Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has pressed the northern mountainous
province of Lai Chau to tap its hydropower and mineral resources
potential – key sectors to drive its economic development and the entire
region as a whole.
Working with its authorities in Hanoi on
July 29, PM Dung hailed the local Party Committee, authorities and
people for their progress in various fields over the past time.
He urged them to exert greater efforts to improve local people’s lives
by utilising the province’s advantages in agriculture, forestry and
animal husbandry involving the use of technological advances to turn out
high-quality products.
PM Dung also noted that Lai Chau needs
to ramp up infrastructure, especially in road and power, which according
to him, will fuel its socio-economic development.
The local
officials were also requested to adopt a comprehensive package of
measures to lift its residents out of poverty in a rapid and sustainable
way while providing them with sufficient social welfare, vocational
training and jobs.
“The Government stands ready to help Lai Chau
reduce poverty, so as to make it easier for the province to bridge the
development gap with localities nationwide,” the Government leader said.
The provincial officials reported that the local economic
structure is shifting to more promising fields, expanding by an annual
average of 12.3 percent between 2004 and 2012, and 13.84 percent from
2011-2012.
Last year, its total output of seeded food crops
exceeded 177,000 tonnes, 1.6 times more than in 2004. Meanwhile,
industrial production jumped 3.5 times from 2004 and 1.36 times against
2010. Retail and service sales leaped 6.4 times and 1.7 times from 2004
and 2010 respectively.
The relocation of people to pave the way
for Son La, Huoi Quang and Ban Chat hydropower plants is nearly
complete, while the building of new-style rural areas and infrastructure
is going on, they said.
At the event, the PM also commented on several proposals to allocate capital for key transport projects in the province.-VNA