meanwhile, Nghe An can be compared to a miniature Vietnam thanks to its diversity in geography, natural resources, historical and cultural heritage. We have many strengths, values, and potentials that have not been fully exploited and not properly promoted - in the current integration trend, if we continue to "forget" those inherent potentials, it would be a pity.

Realizing the value of Nghe An's potential and products, in recent times we have promoted and innovated the way of promoting and building brands. The first thing is to identify potential products, which can be local products such as Vinh oranges, Van Phan fish sauce, Nam Dan soy sauce, Hung Nguyen crabs, and products from the West (Quy duck, young pig, Ky Son taro, Que Phong passion fruit, Quy Chau incense, etc.). In addition, we also have many spiritual and intangible products such as holidays, cultural and spiritual festivals; folk songs, Vi Giam; cultural and ethnic diversity... these are all great potentials for developing tourism - a smokeless industry that is very popular in the world. Especially in Asia in general, Southeast Asia in particular is considered a favorite destination for tourists around the world in recent times; That is a golden opportunity that Nghe An must seize to fully promote its inherent advantages.

Con Cuong District Party Secretary Nguyen Dinh Hung (left) discusses with households about techniques for caring for oranges for high productivity. Photo: PV

However, it must be admitted that Nghe An branded products have not yet established a solid position in the market and are not widely known nationally and regionally. That is because we have not built a brand in a professional and meticulous manner, but have mostly stopped at the spontaneous level, using the brand according to the small-scale farmer mindset. For example, Vinh oranges should have had a strong position in the domestic market, because since the last century, Vinh oranges have been recognized for their value. Vinh oranges were even exported to foreign countries at one time.

However, currently, despite having a geographical indication certificate, orange trees in Nghe An are still growing spontaneously, without management in terms of brand, production and consumption processes, leading to unevenness and inconsistency in quality. There are even areas where oranges are grown that are not under geographical indication but still “claim” to be Vinh Oranges, or some people import oranges from other sources and hang Vinh Orange signs to increase the selling price. Such actions may bring very small benefits to some individuals, but have a huge impact on the Vinh Orange brand, causing consumers to misjudge or not recognize this brand.

Recently, we successfully organized the Sunflower Festival in Nghia Dan district. This can be considered an example of the branding process. The sunflower field (owned by TH Group) has just been put into operation for tourism since last year. With positive feedback from the people and strong participation of the media, it has created a relatively good reputation inside and outside the province. After only one "season" of flowers, we have proactively planned to organize activities associated with the sunflower field, satellite services to serve the needs of tourists to increase the economic value that the sunflower field brings. In the long term, if we can maintain these activities, we will create a new tourist destination in Western Nghe An. It is worth mentioning that this will be a completely "artificial" tourist destination, so there is no reason why our natural tourist destinations cannot be developed.

Homeland scenery. Photo: Ho Long

The general trend of the world (and Vietnam is no exception) today can be mentioned as the "start-up" trend of young enterprises. In which, building and identifying the brand is considered one of the keys for enterprises to survive in the competitive market with many opportunities but also very harsh. Nghe An can also be considered a new "start-up" in the integration race.

With the available advantages and a focused and focused infrastructure, our next important task is to build a truly sustainable Nghe An brand. Only then can Nghe An reach further, higher, achieving the goal of becoming the "locomotive" province of the North Central region as set out in Resolution 26 of the Politburo.

Nguyen Xuan Duong

Deputy Secretary of Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of Nghe An Provincial People's Committee