Opinions sent to the 19th Provincial Party Congress: Focus on developing marine economy

The political report of the 18th Provincial Party Committee presented to the 19th Nghe An Provincial Party Congress (2020-2025) was elaborately and scientifically prepared, focusing on fully analyzing the achieved results, some limitations, shortcomings, causes and lessons learned.

However, this political report needs to clarify and highlight important issues in the effective use of natural resources.Nghe An. That is Nghe An has a large area, long coastline with 6 estuaries and many beautiful beaches, large fishing grounds, large aquaculture areas, and deep-water seaports. The mountainous area accounts for 80% of the area with many precious woods, diverse minerals and very large reserves, so it is necessary to focus on local exploitation and export. The marine economy must be analyzed more clearly in terms of development strategy.

To do this, Nghe An must pay attention.marine economywith two seaport areas, Dong Hoi and Cua Lo. Nghe An completely controls the import and export of goods with specialized ports, commercial ports and containers.

Unloading goods at Cua Lo port. Photo: Thu Huyen

Nghe An port is connected to roads, high-speed railways and Vinh airport, with an East-West route connecting to Western Nghe An in the development process. Obviously, industrial zones and coastal urban areas must be given attention in the coastal urban development strategy to support the functional areas of seaports and strongly focus on exploiting fishing, aquaculture, salt production and exploiting landscape tourism with many beautiful and famous beaches of Nghe An such as Cua Lo, Dien Chau and Quynh Luu.

In addition, in the process of socio-economic development, industrialization often goes hand in hand with urbanization. Nghe An is a large, populous province and has been in the process of rapid urbanization in recent years.

Vinh Cityis a class I urban center of the North Central region, with 3 towns and 17 district towns with an urbanization rate of 33% (the whole country reaches 39.6%) lower than the national average. Therefore, it is necessary to pay attention to urban and rural planning; determine the urban development system in the next 5 and 10 years; pay attention to the development of mountainous urban areas; review the urban system with population distribution to gradually perfect the urban economic space, linked with the socio-economic development of Nghe An.

Vinh urban space. Photo: Lam Tung

Aiming to focus on building Vinh - Cua Lo urban area as a coastal city. This is an important content that needs to be put forward in the development program of Vinh city - the central city of the North Central region. Vinh city must be a real coastal city with a deep-water seaport that has an important function in the region.

Vinh coastal urban area is connected with the Southeast economic zone and Cua Lo coastal urban area, which is a strength in resort tourism with Vinh - Cua Lo boulevard planned and built in a modern way, connecting the development from the center to the sea with many modern architectural works, with important functions of a central urban area such as theaters, museums, libraries, luxury hotels and commercial centers. It is necessary to focus on building and highlighting the coastal urban function of Vinh city to be on par with and compete with Da Nang and Nha Trang cities in the future.

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In the coming term, Nghe An Agriculture aims to continue developing in the direction of high-tech agriculture associated with crop restructuring, application of science and technology, concentrated production, prioritizing enterprises and concentrated farms.

To achieve that goal, first of all, it is necessary to implement land policies well - to build specific and appropriate plans in the province's general plan, from which to implement effective solutions, select key seedlings to create key products of the province. There should be appropriate land policies, focusing on prioritizing enterprises, cooperatives, farms as well as concentrated production households.

Strengthening the application of scientific and technological advancesagricultural productionThe province needs to focus on attracting investment capital to build infrastructure, ensuring that businesses, cooperatives, and farms have favorable infrastructure conditions to invest in concentrated agricultural production as well as enhance the ability to adapt to climate change.

Model of growing melons in greenhouses in Khanh Hop commune, Nghi Loc district. Photo: Quang An

At the same time, build and review the system of policy mechanisms to ensure they are consistent with reality; reform administrative procedures to be streamlined and effective so that mechanisms and policies can quickly reach beneficiaries.

The biggest difficulty and inadequacy in agricultural production today is that production is still mainly fragmented and small-scale. We hope and propose that the province needs to have clear and appropriate policies on land and support resources to develop production. Pay attention to supporting the development of the cooperative system - which is a bridge between people and businesses, thereby creating conditions for concentrated production and stable consumption of goods.

On the central side, in addition to focusing on investing resources and helping the agricultural sector improve its ability to adapt to the negative impacts of climate change, it is also necessary to remove some remaining shortcomings in land policies, creating conditions for the development of concentrated commodity agricultural production, improving economic efficiency as well as protecting the environment.

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WHA Group begins developmentWHA Industrial ParkIndustrial Zone 1 - Nghe An in February 2017. To date, we have completed 143.5 hectares of the total 498 hectares of Phase 1. With 3,200 hectares when completed, this will be the largest international standard industrial park in the North Central region of Vietnam. Our first customers come from China, Hong Kong, Japan, Thailand and Vietnam, involved in various industrial sectors such as construction materials, electronics, food processing, solar energy and steel.

This year, our business has encountered some difficulties due to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, Vietnam has managed and controlled the situation very well and brought economic development prospects to foreign investors in Vietnam. We invested in Nghe An because of the many advantages that Nghe An province has: Excellent geographical location; Large population of 3.34 million people, well-trained workforce; Increasingly expanding transport infrastructure, with Vinh city international airport, 3 deep-water seaports (Vissai, Cua Lo and DKC), 8 national highways running through the province and a railway network connecting from North to South.

WHA Industrial Zone 1 Project - Nghe An (WHA Industrial Park). Photo courtesy

Regarding the attractiveness of the area, I can say that we have received very good support from the Vietnamese government and provincial authorities, our industrial park project is well-positioned to attract foreign investment; One-stop service by the Southeast Economic Zone Authority (DNEA) provides timely support to investors. Investors in WHA Industrial Park benefit from special incentives on Corporate Income Tax and import tax.

To further enhance the attractiveness and competitiveness of WHA Industrial Park - Nghe An, I believe that the local and national authorities must continue to focus on improving infrastructure and connectivity in terms of road, seaport and airport infrastructure, especially completing the expressway from Hanoi to Vinh City and connecting to 3 seaports.

Along with infrastructure, it is important to ensure good coordination between all relevant agencies, as this is instrumental in ensuring that the approval of licenses and permits for investors can be quick and predictable. Finally, I would like to emphasize that it is important to have skilled workers in a challenging and rapidly changing economy. The availability and quality of the workforce is one of the most important factors in attracting investors and strengthening the region's economy.