Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong on January 8 paid a working visit to Chieng Ban commune, Mai Son district, Son La province, as part of his tour to the northern mountainous province.

The Party leader was inspecting the implementation of socio-economic development initiatives and Party building tasks in the area.

He praised the achievements made in Chieng Ban in its new-style rural area building programme.

The commune mobilised local people to participate in building roads and cultural houses and undertaking social work.

It also changed local agricultural methods by choosing to grow plants more suitable to its terrain and soil, particularly coffee, with high productivity and economic effectiveness.

Locals can harvest 100,000-140,000 tonnes of fresh coffee berries per year and enjoy profits over three times higher than offered by other crop plants.

The Party leader expressed his hope that Chieng Ban will continue increasing the productivity and quality of coffee trees to supply for domestic markets and to export products to other countries.

The same day, he visited Son La hydropower plant, where he praised the efforts by the plant’s officials, engineers and workers to put it into operation a whole three years ahead of schedule.

Built in 2005, the plant was put into full operation in December 2012. Since its first turbine began generating power in December 2010, the plant has produced 21.3 billion kWh of electricity, contributing over 2.5 trillion VND (120.65 million USD) to the State budget.

The Party leader also visited teachers and students of the province’s ethnic boarding high school and offered incense to martyrs at the Son La prison relic site, where Vietnamese communist soldiers were detained during the resistance war against France.

He also paid a visit to It Ong commune, Muong La district to inspect the process of a project on growing 10,000 hectares of rubber tree in the province.-VNA