Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc: Nghe An will turn "Song Lam aspiration" into "Song Lam miracle"

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc speaks at the conference. Photo: Duc Anh

Attending and giving a speech at the 10th Meeting with Investors - Spring Mau Tuat 2018 in Vinh City, the Prime Minister highly appreciated the achievements of Nghe An province in socio-economic development, especially through the Meeting with Investors which has been held for the 10th time so far, attracting many investors, including many large investors.

"A spirit of creativity, integrity, and action for the development of the country and Nghe An province, the comrades have researched and implemented it, spreading it from words to actions with great determination" - the Prime Minister assessed.

With the results achieved, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc set a new vision for Nghe An province. That is, by 2025, Nghe An strives to double the size of its economy, become a prosperous province in terms of income and especially together with Ha Tinh and Thanh Hoa create a growth pole with the power to spread modern industry, smart agriculture, playing a leading role in the development trend, with sustainable inclusiveness of the entire North Central region and the whole country.

Thereby, creating "an emerging economic belt to turn the North Central region into a dynamic, developed region, worthy of other dynamic regions such as the Southeast and the North" - the Prime Minister emphasized.

Based on the analysis of Nghe An’s potentials and strengths in terms of land size, population, investment environment, valuable human capital of Nghe An, determination of the Party Committee and people of the province, etc., Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc believes that Nghe An will turn the “Lam River aspiration” into the “Lam River miracle” in socio-economic development.

To realize that vision and aspiration, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc requested the province to continue improving the investment and business environment effectively.

Citing the 2016 Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI) of Nghe An, which ranked 25th nationwide, up 7 places compared to 2015, the Prime Minister assessed that this was a great effort by the province, especially some strong indicators such as: market entry ranked 7th, labor training ranked 15th.

However, there are still some indicators with low rankings such as informal costs ranked 60th, land access ranked 52nd... Giving some examples of the province's PCI Index, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc asked the province to focus on this aspect to improve the investment and business environment.

On the other hand, according to the Prime Minister, Nghe An needs to make the most of its location adjacent to the Northern key economic zone and in the North Central economic dynamic zone to take advantage of favorable conditions for attracting production factors, human resources, technology, techniques, and capital.

“Nghe An's role is to encourage and facilitate the formation of supporting industries and related economic sectors,” the Prime Minister emphasized.

In the context of limited resources, the head of the Government noted that Nghe An needs to focus resources on investing and supporting the development of a number of industries and fields in which the province has potential and comparative advantages; proactively apply standards on product production of advanced countries and countries with high quality requirements.

On the other hand, assessing that the province has done well in the past, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc requested that the province continue to promote dynamism and be more proactive in linking and cooperating with other localities such as Thanh Hoa and Ha Tinh; especially linking more frequently and effectively with economic centers, places that can promote the strengths of each side in terms of population and products, especially Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Binh Duong, Lam Dong and other provinces in the region...

The Prime Minister took a souvenir photo with delegates. Photo: Duc Anh

In addition to developing industry and services, the Prime Minister requested the province to also focus on comprehensive agricultural development in the direction of ecological agriculture, organic agriculture, clean agriculture, farm agriculture applying high technology in production and management; and developing agricultural tourism.

“We are talking about a socialist-oriented market economy. The rural and mountainous areas of Nghe An are very large and need to be given better attention, considered as a strong rear to develop Nghe An province more sustainably, strongly, and comprehensively in the future,” the Prime Minister pointed out.

Also at the conference, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc noted that Nghe An should pay attention to developing the Thanh Thuy border gate economic zone commensurate with its potential and trade opportunities; in the immediate future, there is a plan to upgrade the Thanh Thuy national border gate into an international border gate, aiming to become an important trading point with Laos, Thailand, and Myanmar to seize the opportunities that the Vientiane - Pak Xan - Thanh Thuy - Hanoi expressway will bring when completed.

The Prime Minister also emphasized that the province needs to continue to encourage and create all conditions for the private economy to participate in investment in various fields; develop enterprises; continue to innovate and improve the quality of education in general, and general education in particular; need to encourage the strong participation of domestic and foreign intellectuals in the province's economic development; need to re-plan the historical and cultural relic system, promote the values ​​of Kim Lien Relic Site and other relic sites to develop tourism...

In particular, the Prime Minister emphasized that the province needs to continue to build a more active and proactive government, a dialogue government, focusing on serving the people and business development; and fulfilling its commitments to investors.

"Businesses call on the government to respond, respond promptly, responsibly and with quality" - the Prime Minister pointed out.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc attended and directed the conference. Photo: Thanh Cuong

In addition, the Prime Minister requested domestic and international investors to keep their investment commitments and implement projects resolutely, with a win-win perspective in investment and business; at the same time, the province needs to take measures to handle projects that are slow to be implemented.

On the other hand, the head of the Government also reaffirmed the view that economic development must be associated with environmental protection, social responsibility, and sustainability for businesses and people.

“Do not let economic development negatively affect the environment and people's lives” - the Prime Minister emphasized; at the same time, he requested investors to implement good policies for workers...

Also at the conference, the Prime Minister requested the ministers and deputy ministers present to promptly study and propose to the Government and the Prime Minister appropriate mechanisms and policies to connect the economic zones of the Central region, North Central region and Nghe An in particular to mobilize the highest resources, strongly improve the investment and business environment; effectively take advantage of cooperation and support from the community of sponsors and domestic and foreign investors, creating a premise for Nghe An and Ha Tinh to accelerate strong development in the coming time.

The Prime Minister pledged to build a Government that is creative, honest, active, and serves the people to promote development while maintaining a stable macro-economy.

In front of the business community, the Prime Minister affirmed that the Government will properly implement the Constitution and laws, better protect property rights, human rights, and civil rights so that investors can feel secure doing long-term business in Nghe An and Vietnam.

Concluding his speech, the Prime Minister believed that with the strong and systematic development as Nghe An has done, the province will fulfill the goals of the Resolution of the 18th Provincial Party Congress, term 2015-2020 and Resolution 26 of the Politburo on the direction and tasks of developing Nghe An province until 2020.