Tra Vinh is doing its utmost to deploy initiatives across a range of green areas, Photo: Nguyen Chau

Last year, Tra Vinh topped the country’s Provincial Green Index (PGI) following its launch by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Since that time, the locality’s steering committee focused on admin reform, provincial competitiveness, and digital transformation has come up with a comprehensive suite of measures, along with enacting an action plan and calling on local management agencies at all levels to join forces.

According to Tra Vinh Department of Planning and Investment, in the first eight months of this year, the province granted business registration to 365 units, reaching 70 per cent of full-year projection. It pushed the total number of businesses in the province to more than 4,540 with as much as $2.64 billion in total registered capital, employing nearly 93,000 labourers, including 44 foreign-invested enterprises.

In respect to business development, Tra Vinh has paid due heed to efficiently implementing the National Action Plan on Green Growth for 2021-2030, simultaneously executing the resolution of the Tra Vinh Party Congress for 2020-2025 to present measures to improve community awareness about environmental protection.

Emphasis has been placed on stimulating business development in an environmentally friendly manner, particularly the introduction of mechanisms helping small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and startups to access suitable financial packages for green model implementation.

Responsive to government calls on green development, Tra Vinh attaches importance to assuring factors that economic development is closely linked with environmental protection and climate change adoption, prioritising the selection of greener projects.

Aside from attracting investors into deployment of coastal wind power projects, Tra Vinh has been expediting a raft of other projects to bolster sustainability footprints.

Some of the most eminent projects in that regard include the building of the Tra Vinh green hydrogen plant in Duyen Hai district, worth $337.5 million and coming from TGS Tra Vinh Green Hydrogen.

Once on stream, the green hydrogen plant will help tackle the energy glut from wind power and solar power plants inside and outside the province, turning Tra Vinh into a major green energy centre for the region, and a testament to the province’s initial success with green growth investment attraction.

Another initiative is a Tra Vinh SME development project with the deployment of policies stimulating the development of the organic coconut value chain across the province, as well as the creation and execution of environmentally friendly production and business plans.

The scheme also supports the deployment of policies aimed at improving the local investment environment to lure investment in a more sustainable manner.

Along with this, Tra Vinh has posted exemplary achievements with One Commune, One Product (OCOP) development.

As of now, the province is home to just over 200 certified OCOP items. Of those, six products have the potential to reach 5-star grade. Three products already have a 5-star grade, 38 products boast a 4-star grade, and over 160 products have reached a 3-star grade.

Efforts have also been exerted into developing a smart agricultural value chain adaptive to climate change implications to further support sustainable agricultural production in the delta region. Simultaneously, Tra Vinh has implemented an action plan on gas emissions reduction in the transport sector for the province.

Tra Vinh People’s Committee Chairman Le Van Han noted that the PGI continues to be one of the crucial criteria in the province’s socioeconomic development.

“The province wants to proactively join the whole country in the race towards net-zero, leveraging actions from the business community, promoting green agriculture and related fields, prioritising investment attraction to projects with a high PGI index, and protecting natural landscapes and community health in order to maintain our status in 2023 and beyond,” Han said.