Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc visits booths set up within the conference. (Photo: VNA) Binh Dinh (VNA) – The central key economic region shouldstrive to become a driving force of the central region and be an important gatewayto the sea of the Central Highlands and the East-West corridor, Prime MinisterNguyen Xuan Phuc said at a conference held in Binh Dinh province on August 20.
The PM asked the central provinces to adjust their policies onforest and marine economic development for the sake of the whole centralregion.
He noted that the economic development of theregion is not the separate task of the 14 central localities but of ministriesand departments.
He asked them to focus on building major plans,especially solutions which could be deployed now or in 2020.
The central region stretching from Thanh Hoa to Binh Thuan includes 13 provinces and one city.
With a coastline of 1,900km, the region holds a lot of advantages for marineeconomic development.
It is home to nine airports, including fiveinternational ones, 14 seaports, and 11 of the 17 nationwide coastal economiczones.
The sea in the central region holds aparticularly important position in the development of the marine economy.
The region has great potential to develop heavyindustry, oil and gas, sea transport, logistics, sea and island tourism,fishing, aquaculture, wind and solar energy.
It is also an important bridge of CentralHighlands localities in integration through connecting with the East-Westeconomic corridor.
Meanwhile, the central key economicregion consists of Thua Thien Hue, Da Nang, Quang Nam, Quang Ngai and BinhDinh. It accounts for 8.4 percent of Vietnam’s total area and has the totalpopulation of 6.5 million, making up 7 percent.
According to Minister of Planning and InvestmentNguyen Chi Dung, the central region has reaped significant outcomes over thepast 30 years of reform, especially in 2016-2018 and in the second quarter of2019.
The economy thrived in all 14 provinces withannual average gross regional domestic product (GRDP) of about 7.62 percent.
The contribution of the region to Vietnam’soverall growth increased to 19.28 percent in 2018 from 18.83 percent in 2016.
Some provinces that were previously in difficultsituations have achieved good growth in 2018 such as Quang Binh (7.03 percent),Quang Tri (7.12 percent), Phu Yen (6.88 percent), Ninh Thuan (8.03 percent) andBinh Thuan (8.08 percent).
The region’s annual per capita GRDP increasedfrom 1,850 USD in 2016 to 2,074 USD in 2018.
The economic structure shifted to services andindustry. The industry-construction sector posted the highest growth at anaverage 10.36 percent per year thanks to key industrial projects such as oiland gas, steel making, automobile assembly and mechanical engineering.
The minister said the business environment inthe region has improved.
Environmental protection, science-technology development, employment, healthcare,education-training and poverty reduction have received great attention from theregion.
The region has also associated socio-economicdevelopment with enhancing defence, security, and safeguarding national sea andmarine sovereignty.
Besides these achievements, the region shouldstrive to remove some bottlenecks such as modest economic scale and weakmomentum of economic growth.
Among the 14 provinces, only Thanh Hoa, Ha Tinh,Quang Ngai and Quang Nam have large-scale investment projects. The remaindersee low growth and have yet to fully tap their available seaports and airports.
The conference aims to map out strategic andeffective solutions to help the central region boost rapid and sustainabledevelopment, he added.-VNA
VNA
