Top legislator examines Khanh Hoa’s socio-economic performance

Khanh Hoa (VNA) – NA Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan had a working session with officials of the central coastal province of Khanh Hoa on December 16 to review the province’s 2017 socio-economic development plan.

Ngan lauded the joint efforts made by local authorities to address the consequences caused by storm Damrey in November, urging the locality to take comprehensive measures to help its residents stabilise their lives and businesses resume their operation.

Reporting to the NA top leader, Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Le Duc Vinh said the province’s GRDP expanded by 7.9 percent year on year and GRDP per capita reached 57 million VND (2,500 USD) in 2017.

Its export value was estimated at 1.22 billion USD, a slight rise from 2016, while the import value was around 680 million USD, falling 3.5 percent year on year.

The locality welcomed 5.43 million visitors, including over 2 million foreigners, earning 17 trillion VND (748 million USD) from tourism, up 30.8 percent year on year.

However, damages caused by storm Damrey were serious and extensive, thus affecting the realisation of its 2017 socio-economic targets, including industrial and fishery-agricultural production, and poverty reduction.

Total fatalities due to the storm reached 44, while one remains missing and 229 others were injured. The total damage was estimated at over 14.7 trillion VND (616 million USD) with 2,810 houses totally destroyed, 115,580 others damaged and over 36,000 hectares of crops inundated. Over 370,000 heads of livestock and poultry were killed or washed away. Thousands of ships were sunk, and thousands of hectares of fish farms along with numerous infrastructure facilities were ruined. 

Vinh reported that the province has earmarked 18.5 billion VND (814,000 USD) for providing aid in cash and rice to storm-affected residents, adding that over 176 billion VND (7,744 USD) was also mobilised from the local budget and donors to help local people repair their houses.

The province’s authorities made several proposals to the NA on local socio-economic development, including the adjustment of the area of its Bac Van Phong Special Administrative-Economic Zone. The province also asked the NA to allow it keep all the import-export taxes collected within the Zone from now to 2030 to finance the implementation of policies designed specifically for the zone.

The NA Chairwoman agreed with the proposal on the scope and area of the Bac Van Phong Special Administrative-Economic Zone, saying that the locality needs to prepare a detail proposal to submit to the NA Standing Committee.

During the occasion, Nguyen Hanh Phuc, Chairman of the NA Office presented 500 million VND (22,000 USD) donated by the staff of the NA Office and Party organisation to help storm victims in the province.-VNA