Quang Ninh province has made breakthroughs in local development, and is making efforts to become a centrally-run city and one of the economic locomotives of the northern region by 2025.

Head of the Party Central Committee’s Economic Commission Nguyen Van Binh (standing)
speaks at the recent meeting with officials of Quang Ninh province (Photo: VNA)

At a recent meeting with Politburo member, Party Central Committee Secretary and Head of the Party Central Committee’s Economic Commission Nguyen Van Binh, Standing Vice Secretary of the provincial Party Committee and Chairman of the provincial People’s Council Nguyen Xuan Ky said from now to 2030, Quang Ninh will adapt to the smart city model to achieve sustainable development.

From now to 2030 and 2045, it aims to become a modern service and industrial locality that has a green economy based on science-technology and high-quality human resources. The province will also strive to establish itself as a tourist and seaport hub and a gateway for international trade.

Ky highlighted the three pillars of local development, namely developing modern comprehensive services with a focus on tourism and seaport services; developing green, clean and high technologies; and developing ecological, organic and hi-tech agriculture and sea-based economic activities.

After three years of implementing the resolutions of the 12th National Party Congress and all-level Party congresses, Quang Ninh has continually recorded fast economic expansion, the official said, noting that it has focused on making strategic breakthroughs and shifting its economic structure towards sustainable development.

The local economic growth rate averaged 10.5 percent between 2016 and 2018, and is expected to hit 11.1 percent in the 2016 – 2020 period, reaching the target set in the resolution of the 14th Provincial Party Congress. Per capita gross regional domestic product (GRDP) reached 5,110 USD in 2018, up 1.3-fold from 2015. Meanwhile, Quang Ninh has always been among the top five Vietnamese localities in terms of State budget revenue.

He added that in the first half of 2019, the province collected more than 23.92 trillion VND (over 1 billion USD) for the State budget. It has succeeded in attracting major businesses to invest in high-end tourism.

Additionally, Quang Ninh has diversified and capitalised on resources for developing synchronous and modern infrastructure, particularly traffic, tourism and service facilities. The Van Don and Mong Cai Border Gate economic zones have been upgraded while steps towards the establishment of the Quang Yen coastal economic zone have been accelerated.

According to the head of the People’s Council, thanks to drastic measures, Quang Ninh topped the Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI) rankings in 2017 and 2018. It also ranked first in terms of the Public Administration Reform (PAR) Index last year.

The Party building and apparatus reorganisation have also been enhanced so as to create a lean, efficient and effective political system, Ky added.

Valuing local achievements in economic, social and security – defence aspects, Nguyen Van Binh said Quang Ninh has managed to specify its advantages, make breakthroughs in improving the investment climate, and carry out many new and creative models to make fast and solid strides in socio-economic development.

He asked provincial authorities to frequently review and monitor the restructuring and streamlining of the administrative apparatus.

Meanwhile, the province should have vision and take into account long-term interests of the whole nation while developing its economy, instead of rushing into boosting growth rate at all costs, he said.

The official suggested Quang Ninh should develop industries that apply scientific-technological advances and generate high added value. He also proposed it build particular industrial clusters so that businesses in the same industries can gather and connect with one another, thus creating more added value for their products.

The meeting aimed to review Quang Ninh’s implementation of the resolutions of the 12th National Party Congress and all-level Party congresses of the province for the 2015 – 2020 term, along with its orientations for socio-economic development until 2025, with a vision to 2030 and 2045.