A scene at the conference
Potentials converge
The conference was organized by the Provincial People's Committee with the participation of: Mr. Ngo Dong Hai, Deputy Head of the Central Economic Commission; Mr. Le Truong Luu, member of the Party Central Committee, Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee; Mr. Nguyen Van Cao, Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, Chairman of the Council for the Central key economic region during the 2017-2018 term; Mr. Tran Dinh Thien, Member of the Advisory Committee of the Prime Minister; Mr. Bui Tat Thang, Director of the Institute for Development Strategy, Ministry of Planning and Investment.
The Central key economic region has five administrative units including Da Nang City and other provinces: Thua Thien Hue, Quang Nam, Quang Ngai and Binh Dinh. These regions have favorable conditions to form an important economic and trade corridor linking the north and south of Vietnam and are the sea gateway of the East-West Economic Corridor, connecting Laos – Myanmar – Cambodia with international maritime routes through the East Sea and the Pacific Ocean.
At present, there are four coastal economic zones, including Chan May - Lang Co (Thua Thien Hue), Chu Lai (Quang Nam), Dung Quat (Quang Ngai), Nhon Hoi (Binh Dinh) and 19 industrial zones licensed by the Prime Minister for establishment, accounting for 5.8% of the total industrial zones in the country and about 45.2% of the industrial zones in the 14 Central provinces.
Speaking at the meeting, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Van Cao said that at present, the economic zones and industrial zones of the region have created new production capacity, but have not created a breakthrough in industrial development. Much of the attraction to the economic zones and industrial zones in the region is labor intensive, fuel and energy intensive, low-tech, such as textiles and garments production, footwear production, plastic products production, agriculture, forestry and fishery processing, etc. Therefore, the quality and speed of development of the economic zones and the industrial zones in the area are not high.
Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Van Cao emphasized that it is time to relook at the regional development linking model after ten years of establishment, especially in the development of economic zones and industrial zones, to introduce a linking model which is innovative, creative and sustainable; in order to overcome the situation of economic space divided by administrative boundaries, allowing the Central key economic region to bring into full play its potentials and strengths.
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tran Dinh Thien (right) talks with provincial leaders around issues of regional linkage
Reverse thinking
From the point of view of Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Dinh Thien, Member of the Advisory Committee of Prime Minister, economic zones and industrial zones in the Central key economic region are basically the same in terms of topography and advantages. So, each locality should choose an advantage to turn into a common point for the region. To develop the region, reverse thinking must be activated. Each locality must choose a strategy for development to attract investors to choose it, rather than it chooses the investors.
In order to do that, the localities must choose their own strengths and not compete in the manner of either winning or losing. They must adhere to two general principles: allocation of resources based on market principles and utilizing advantages to create advantages.
According to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tran Dinh Thien, Thua Thien Hue has a potential for tourism with the highlight being the convergence of cultural heritages in many attractions. So, in addition to attracting investment in seaports, textile development, food processing, there needs to be stronger promotion for investment to mobilize maximum resources for investment and development of infrastructure for service in tourism. In addition, Hue has the advantage of being an intensive medical center. More investment is needed in the field of pharmaceutical production and supplementary food .
Meanwhile, Dr. Duong Dinh Thuat, former Director of the Institute for Industrial Strategy and Policy, Ministry of Industry and Trade, said that in the coming time, not all five existing economic zones should be developed at the same time. It is necessary to select economic zones that have the most investment attraction, labor productivity and ability to create high added value.
For industrial zones, it is necessary to focus on building a complete fashion-design-garment-textile industry cluster which will become the main pillar for the textile and garment export program in order to meet the demand of the whole region and for export.
According to Dr. Duong Dinh Giam, in order to achieve this goal, it is necessary to adjust the functions of existing economic zones, in which the core issue is to review the functions of economic zones in the region to adjust to the new development context and at the same time, to reduce suspension plans and contribute to stabilizing the lives of residents in the area.
In addition, it is necessary to strengthen links to complement each other and make use of the scale of the market, highlighting the development of selected economic zones in the direction of closely linking with socio-economic development of localities, selected economic zones in the region and economic zones outside the region.
Deputy Head of Dung Quat Economic Zone and Quang Ngai Industrial Zones Management Board Dam Minh Le said that in order to bring into full play its potentials and links to regional development, there must be a mechanism for regional coordination and management. It is also necessary to develop appropriate mechanisms and policies to promote linkages to facilitate faster development for localities. In addition, resources must be allocated to invest and develop socio-economic infrastructure, especially transport infrastructure in the region such as coastal roads, airport expansion and expressway in the region.
Story and photos: Thanh Hương