Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has asked the central province of Binh Thuan to pay more attention to the development of agriculture along with the building of the new model for the rural area and improve income and living conditions for people living there.

At a working session with key leaders of Binh Thuan on February 18, Dung spoke highly of efforts and achievements that the province has made in all fields.

He emphasised that Binh Thuan should make full use of its potential and advantages, while focusing efforts on overcoming shortcomings and weaknesses in order to develop in a steady and sustainable way.

The PM urged the province to concentrate on its key products such as wet rice, dragon fruit and rubber cultivation as well as fisheries.

Binh Thuan should broaden markets for its key agriculture products and ensure their quality and develop their trademarks, he said.

Besides effectively developing the tourism and services sector, the province should strive for further progress in the industries that fuel the local socio-economic development, including electricity, mining and procession industry, the PM said.

Dung suggested Binh Thuan to attract more investment and resources to improve its systems of transport, irrigation, electricity and water supply, while focusing on training high-quality human resources.

At the same time, the province should continue to better health care and education sectors, step up poverty reduction and improve state management of land and natural resources.

Le Tien Phuong, Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee, said last year, the province gained remarkable progress, evidently a growth rate of 8.8 percent.

He said in 2013, the province will continue to improve growth quality in association with the sustainable economic development, paving the way for the success of the socio-economic development plan in the 2011-2015 period, striving for a GDP growth of 9 percent.

During the session, the PM also heard proposals and recommendations of the province on the investment for several projects.

Earlier, Dung visited an irrigation work on Quao River in Ham Thuan Bac district, which has a capacity of storing 73 million cubic meters of water for 8,120 hectares of agriculture land in the district and residents in Phan Thiet city.-VNA