The northern province of Hoa Binh must create fundamental changes to drive back the illegal drug trafficking and transport and stamp out drug smuggling rings in Hang Kia and Pa Co communes in Mai Chau district.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung made the request while working with the provincial leaders in Mai Chau district on May 8.

Hang Kia and Pa Co communes are inhabited by nearly 5,000 H’mong ethnic people with complicated developments of drug transport and trafficking.

Therefore, PM Dung urged ministries and authorised agencies to closely coordinate with Hoa Binh province to timely detect and prevent the transport and smuggling of drugs in the two communes.

He requested the province to mobilise people’s participation in drug prevention through raising their awareness of the harmful effects of drugs and the illegality of drug trafficking.

The PM also pledged government assistance for the province build to better its socio-economic development plan and seek appropriate plants and animals for local ethnic people.

To boost its socio-economic development, besides the government’s assistance, Hoa Binh province should speed up intensive farming while focusing on industrial products with high added value, aquaculture and forestry as well as developing concentrated material zones and processing industry, he noted.

The province should also pay more attention to policies on social security, poverty reduction and forest protection while accelerating administrative reforms to attain a GDP growth rate of 11.5 percent and per-capita income of 13.3 million VND per year and reduce the poverty rate to 14 percent in 2010.

The Government leader also highly valued efforts made by the provincial authorities and people to obtain satisfactory achievements in the first four months of this year.

Hoa Binh province reported its GDP growth rate of nearly 11 percent and per-capita income of 11.42 million VND per year in 2009.

On the same day, PM Dung attended the inauguration ceremony of the Hoa Binh provincial General Hospital./.