Vinh City: Strongly shifting suburban commercial services

(Baonghean) - Vinh City has a very fast urbanization rate, along with the increasing demand for modern commercial service systems. However, currently, the suburban area has 9 communes with issues that need attention for appropriate development.

Strong development of trade and services

In the process of strong urbanization of Vinh city, Nghi Phu commune promotes traditional occupations, at the same time focuses on developing diverse production - business, trade and service occupations with increasingly increased production value, creating many jobs and stable income for workers.

In 2016, the proportion of trade and services accounted for 63%; industry, handicrafts, and construction reached 35.5%; and agriculture decreased to 1.5%. Per capita income has been constantly increasing, reaching 32.7 million VND in 2014; 35.9 million VND in 2015, and 39 million VND/year in 2016.

In the service and trade sector, Nghi Phu currently has about 1,000 production and business households with 1,300 workers. In the markets in the area managed by the commune (Moi Dau market and Quan Banh market), there are 350 kiosks for 350 households with stable business and over 200 households with irregular business, creating jobs for over 500 workers.

Many households have taken advantage of the urbanization process to expand their businesses, food and beverage services, motels, room rentals, etc. Mr. Nguyen Van Toan - Vice Chairman of the Commune People's Committee said: "The government always creates favorable conditions for households to do business in the two markets, creating more jobs for workers. Therefore, the types of services have increased in number, and diversified in types of production, business, and services...".

A corner of Coi market, Hung Loc commune (Vinh city). Photo: Thu Huyen

Up to now, 9/9 communes of Vinh City have been recognized by the Provincial People's Committee as meeting new rural standards, completed 2 years ahead of the Resolution of the 23rd Vinh City Party Congress. Mr. Tran Quang Lam - Head of Vinh City Economic Department said: Trade - Service activities have gradually developed in terms of quantity, quality and scale of operations.

9 suburban communes have 9 markets, 15 agricultural service cooperatives; 6 non-agricultural cooperatives, 6 cooperative groups have created jobs for thousands of workers. The average income of people in suburban communes in 2014 reached 27.67 million VND/person, more than double compared to 2010 which was 12.61 million VND/person, in 2015 it reached 31.47 million VND/person, in 2016 it reached 33.86 million VND/person.

And the problems that arise

In recent years, Vinh city has focused on linking urban and rural development, gradually synchronizing and modernizing economic and social infrastructure, shifting economic structure and rational forms of production organization; linking ecological urban agriculture with industrial development, small-scale industry, services, trade, improving people's lives and incomes. However, currently, the system of commercial centers is only focused on developing strongly in the city center, while the suburban communes have not yet played a good role as a buffer zone, and satellite services have not yet been formed.

Amidst the strong urban development, the suburbs of Vinh City still maintain agricultural development and eco-tourism. Photo: Sy Minh

Although Vinh city has now established a safe vegetable production area with a planned area of ​​370 hectares (Hung Dong commune 120 hectares, Nghi Kim commune 70 hectares, Nghi An commune 80 hectares, Nghi Lien commune 80 hectares, Dong Vinh ward 20 hectares); infrastructure for safe vegetable areas has gradually received investment attention, but the speed of model expansion is still slow, small scale, and localities have not paid attention to safe vegetable production associated with the consumption market.

In addition, there is no joint venture or association between production households in the same hamlet, commune and other communes in the city. Enterprises have not met the problem of consuming safe vegetable products for farmers as well as have a form of preservation and processing to improve the quality and value of goods. Therefore, the direction of developing ecological agriculture in the suburbs needs to be promoted to create a source of goods for the market and an attractive ecological landscape.

The suburban area is developing in parallel with the city expansion process, including pre-formed centers with surrounding areas in the direction of logistics services following factories and businesses. However, the change is still quite slow. For example, in Hung Tay commune (Hung Nguyen), the VSIP Nghe An Urban Industrial Park and Tourism Project is being implemented, but the adjacent areas of Hung Dong and Dong Vinh do not have the services to welcome the project... One of the issues for Vinh city is that along with the rapid urbanization speed in the communes, it is necessary to sustainably maintain the criteria, especially improving people's lives.

The positive direction seen in the coming time is to promote trade and services in communes with industrial clusters, commercial centers...; Continue to develop flower, ornamental plant, sedge mat, and food processing craft villages in communes in the direction of linking with businesses to create output for products. Vinh City is striving to have an average income of communes reaching over 70 million VND/person/year by 2020, the rate of employed workers reaching 98%, 100% of communes having cooperatives operating effectively under the 2012 Law on Cooperatives, 100% of communes having production linkage models associated with the consumption of key agricultural products of the commune to ensure sustainability.

Thu Huyen