11:55:59 AM | 21/9/2006
Vietnam Business Forum has an interview with Mr. Nguyen Duc Hai, Chairman of the Quang Nam People’s Committee, about the achievements and development orientations of the province in the future.
Quang Nam, located in the key economic region of Central Vietnam, has an important position within the region’s economic development strategy. What socio-economic achievements has the province recorded?
Over the past years, Quang Nam has seen strong changes for the better in the social, economic, cultural and national defence fields as the province has developed its advantages and tapped fully potential.
The province’s average GDP growth rate of 10.4 per cent in the 2001-2005 period. The contribution of industry to the province’s GDP increased from 25 per cent in 2000 to 34 per cent in 2005. The figure is from 33 per cent in 2000 to 35 per cent in 2005 for services, and from 53 per cent to 21 per cent in 2005. The province has promoted its investment in infrastructure development. Its Chu Lai open economic zone, industrial parks and complexes have attracted more projects from Vietnamese and foreign investors. At the same time, traditional craft villages have been restored and developed, becoming a driving force for an economic breakthrough of Quang Nam.
The planning has recorded some achievements with industrial parks and complexes, urban areas have been planned in accordance with socio-economic development of each region and each locality. Budget revenues witnessed an increase of 18 per cent per annum, reaching over VND 1,000 billion, or five folds higher than that of 2000. This is a great effort made by the province to join the VND 1,000 billion budget revenue provinces and cities.
What advantages should Quang Nam province develop and call for investment in?
The advantage of Quang Nam province for its development is unity. Quang Nam has developed orientations for its socio-economic development strategy for each five year period. Accordingly, the province has concentrated on developing the Chu Lai open economic zone, urban areas, industrial parks and complexes and tourist sites, and accelerating economic restructuring in accordance with advantages of each region, thus becoming an industrial and service province. Quang Nam is a province located within the key economic region of Central Vietnam, which boasts the Chu Lai open economic zone, the Chu Lai airport, the Ky Ha seaport, the Da Nang seaport and the Dung Quat economic zone.
Quang Nam has abundant labour force and natural resources with gold, coal, white sand and mineral water, as well as forest resources. With a 125 kilometre coastline and two world heritage sites Hoi An and My Son, Quang Nam province has favourable conditions to develop tourism and fisheries.
What solutions will Quang Nam develop to promote its socio-economic development in the 2006-2010 period?
We will concentrate on promoting economic restructuring with priorities given to the development of industry and services, improving the quality of growth. Our target is to get out of poverty quickly and to become an industrial province before 2020. We will strive to gain a contribution of 82 per cent to GDP by industry and services and a capita income of US$900 in 2010.
We will create a favourable investment environment to attract investment capital, developing infrastructure facilities and promoting the development of key economic zones. At the same time, Quang Nam will promote its administrative reform, resettlement and site clearance, thus creating an open investment environment. We will build a duty -free trade zone within the Chu Lai open economic zone, upgrade the Chu Lai airport to become an international airport, dredge the way to the Ky Ha seaport to receive 10,000-20,000 tonne ships.
Furthermore, the province will concentrate on building civil works; upgrade and restore the two world heritage sites of My Son and Hoi An, improve the quality of and diversify education and training levels by developing universities, colleges and high schools, striving for a target of having trained workers and cadres accounting for 40 per cent of the province’s labour force.
Quang Nam will boost economic integration, improve the competitiveness, promote export, diversify exported items, and encourage and create favourable conditions for all economic sectors to export.
During international integration, the building of a dynamic government with open policies plays an important role in investment attraction. How will Quang Nam promote its administrative reform?
Over the past few years, having implemented a comprehensive reform programme for the 2001-2010 period, Quang Nam has recorded important achievements, thus building up trust of local people and enterprises. During the international integration process, we prioritise administrative reform. Accordingly, we will build a democratic and transparent administration with a ‘one door and on-the-spot’ mechanism. We will promote discipline and legal enforcement, as well as responsibility of heads of agencies. We will gradually build a modern and professional administration, applying information technology and the ISO 9001-2000 standard to its management to better meet the demand of local people and enterprises. We will develop qualified cadres to meet the requirements of a new period, especially during international economic integration.
Reported by Quoc Tuan