Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc speaks at the investment, trade and tourism promotion conference of Cao Bang province on November 25 (Photo: VNA) Cao Bang (VNA) – Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has assigned the mountainous northern province of Cao Bang to develop a mountainous tourism trademark for the country, which is also one of the directions serving the locality’s future socio-economic development.
He was addressing the investment, trade and tourism promotion conference of Cao Bang province on November 25, one day after he had a working session with the provincial officials.
The event brought together businesses from other localities and economic and trade organizations from China’s Guangxi province, which borders Cao Bang.
Local authority called for investments into 32 projects in tourism, hi-tech agriculture, farm-forestry-aquaculture processing, infrastructure, and transport, committing to always maintaining political-security stability and consistency in investment attraction and support policies, and the ways of serving enterprises and the locals.
“We are determined to figure out strategic springboards for Cao Bang’s economic development,” PM Phuc said, pointing to tourism service, high-tech agricultural and forestry processing and border gate economy as major directions for the province’s future socio-economic growth.
He stressed tapping the huge potential possessed by bordering Guangxi province, saying commodities produced by Cao Bang and Vietnam in general can access other Chinese provinces and ASEAN countries via the locality.
Though having a bustling investment and trade climate, Cao Bang still has a high percentage of poor households and underdeveloped transport connectivity and that is the reason for the PM to make the second working visit with the province after the first one in 2017, the leader said.
Regarding tourism, Cao Bang needs to turn the sector into a spearhead economic sector with its characteristics, tapping owned special national cultural and relic sites, especially the UNESCO-recognized Non Nuoc Cao Bang Global Geo-park, in service of the life of local residents, PM Phuc said.
“Cao Bang’s tourism should be a combination of cultural, historical, and patriotic values, natural landscapes, and cuisines that make its first visitors talk about it many times then,” he said.
The leader suggested the province following organic farming methods, applying high technologies in farming and processing, and fostering connectivity between value chains and sectors when regarding the development of agriculture-forestry processing.
He especially advised the locality to focus on developing the exports of planted timber, which is the key and advantageous export line of Vietnam.
He pointed out that border-gate economy is the key for the province’s global integration and development.
“Cao Bang needs to seriously follow the principle of promoting peace, cooperation for mutual development, win-win interests, and respect to respective sovereignty. It needs to pay heed to trans-border trade cooperation, especially with the world’s most populous market (China), and see its strategic opportunities in it,” he noted.
The leader asked investors to realize their investment commitments and social responsibility towards the local people. Apart from economic profits, investments should generate jobs and incomes for the locals, he said.
At the conference, the province handed over papers on investment intentions and investment certificates for 14 projects of local and foreign investors worth nearly 3.6 trillion VND; and 18 memorandums of understanding on investment partnerships in various fields worth over 28.5 trillion VND.
And, four commercial banks pledged to continue providing credits worth nearly 2 trillion VND for the province’s six socio-economic development projects engaging in energy and tourism.-VNA
VNA
