Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has urged Can Tho city to take drastic measures to accomplish this year’s targets and turn into a socio-economic centre of the whole Mekong Delta region.

The government leader delivered the request during a working session with local authorities in the city on Sept. 5.

In the next five years, Can Tho needs to focus on building its infrastructure and new urban centres, and developing human resources not only for the city but also the whole region, he said.

With its favourable location, Can Tho must spare no efforts to build it into a hub of industry, trade, services, tourism, education, training, science, technology, healthcare and culture and transport, the PM added.

PM Dung praised the municipal Party Committee, administration and people for the achievements they have recorded, citing the city’s estimated GDP growth rate of 15.04 percent in 2010 and its positive economic restructuring in which agriculture accounts for just 10 percent of the total GDP.

Since the beginning of this year, the city has created jobs for more than 33,000 local labourers and managed to reduce the rate of poor households to 4.67 percent.

However, the PM said Can Tho is still facing a range of difficulties and challenges in terms of infrastructure, human resources, industrial zones and application of scientific and technological advances as compared with other centrally-run cities such as Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City./.