Group discussion 2: Only special projects should apply the BT investment form.

Group 2 includes elected provincial People's Council delegates in Vinh City and Cua Lo Town.

Assigned to speak first in the discussion, Delegate Nguyen Thi Dung (Cua Lo Town) said that in order to successfully implement the socio-economic targets for the last 6 months of the year, the Provincial People's Committee should focus on solutions for the budget revenue and expenditure targets.

Overview of the discussion session at group 2. Photo: Duc Anh

Delegate Dung cited that the total production value increased by 14% but tax revenue only reached 18.2%. From now until the end of the year, the province will focus on natural disaster and flood prevention, so the Provincial People's Committee also needs to direct departments and branches to focus on speeding up the progress of projects, otherwise the projects will be greatly affected, difficult to disburse and affect development goals in the context of capital difficulties.

Delegate Nguyen Thi Dung (Cua Lo Town) spoke at the discussion. Photo: Duc Anh

Regarding socio-cultural work, delegate Nguyen Thi Dung said that currently, investment work is mainly focused on rural and mountainous areas, while the needs of urban areas, especially key tourist areas, are also very necessary. To prove this, delegate Nguyen Thi Dung said that currently, Cua Lo town still has many rural wards that need investment support in the socio-cultural field.

Regarding tourism and service activities, delegate Nguyen Thi Dung informed that in the first 6 months of 2018, Cua Lo town attracted nearly 2 million tourists out of a total of about 3.5 million visitors of the province. However, the investment budget for tourism is still low, only about 1 billion VND. This affects the work of introducing, promoting and promoting tourism.

Delegate Cao Tien Trung - Deputy of the Finance - Budget Committee of the Provincial People's Council (Delegate of Vinh City) proposed that the province and departments and branches focus on collecting tax arrears. The delegate said that by May 2018, in Vinh City, there were 13 projects with land debt of about 250 billion VND. The delegate also reflected that the disbursement for basic construction works was still slow, and the planning of the urban area project along Lam River still had many shortcomings. In addition, the planning project of Bach Lieu Street (Ben Thuy Ward - Vinh City) is causing many problems. The planning of dividing and naming this street has caused many controversies and inconsistencies.

Delegate Tran Thanh Thuy - Director of VNPT Nghe An (Vinh City) spoke at the discussion session. Photo: Duc Anh

To successfully achieve the province's growth rate in the last 6 months of 2018, Ms. Tran Thanh Thuy - Director of VNPT Nghe An (deputy of Vinh City) said that one of the solutions is for the Provincial People's Committee to assign and closely link responsibilities with the heads of departments, branches, sectors and localities. On that basis, promote socio-economic tasks.

Regarding the development of provincial enterprises, delegate Tran Thanh Thuy affirmed that these are the cells of the economy, and Nghe An currently has more than 10,000 enterprises. However, 99% of these are small and micro. Therefore, the scale and quality of the system of "economic cells" of Nghe An is still modest. The province has had many policies to develop enterprises, but it is time to review and evaluate the scale, quality, capital, and technology of the enterprise system in the area to improve operational capacity.

Delegate Tran Thanh Thuy also pointed out some shortcomings in administrative reform and advised some solutions to improve public administrative reform activities, solutions to apply information technology to perfect e-government, especially to effectively contribute to administrative reform.

Delegate Nguyen Van Lu - Standing Deputy Secretary of Vinh City (Delegate of Vinh City) spoke at the discussion session. Photo: Duc Anh

Participating in the discussion, delegate Nguyen Van Lu - Standing Deputy Secretary of Vinh City Party Committee reflected on the issue related to the issuance of land use right certificates and apartment certificates. Accordingly, the issue of issuing land use right certificates to communes in Nghi Loc and Hung Nguyen districts merged into Vinh City since 2008 is currently facing many difficulties. The Department of Natural Resources and Environment of the province has contracted with a consulting unit to conduct the measurement, but because this unit does not have enough capacity, it cannot complete the documents according to the process. "Currently, there are thousands of applications for land use right certificates transferred to Vinh City from Nghi Loc and Hung Nguyen districts, which cannot be resolved yet" - delegate Nguyen Van Lu said.

Many apartment buildings in Vinh City have been given to residents before they are completed. Photo courtesy

Regarding apartment buildings in Vinh City, the Standing Deputy Secretary of the Vinh City Party Committee said that there are many projects that have not been completed but people have moved in. When approving the planning of urban areas and apartment buildings, investors all committed to implementing according to the planning, with all construction items, but when approved and built, they did not implement as previously promised. Meanwhile, administrative management is the responsibility of the city, but it cannot be handled. Therefore, the delegate requested that relevant departments and branches take drastic measures with investors in implementing the projects.

Mr. Thai Van Nong - Deputy Director of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment explained some of the contents raised by the delegates. Photo: Duc Anh

Dao Tuan - Duc Anh