Agricultural structure prudently deliberated for Southeast region's development planning

Three-in-one conference

Deputy Minister Tran Quoc Phuong said at a press conference on November 21 that the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) was assigned on November 26, 2022 by the Government to co-organize and chair a conference to announce the Action Plan for implementing the Politburo's Decree No. 24-NQ/TW dated October 7, 2022 on socio-economic development and national defense and security in the Southeast region by 2030, with a vision to 2045.

With the theme "New Thinking - New Breakthrough - New Values", the conference is held in Vung Tau city, Ba Ria - Vung Tau province, under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, Deputy Prime Minister Le Minh Khai, leaders of ministries, localities, business associations, and domestic and foreign investors. About 500 delegates are expected to attend the conference.

"This is a 3-in-1 conference," said the MPI Deputy Minister. 

Along with an announcement of the Government's action plan, the event will have the task to promote investment, calling for domestic and international investors and business associations, according to MPI Deputy Minister Phuong.

The conference also exhibited art photos with the theme "Southeast: New breakthrough - New heights". Good products of the Southeast region were also displayed on November 25-26, to portray the strengths in services, industry and tourism of provinces and cities and present typical beauties in the cultural and spiritual life of the ethnic groups in the region.

Speaking about the upcoming conference, the MPI Deputy Minister commented: "This is an event that opens up "new opportunities" for the Southeast region, which is dynamic, creative, and leading at the forefront of the country's innovation and development."

Seven key task groups

In 2020, the region's total gross domestic product (GRDP) was 4.9 times higher than in 2005 and 2.6 times higher than in 2010. The Southeast is a region with a strong private sector development, dynamic with the number of enterprises leading the country. It is the area attracting the largest foreign direct investment (FDI), accounting for 41.1% of total FDI.

HCM City is the highlight of the region. This is a center of economy, finance, commerce, science - technology and innovation not only of the Southeast but also of the whole country.

However, in recent years, the region has encountered some difficulties and challenges. Its economic growth tends to slow down and is lower than the whole country. Its contribution to total state budget revenue decreases with low labor productivity growth rate/ Its intra-regional and inter-regional infrastructure, especially its transport, are not synchronous causing impact on the development and reputation of the region.

Resolution No. 24-NQ/TW issued by the Politburo aims to restore dynamism and growth of the region. For implementation, the Government has proposed 7 groups of tasks, 35 specific tasks and 29 infrastructure projects. In particular, it emphasizes on action plans ensuring the mastering, propagating and creating social unity and consensus for the development.

Specific solutions in implementing Resolution No. 24 are mentioned by Deputy Minister Tran Quoc Phuong including the lead in innovating growth models, digital transformation, building digital government, economy and society; rapidly developing smart and modern urban system; further promoting its leading role in the national economy; basically completing the transport system of inter-connection and connection with other regions.Along with that, other sectors such as culture, society, education - training, and health must also be developed at the top of the country. Issues of environmental pollution, traffic congestion and flooding must be solved.

For HCM City, the MPI leader said this must become a place to attract talents, experts and scientists, especially high-quality human resources; at the same time, strive to become an international financial center, develop on a par with regional major cities, and play the role of a growth pole of the region. It should become a center of international financial institutions and world large economic groups.

Determining a relevant agricultural proportion

Bordering the Mekong River Delta and the Central Highlands, the Southeast has areas with abundant raw materials for the development of the processing industry with strengths for developing industrial crops. The region is famous for its capitals of cashew in Binh Phuoc, coffee in Dong Nai, rubber in Binh Duong.... However, economic structures in agriculture, forestry and fishery sectors are significantly lower than the country's average level.

"In any planning, agriculture, as the backbone of the economy, always plays a very important role," said Deputy Minister Phuong.

Regarding the socio-economic development orientation of the Southeast to 2030, the Deputy Minister said that each province, city and region should rely on available characteristics to determine the development structure.According to him, the Southeast still has little space in terms of resources, land and resources, so it is difficult to "develop the width". For a long term, if the region wants to restructure its economy or build growth models, it must "increase the depth". Specifically, it should focus on science and technology, innovation and high-quality services.

Investment promotion activities and resource mobilization for infrastructure development, production - business of the whole region should be carried out at the same time. These will be the main contents at the November 26 conference which also include a ceremony for cooperation agreements and memorandum of understanding signing, investment registration certificate awarding between the PMI and partners.

"The most important thing is to determine a development and planning space for the whole Southeast region. It should be emphasized that the Southeast's industrial and service development advantages are huge... We need to determine a reasonable ratio of economic structure  for effective and sustainable development," emphasized the Deputy Minister.