Nghe An's vision and development thinking in the face of new opportunities and challenges

(Baonghean) - This week's "Forum" column of Nghe An Newspaper respectfully introduces an article by Provincial Party Secretary Nguyen Dac Vinh with his dedicated orientations and opinions to build Nghe An, Uncle Ho's homeland, to become increasingly developed.

Nghe An is a land of "spiritual land and talented people", with many potentials and strengths for development: the largest area in the country, large population; diverse geographical and economic conditions: sea, mountains, plains, rich mineral resources and intelligent human resources, abundant labor force.

In the near future, Nghe An will be located on the North-South Expressway, the Hanoi - Vientiane Expressway, the gateway to the Pacific Ocean of Laos, Northern Thailand and many other lands. Nghe An is planned to build an International Seaport, International Airport and Thanh Thuy International Border Gate, with a railway running through it.

Industrial parks are being built and completed in terms of technical infrastructure to welcome investors, including VSIP Industrial Park and Hemaraj Industrial Park, which promise many prospects... In particular, Nghe An is famous for its patriotic and revolutionary traditions, being the birthplace of President Ho Chi Minh and many other historical figures and revolutionary leaders.

These are great potential strengths, forming favorable prerequisites for Nghe An to develop.

Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue and delegates pressed the button to start the MDF production line (Nghia Dan).

In the recent period, implementing the Party's innovation policy, with the attention and active support of the Central Committee, especially Resolution 26 of the Politburo, Nghe An - with the combined strength of the Party Committee, government and people, has persistently overcome all difficulties and challenges, strived to escape poverty and rise up strongly, achieving many important achievements in the aspects of socio-economic development, national defense - security and Party building.

Comrades Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee Nguyen Dac Vinh and Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Xuan Duong exchanged with comrade Tran Quoc Vuong - Politburo member, Secretary of the Party Central Committee, Chairman of the Central Inspection Commission.

Nghe An has begun to choose a new development approach, in line with the general trend of the times and the country with the spirit of "breakthrough development": Developing the economy in the direction of high technology, high added value on the basis of promoting human and intellectual strengths; considering the private enterprise sector as an important driving force for development, prioritizing urban development, first of all Vinh city, into growth centers in the direction of modernity - high-quality integration; linking the development of specialty agriculture, high added value with the development of classy and different tourism...

Although the achievements in the recent period are spectacular, but strictly assessed, Nghe An is still not a rich province, has not yet established a solid foundation and strong development momentum to rise up, create a breakthrough development; the income of 29 million VND/person/year only reaches 70% of the average income of the whole country. The business force is quite large but not strong, if not weak according to international competition standards.

The capacity to attract investment from outside the province, especially attracting FDI from strategic investors, is still very low. Nghe An's Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI) in 2015 ranked 32nd out of 63 provinces and cities. This means that Nghe An's tradition of hospitality and respect for people is not strong enough to overcome bureaucracy, to be able to break away from the "carpet-laying" investment attraction method. Nghe An, to this day, has not yet become a "fairly prosperous province" of the country as Uncle Ho expected.

Scene of the opening ceremony of Yen Xuan road bridge. Photo: Thanh Cuong

That is really the biggest concern of the land famous for “loving to study” and “good at studying”. In the past, Nghe An was proud of being “poor but good at studying”. Now, we have to turn to the question: Why are good at studying but still not rich?

When and how can Nghe An escape that paradox? The familiar assertion that “Nghe An’s development is not commensurate with its potential, its strengths have not been promoted” is still true. It is clear that it needs to be rethought to suit the reality and new conditions, which is an urgent issue today.

Along with the whole country, Nghe An is entering a new stage of development - a stage of development in a high-level international integration environment. This is an environment that contains many opportunities and challenges - but opportunities and challenges at a new level, new quality. The international context has many profound, unusual and unpredictable changes.

The development approach towards high technology, not pursuing short-term benefits but ignoring environmental issues, oriented towards international integration, relying on global production chains and linking with strategic investors must be the main approach, dominating the thinking and development vision of Nghe An, must be thoroughly understood and understood, on that basis, strategic goals and appropriate solutions are set.

In the new development stage, in order to meet the requirements of practice and effectively carry out the tasks identified in the Documents of the 12th National Party Congress and the 18th Provincial Party Congress, along with the objectives and requirements of Resolution No. 26 of the Politburo on Nghe An development, there are a series of issues that require the Party Committee, government and people of Nghe An to make great efforts to resolve.

Construction of Nghi Thiet port (Nghi Loc).

In terms of orientation, Nghe An must set the goal of “breaking through to move forward”. This is also the consistent guiding ideology of the Party - breaking through to escape the current difficult and slow state; moving forward to quickly escape the state of “development lag”.

For Nghe An, it must be like that and even more. Without acting with the spirit of “breakthrough - progress”, Nghe An will not be able to mobilize, utilize and promote its potential - strengths, especially the strength of human resources, including the great strength of more than 500,000 Nghe An people living and working outside the province and abroad.

Regarding vision, Nghe An must thoroughly grasp the idea of ​​“developing in an integrated environment, relying on integration, meeting integration requirements and aiming to achieve integration goals”. This vision is consistent with the idea of ​​“breakthrough development to advance”.

It contains a modern development approach: “in an environment of international integration, there is no fear of lack of capital and technology, only fear of lack of right policies”. This approach is particularly suitable for Nghe An’s conditions: the province is still poor but has great potential; with the right policies, integration itself will bring Nghe An the breakthrough strength to move forward.

Regarding development planning, based on the above-mentioned viewpoints, visions and development approaches, Nghe An also needs to have strong changes, based on re-evaluating development advantages from the perspective of international integration and competition.

From that perspective, the consistent perspective of planning must be based on development advantages, combined with high-tech oriented thinking to prioritize the development of industries and regions, create differences and reach global standards.

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

According to this orientation, Nghe An will prioritize the development of an industry-region complex with the following main "Nghe An characteristics":

First: Developing special agricultural products - unique, with high added value potential (very potential in Nghe An, especially in the western mountainous region), clean and based on high technology. That high-class agriculture is one of the important links to implement the province's high-class tourism development strategy.

Second: Developing high-class tourism based on rich and unique tourism resources (unique to Nghe An): Cua Lo beach, Pu Mat primeval forest, Lam river, Uncle Ho's hometown and historical figures; cultural and spiritual heritages (Vi Giam, Con temple, Qua Son temple, Dai Tue pagoda...) and historical and revolutionary relics. Early establishment of fundamental conditions to upgrade the tourism industry, connecting Nghe An tourism with national and international tourism must be considered as the main activities to develop Nghe An tourism in the coming period.

Sang Le Forest (buffer zone of Pu Mat National Park). Photo: Tran Duy Ngoan

Third: Focus on building and completing technical infrastructure, especially traffic infrastructure, reforming administration towards service, transparency and efficiency; promulgating and amending policies to create favorable conditions for businesses and investors. Orientation to attract investment for industrial development of the province along two priority routes. One is high-tech orientation, in the first steps, focusing on appropriate technology. Second is focusing on attracting strategic investors, strong corporations to create breakthroughs and increase investment attractiveness. Institutional reform, innovation of government activities towards creating maximum convenience for investors must be the top priority task and must be of the highest compulsory nature, subject to the highest supervision and responsibility sanctions of the provincial government.

Fourth: Develop Vinh city to be the center of the North Central region in the spirit of Resolution No. 26 of the Politburo. In the next 10 years, Vinh must become a true regional growth center, capable of converging and spreading strong development. Vinh must be a smart city, a center for training high-quality human resources at regional and international levels, a city with high development appeal because of the Central region's and Nghe An's qualities - intelligent, energetic and generous.

Fifth: Focus on implementing the new rural program effectively and in the right direction of socialism. The two main priority directions are to focus on creating development capacity for farmers and rural areas, taking farmers as the main subject and rural areas as the locality; ensuring that rural people enjoy development benefits fairly and increasingly. Breakthrough development must not forget the lives of the people, especially rural people and the poor.

Reality shows that development is always a difficult task. For Nghe An to develop and achieve the above-mentioned ambitious goals, the level of difficulty is certainly much higher. Therefore, based on the tasks identified in the Documents of the 12th National Party Congress and the 18th Provincial Party Congress, Resolution No. 26 of the Politburo, Nghe An needs to pay special attention to and truly mobilize all human resources and social and natural conditions of the province.

That responsibility belongs to the Party Committee, the government and the people of Nghe An. At the same time, the attention of the Party, the State, the ministries, departments and central agencies creates conditions for "Nghe An to soon become a prosperous province" as Uncle Ho always wished.

Nguyen Dac Vinh- Member of the Party Central Committee, Secretary of Nghe An Provincial Party Committee