Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has told central Quang Tri province to build mechanisms encouraging investment in agriculture and rural area as it boasts advantageous potential in land.

PM Dung worked with Quang Tri provincial authorities on Sept. 3 on the locality’s socio-economic performance.

According to the leader, the provincial leaders should focus on removing difficulties to maintain agricultural production and facilitate activities of small and medium-sized enterprises.

The province must strictly control market prices to prevent speculation and price hikes, particularly for essential commodities, and pay more attention to traffic, electricity, irrigation and school infrastructural development.

He asked the province to prioritize urgent projects for effective investment, advising it to continue developing rubber and cement industries and effectively tapping border-gate economy and advantages in terms of sea economy and the East-West Economic Corridor.

The PM praised the province’s socio-economic achievements over the past five years with an annual average growth of 10.8 percent, a per-capita income of 16.5 million VND in 2010 and an annual reduction of 3.3 percent in the poverty rate.

The province also recorded an economic growth of around 8 percent in the first eight months of the year and made significant progress in social fields, such as paying due attention to families of social beneficiaries.

During his visit to the province, PM Dung offered incense to commemorate heroic martyrs at Quang Tri Citadel and at Road No.9 and Truong Son martyrs’ cemeteries.

Quang Tri has 72 martyrs’ cemeteries which house graves of nearly 7,000 fallen soldiers, who came from different parts of the country./.