Economic Development Aligned with Cultural Preservation

2:36:45 PM | 27/9/2019

That is a suggestion by Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc on development vision for Lang Son in the coming years. Lang Son province must develop trade and tourism and develop agriculture and forestry of the mountainous and rural areas.

After 15 years (2004-2018) of executing Resolution 37 of the Politburo, Lang Son province has achieved many important results in all fields. The economy developed stably, with a relatively high GDP growth of 7.86% a year in 2004-2018, the tax revenue growth of 15.74%, and GDP per capita of VND34.59 million in 2018. Agricultural production, forestry and rural economy developed stably and inclusively. By the end of 2018, the province had 48 communes meeting new countryside standards; industrial production has expanded in both size and product categories. However, the economy of Lang Son has not fared as well as expected.

Lang Son province needs to focus on developing a border economy together with commerce, tourism, logistics and agriculture and forestry in mountainous, highland and rural areas. It must grow border trade services, logistic services, merchandise import and export across official border gates, aiming at the vast Chinese market.

The province needs to carry out consistent solutions to restructure agriculture and new countryside construction; renovate production models; improve productivity, quality and efficiency of locally advantageous agricultural products; encourage businesses to invest in high-tech agriculture and create ripple effects to link farmers; and focus on developing some famous local products (sugar apple, persimmon, tangerine, precious medicinal herbs) to form specialized cultivation areas of high economic value, and building quality and reputable brands for agricultural products.

Besides, it speeds up strong socialization of investment resources for key projects. Key transport infrastructure projects are built to link localities with border gates to boost economic development and ensure national defense and security; speed up construction to complete modern industrial zone infrastructure to entice investors. Industry and service are restructured to protect the ecological environment by reducing extractive industries and increasing processing industries, and grow locally advantageous industries and cottage industries.

Lang Son needs to develop and protect forests together with planting new forests, effectively protecting remaining natural forests and strictly handling deforestation. The province strictly manages land; effectively manages mineral resources and water resources to avoid wasting land and water resources; strengthens and controls environmental protection at mining sites; prevents and strictly handles acts of illegal mineral exploitation or environmental polluters to improve people's lives.

Lang Son province attaches much importance to developing tourism together with preserving and promoting local cultural identity, historical and cultural relics, and special cultural festivals; diversify tourism types and locally typical tourism products to boost sustainable tourism development; form a tourism chain to connect local facilities with major tourist centers in the region and the world; facilitate investors to carry out tourism infrastructure development projects, especially hotels, high-class entertainment and recreation areas, to increase local fiscal revenue. The province targets to attract 4-5 million tourists by 2020.

The province speeds up administrative reform, improves business investment environment and builds e-government; firmly directs and proposes specific solutions for higher Provincial Competitiveness Index and Provincial Governance and Public Administration Performance Index (PAPI). In the coming time, Lang Son will organize investment promotion conferences, introduce open mechanisms and policies to woo enterprises of all economic sectors to invest in and develop socioeconomic infrastructure; continue to build up a favorable investment environment to bridge the quality gap with other localities; and facilitate the robust development of startups, cooperatives and private enterprises.