Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has pressed the northern mountainous province of Lai Chau to tap its hydropower and mineral resources potential - key sectors to drive its economic development and the entire region as a whole.

Working with its authorities in Hanoi on July 29, PM Dung hailed the local Party Committee, authorities and people for their progress in various fields over the past time.

He urged them to exert greater efforts to improve local people’s lives by utilising the province’s advantages in agriculture, forestry and animal husbandry involving the use of technological advances to turn out high-quality products.

PM Dung also noted that Lai Chau needs to ramp up infrastructure, especially in road and power, which according to him, will fuel its socio-economic development.

The local officials were also requested to adopt a comprehensive package of measures to lift its residents out of poverty in a rapid and sustainable way while providing them with sufficient social welfare, vocational training and jobs.

“The Government stands ready to help Lai Chau reduce poverty, so as to make it easier for the province to bridge the development gap with localities nationwide,” the Government leader said.

The provincial officials reported that the local economic structure is shifting to more promising fields, expanding by an annual average of 12.3 percent between 2004 and 2012, and 13.84 percent from 2011-2012.

Last year, its total output of seeded food crops exceeded 177,000 tonnes, 1.6 times more than in 2004. Meanwhile, industrial production jumped 3.5 times from 2004 and 1.36 times against 2010. Retail and service sales leaped 6.4 times and 1.7 times from 2004 and 2010 respectively.

The relocation of people to pave the way for Son La, Huoi Quang and Ban Chat hydropower plants is nearly complete, while the building of new-style rural areas and infrastructure is going on, they said.
At the event, the PM also commented on several proposals to allocate capital for key transport projects in the province.-VNA