Stabilising Economic Development, Speeding up Investment Attraction

Can you make an overview of the province’s social-economic development in 2007 and six months of 2008?
Agriculture is a key economic sector of Central Highlands Lam Dong Province. Therefore, the development of the sector strongly affects the provincial social-economic development. Last year, the sector made up 80 per cent of the province’s total export values. The result was due to proper investment and timely policies from the local authorities which have focused on high-tech agricultural production, especially in vegetable, flower and tea cultivations and animal and plant restructure from low income to higher one. The province’s most valuable achievement this year is that it has made success in cold water fish breeding. It is considered a new potential sector for Lam Dong. To date, the province covers total agricultural land of 125,000 hectares which brings about VND50 million per hectare annually; and 10,000 hectares of land which annually brings about from VND100 million to VND2 billion per hectare.

In the first six months of, all economic sectors fulfilled over 55 per cent of the whole year set targets. The provincial People’s Committee has urged relevant agencies and areas to carry out such programmes as: expanding high-tech agricultural production in parallel with environment protection; restructuring plant cultivation based on local land, and weather, choosing new breeds, especially cold water fish raising with output of 700 tonnes in 2008 and 2,000 – 3,000 tonnes in 2009; growing more grass fields to satisfy home-bred animal husbandry. The province has also created conditions for agriculture sector to target labour-intensive sectors including garment, fertilizer. It has also strived to speed up construction of State-funded projects, built more markets in rural areas, and expanded material supply network for agricultural production and processing.  

One of the advantages of Lam Dong is cultivation of long-term trees, especially tea. What has Lam Dong done over the past years to tap the advantage?
In Lam Dong, tea is one of three key trees, making great contributions to the local economic development. According to statistics, Lam Dong now takes the lead in the country in terms of tea cultivation area and output. The province now covers over 25,000 hectares of tea, accounting for 21per cent of the country’s total area and 27 per cent of the country’s total output. In 2006, Lam Dong held first Tea Festival in Vietnam. The festival was a chance for Lam Dong to advertise its tea quality.

After ten-year implementation of agriculture production plan, the local tea sector has laid good foundation for its development. Farmers in Bao Loc Commune and Bao Lam District (two tea granaries of Lam Dong) and enterprises have abided by safe tea cultivation. Lam Dong has also applied advanced technology from Japan, Taiwan and European countries into tea cultivation in an effort to further improve its tea quality. Lam Dong has planned to develop high-tech tea cultivation areas, which produce high-class and safe tea. The province targets to expand its tea cultivation area to 28,000 hectares by 2020, including 55 per cent of high-yield tea cultivation.

What do you think about the province’s cooperative programme with HCM City and effectiveness of its investment attraction over the past years?
Since 2003, the province’s total investment attraction has increased 30 per cent on average. Of the figure, investment lured from non State-run sector accounted for 70 per cent. HCM City takes lead among localities having most investment projects in Lam Dong over the past five years (2003-2008).

The province has agreed in principle enterprises from HCM City to invest in 149 projects in Lam Dong with total registered capital of VND37 trillion. Of them, 93 projects have received investment licences from the Provincial People’s Committee with total capital of VND19,700 billion. Tourism is the sector that has lured most attention from HCM City enterpirses. To date, 74 tourism projects have been approved in principle. Of them, 41 projects have received the licences with total registered capital of VND6.2 trillion. At present, 18 tourism projects are under construction with total investment of over VND1 trillion. Industry and home craft industry lure fewer projects than tourism sector (13 projects, accounting for 8.72 per cent of the province’s total projects) and lower capital (VND190 billion). However, the Provincial People’s Committee said these are the two sectors that have seen more successful projects than others. In ago-forestry sector, Lam Dong lured 39 projects from HCM City over the past three years, of which 32 projects have received investment licences with total registered capital of VND10,349 trillion (the highest figure). Of them, 21 projects are under construction with total capital of VND2,254 billion.

In addition, hydroelectric plant construction is also a sector that has lured interest from HCM City investors. The province has approved in principle 20 projects, of which 11 projects have received investment licences with total registered capital of over VND2,840 billion and nine projects are under construction.

What development strategy will the province follow to make a breakthrough in its economic development corresponding to the regional economic development strategy?
The year 2008 has been the third consecutive year to implement the Resolution of the 8^th provincial Party Committee with the goals: unity, renovation, making breakthrough to wipe Lam Dong out of the list of undeveloped localities. 2008 is an important transitional year of the province’s social-economic development plan in the 2006-2010 period. Therefore, the Party Committee has set new targets in terms of theme, key development areas, works and breakthrough solutions.

Important tasks that Lam Dong has set for this year has stated in the resolution: “speeding up administrative reform, improving investment environment and boosting social-economic development”. Accordingly, the province has set higher targets but shortened schedule for the implementation. The province has set new targets for budget collection which are in line with social-economic development strategy. One of the important tasks that should be fulfilled as soon as possible is that construction on key projects, as it will be the solution to budget collection and economic restructure. The province has also paid much attention to carrying out BSPS, GTZ projects to lay a good foundation for administrative reform and make contribution to the local social-economic development.