On February 25, Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong paid a new year visit to the northern province of Phu Tho. He had a working session with the Standing Board of the provincial Party Committee.

Local Party officials reported that last year, the province achieved an economic growth higher than the country’s average. Per capita GDP reached 20.4 million VND, equivalent to almost 1,000 USD, and the poverty rate was just above 14 percent.

In the Lunar New Year festival this year, the province raised over 12.3 billion VND to support needy families, ensuring that all people enjoyed a happy holiday.

Local Party organizations are seriously conducting criticism and self criticism in line with the 11 th Party Central Committee’s Resolution on Party building.

The Party General Secretary noted that Phu Tho needs to pay attention to the resolution’s new points, and try effective and creative ways of implementation.

He suggested the province submit ideas to the Party Central Committee, contributing to improving the Party’s leadership capacity and strength.

The same day, Trong also met with leaders of Phu Tho’s neighbouring province of Vinh Phuc .

The Party leader said that Vinh Phuc is one of the provinces that have implemented well the criticism and self criticism movement and the 11 th Party Central Committee’s Resolution on Party building. However, he added, the province needs to strive for more achievements in the time to come.

He asked the province to strictly review the shortcomings so as to find out their causes.

Local leaders reported that the province has solved difficulties in State management, especially in such issues as land management, administrative reform and public investment restructuring.

In 2012, the province’s budget obtained 14.5 trillion VND, with the average per capita income of 47 million VND per annum.-VNA