Thanh Hoa - Nghe An - Ha Tinh held a conference to review 1 year of implementing the Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation.

Attending the conference on Central leadership were comrades: Nguyen Dac Vinh - Member of the Party Central Committee, Member of the National Assembly Standing Committee, Chairman of the National Assembly's Committee on Culture and Education; Tran Duy Dong - Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment. Regarding the leadership of Military Region 4, there was Lieutenant General Ha Tho Binh - Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee, Commander of the Military Region.

The conference was chaired by members of the Party Central Committee: Thai Thanh Quy - Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Council, Head of the Provincial National Assembly Delegation; Do Trong Hung - Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Council, Head of the Provincial National Assembly Delegation of Thanh Hoa province; Hoang Trung Dung - Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Council, Head of the Provincial National Assembly Delegation of Ha Tinh province.

The leaders of Thanh Hoa province include comrades: Lai The Nguyen - Standing Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Head of the Provincial National Assembly Delegation; Do Minh Tuan - Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee.

Leaders of Nghe An province include comrades: Nguyen Duc Trung - Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee; Hoang Nghia Hieu - Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee.

The leaders of Ha Tinh province include comrades: Tran The Dung - Standing Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee; Vo Trong Hai - Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee.

Also attending were members of the Provincial Party Standing Committee; Vice Chairman of the People's Council, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee, Deputy Head of the Provincial National Assembly Delegation; Chief of Office of the Provincial Party Committee, Provincial People's Committee and the National Assembly Delegation - People's Council and leaders of provincial departments, agencies... of the three provinces of Thanh Hoa - Nghe An - Ha Tinh.

STRENGTHENING, FOSTERING, DEEPENING COOPERATIONAL RELATIONSHIPS

The three provinces of Thanh Hoa - Nghe An - Ha Tinh have many similar conditions in terms of geography, people and history; located in an important strategic position, in the North of the North Central region and the Central Coast, accounting for 10.1% of the country's area.

Regional cooperation in development has been an inevitable trend that the Party and the State have paid attention to and directed. In recent times, the three provinces have strengthened their links and cooperation, especially on September 16, 2022, in Sam Son City (Thanh Hoa), the leaders of the three provinces signed a Memorandum of Understanding on development cooperation for the period 2022 - 2025.

After 1 year of implementing the cooperation program, many results have been achieved in the fields such as: Mobilizing, attracting investment, developing infrastructure; industry and trade; agriculture and rural development; tourism; culture, sports; education - training; health; labor; national defense - security; Party building; ...

The results achieved are of great significance, contributing to promoting the socio-economic development of each locality and continuing to strengthen the long-term cooperative relationship between localities, positively contributing to the overall development results of the region and the whole country.

Thanh Hoa Province:The growth rate of gross regional domestic product (GRDP) in 2023 is estimated at 7.01% (ranking 29th nationwide). The scale of GRDP in 2023 is estimated at 272,950 billion VND, ranking 8th out of 63 localities nationwide.

Nghe An Province:The growth rate of gross regional domestic product (GRDP) in 2023 is estimated at 7.14% (ranking 26th nationwide). The scale of GRDP (current price) in 2023 is estimated at 195,199 billion VND, ranking 10th out of 63 localities nationwide. In particular, Nghe An province has made a breakthrough in attracting FDI, which is a bright spot: In 2022, for the first time, it entered the group of 10/63 localities attracting the largest FDI with a total registered capital of 961.3 million USD; in 2023, as of December 7, 2023, the total newly registered and adjusted investment capital is 1.42 billion USD (expected to reach approximately 1.5 billion USD in the whole year of 2023).

Ha Tinh Province:The growth rate of gross regional domestic product (GRDP) in 2023 is estimated at 8.05% (ranking 15th in the country). The scale of GRDP (current price) in 2023 is estimated at 102,500 billion VND.

Speaking at the opening and welcoming ceremony of the conference, comrade Hoang Nghia Hieu - Deputy Secretary of Nghe An Provincial Party Committee affirmed: The conference is an opportunity for the leaders of the three provinces to exchange and comprehensively and deeply evaluate the results, achievements, limitations and shortcomings in development cooperation between the three localities, thereby proposing orientations and solutions for cooperation and key linkages in the coming time.

The conference is also an opportunity for the three provinces to share valuable experiences in leadership and direction in implementing socio-economic development tasks, ensuring national defense and security, Party building and rectification and the political system in each locality; thereby strengthening, fostering and deepening the cooperative relationship for mutual development in the coming time.

“Nghe An province always hopes and believes that the Development Cooperation Program between the three provinces of Thanh Hoa - Nghe An - Ha Tinh will continue to promote the highest efficiency, be more substantial and go into depth, opening up many new prospects, new cooperation opportunities and further tightening the long-term cooperative relationship between the three localities”, Deputy Secretary of Nghe An Provincial Party Committee Hoang Nghia Hieu emphasized.

STRENGTHENING CONNECTION BETWEEN THANH AND NGHE PROVINCES

At the conference, leaders of the three provinces had profound discussions to improve the effectiveness of cooperation between Thanh and Nghe.

Accordingly, comrade Do Minh Tuan - Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the People's Committee of Thanh Hoa province presented a speech on "Solutions to promote development linkage, building the Thanh Hoa - Nghe An - Ha Tinh region to become a major center of energy industry, processing and manufacturing of the region and the whole country".

Comrade Nguyen Hong Linh - Member of the Provincial Party Standing Committee, Permanent Vice Chairman of Ha Tinh Provincial People's Committee presented a speech on "Tasks and solutions for preserving and restoring relics associated with promoting and linking heritage values, historical and cultural traditions combined with tourism exploitation of 3 localities".

Comrade Nguyen Duc Trung - Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the People's Committee of Nghe An province presented a speech on: "Attracting foreign investment in Nghe An: Seizing the golden opportunity - becoming a "favorable - reliable - effective" investment destination.

Chairman of the National Assembly's Committee on Culture and Education Nguyen Dac Vinh also had discussions and suggestions for a more effective cooperation and development program between the three provinces in the fields of infrastructure, university and vocational training, and policy making.

Speaking at the conference, Thanh Hoa Provincial Party Secretary Do Trong Hung affirmed: The need for cooperation and regional cooperation is both an objective requirement and an intrinsic need, and the current approach of the three provinces is very correct. Although the time for signing the cooperation agreement is not long, the products brought are very large. In the coming time, Thanh Hoa Provincial Party Secretary highly agreed that the three provinces will cooperate and develop regionally; at the same time, he suggested that the Central Government continue to perfect the institutions.

Speaking at the conference, Ha Tinh Provincial Party Secretary Hoang Trung Dung said that with similarities in history and culture, the three provinces of Thanh Hoa - Nghe An - Ha Tinh will continue to cooperate, develop tourism and build tours and tourist routes connecting the three provinces; at the same time, it is necessary to connect with localities with large seaports to share goods sources, import and export, develop seaport services and logistics. The three provinces need to promote the advantage of having a border with Laos to exploit in order to develop tourism, the East-West economy, and the Northeast region of Thailand.

For Nghe An and Ha Tinh, propose solutions to develop the economy of localities along the Lam River, coordinate and propose to the Central Government, call for resources from enterprises to build more bridges across the Lam River, facilitating traffic between the two provinces.

On behalf of the Standing Office of the Coordination Council for the North Central and Central Coastal Regions, Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Tran Duy Dong requested the three localities to continue to closely coordinate with the Ministry of Planning and Investment to contribute, develop, appraise and approve the regional planning for the period 2021-2030, with a vision to 2050. In particular, identify and demonstrate more clearly the potentials and outstanding advantages of the three provinces and the North Central sub-region to form linkage chains in industry, energy and human resources.

On behalf of the chairing comrades, giving a speech summarizing the conference, on the basis of the achievements, Secretary of Nghe An Provincial Party Committee Thai Thanh Quy affirmed: The signing of the Memorandum of Understanding on development cooperation between the three provinces of Thanh Hoa - Nghe An - Ha Tinh is "correct and accurate" and needs to continue to be well implemented in the coming time in the spirit of affection and responsibility, sharing, and focused and key cooperation; at the same time, he believes that the success of the conference is the foundation and driving force for the solidarity, friendship and cooperation between the three provinces to become increasingly stronger, deeper and more effective.

The conference to review the 2-year implementation results of the Memorandum of Understanding on cooperation between the three provinces of Thanh Hoa - Nghe An - Ha Tinh in 2024 will be held in Ha Tinh.