The Government has recently issued Resolution 128/NQ-CP on major tasks and solutions to advance the development of key economic regions (KERs). 

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The Government set up four KERs, including the northern key economic region (comprising seven provinces and cities); the central key economic region (five provinces and cities), the southern key economic region (eight provinces and cities), and the Mekong Delta key economic region (four provinces and cities). 

The four regions contribute nearly 73% to the national average GDP growth rate, serving as a driving force for the economy. 

Especially, in the 2011-2019 period, the northern key economic region and the southern key economic region occupied over 61% of the national GDP.

However, potential and advantages of the KERs have yet to be fully tapped while those regions are struggling against numerous challenges, including contracting economic growth, limited capacity of human resources, inefficient coordination among localities in each region, and environmental pollution among others.

In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic has had multi-faceted impacts on the regions’ goals like economic growth, export, State budget collection and tourism development. 

Against the backdrop, the Government tasked these regions’ localities to overcome difficulties and optimize potentials and advantages to rise up in favor of national development.

The KERs were urged to perfect mechanisms and policies on regional connectivity coordination and develop national and regional master planning schemes in the 2021-2030 period with a vision towards 2050.

The KERs must also clarify appropriate sectors and fields in accordance with their comparative advantages to further strengthen foreign investment attraction while taking the lead in innovation and startup as well as IT application.   

The Government will allocate appropriate investment resources for the KERs in the next five years, particularly, investment capital for PPP projects, read the resolution.

The Ministry of Finance was assigned to put forward mechanisms regulating the annual budget retention rate of major metropolises in the 2022-2025 period. At present, Ho Chi Minh City, which contributes 24% of the country’s GDP and 27% of the national budget, is only allowed to keep 18% of its annual budget, thus hampering infrastructure investment development.

The State Bank of Viet Nam was asked to direct credit organizations to mobilize and steer idle capital to support the development of the KERs.

The Ministry of Transport was asked to prioritize allocated capital for transport infrastructure development and other mega projects with an aim to strengthen intra-regional and extra-regional connectivity.

The relevant People’s Committees are responsible for mobilizing and effectively utilizing resources, including official development assistance and private capital for their major projects. 

Earlier, in this June, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has directed ministries, agencies and localities to boost the development of KERs, contributing to supporting the recovery of the economy amid COVID-19 pandemic period. 

The northern key economic region shall focus on attracting hi-tech, processing, manufacturing, electronics, service, banking, finance and logistics projects and create research and development centers. These centers shall help stimulate the application of technology and science and innovation.

The central key economic region shall put the marine economy development a priority. Also, the region shall develop the eco-system for the automobile industry, transport services and tourism.

Meanwhile, the southern key economic region shall attract large-scale and hi-tech projects to build up value chains.

The Mekong River Delta shall focus on growing hi-tech agriculture, agriculture processing industry, and tourism of Phu Quoc Island. Moreover, the region shall efficiently implement measures to promote the regional sustainable development and cope with climate change./.