The southwestern province of Tay Ninh should pay more attention to building up the Party and political system, said the National Assembly’s Chairman Nguyen Phu Trong.

The NA Chairman stated this while meeting with the provincial authorities on July 12 during a two-day visit.

Tay Ninh province also needs to strengthen ties between the Party and the people, he said.
Chairman Trong went on to say that with all its potential and advantages, Tay Ninh province should draw up a comprehensive development strategy and put forward mechanisms, policies and measures to reach its targets for industrialisation and modernisation.

The province was asked to pay more attention to agricultural production, but prioritise industrial development.

Chairman Trong praised the province’s socio-economic achievements over the past few years as it has recorded an annual GDP growth rate of 14 percent, higher than the country’s average.

According to the province, in 2009 and the first six months of this year, it had reached a GDP growth rate at of 10.7 percent and a per-capita income of 1,276 USD.

Its export turnover reached approximately 350 million USD in the first half of this year and is expected to reach 650 million USD by the years-end.

So far, the province has attracted 197 FDI projects with a total registered capital of nearly 890 million USD and 247 other projects with domestic investors that have injected over 29 trillion VND.

All the communes in the province have also reached national standards for access to primary and secondary education . As many as 99 percent of households now have electricity and 83 percent of rural families have clean water supplies.

In the first six months of the year, the province built 1,347 houses for poor households, generated jobs for 7,544 workers and reduced the poverty rate to 2 percent.

With its 240 km border with Cambodia , it is an important gateway to the south west of the country and the province has proposed that central government speeds up the progress of several infrastructure works including roads. This would serve its socio-economic development as well as boost trade relations with other provinces in the region and Cambodia .

Later the same day, Chairman Trong went to An Tinh commune in Trang Bang district, a heroic unit of the people’s armed forces, as well as Trang Bang Industrial Park .

He also visited and presented gifts to 94-year-old heroic mother Tran Thi Tham in Chau Thanh district’s Thanh Dien commune on the occasion of War Invalids and Martyrs’ Day (July 27)./.