Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong has asked leaders of the Mekong delta province of Kien Giang to pay more attention to land use planning and management, and social welfare policies.

At a working session with the Kien Giang authorities on the implementation of a Party Central Committee Resolution on agriculture, farmers and rural areas on August 28, the Party chief requested the province to define a reasonable economic structure in conformity with its actual conditions, so as to restructure the economy effectively and set up commodity production zones combined with product processing and consumption.

Together with stepping up the application of scientific and technological advances in agricultural production, Kien Giang should enhance the coordination among the State, farmers, scientists and businesses to increase value, reduce production costs and ensure farmers’ benefits.

Boasting 140 small and big islands and almost 200 km of coastline, the province should fully tap potentials of the sea-borne economy coupled with maintaining national defence and security, he added.

The Party leader hailed the results Kien Giang province has reaped after three years of implementing the resolution, noting that local people’s living conditions have been improved and the poverty rate has dropped by 1.5 percent per year.

Secretary of the Kien Giang Party Committee Nguyen Thanh Son said Kien Giang has considered agriculture, farmers and rural areas an important role in maintaining stability and promoting socio-economic development as more than 80 percent of the province’s areas are farming land and more than 70 percent of the population are farmers.

He said the province is now home to 182 cooperatives and almost 9,900 farms, with an annual average income of 60 million VND per hectare.

Kien Giang province’s agro-forestry and fisheries sector recorded an annual average growth rate of 7.2 percent, thus contributing to the province’s annual economic growth rate of 11.5 percent, Son added./.