10:50:02 AM | 19/1/2006
Gia Lai province has an important position in the Highlands economy. In addition, the advantages on abundant material and labour sources have created favourable conditions for the development of industry. In recent years, the industry of Gia Lai has made great progress with the full use of local strengths.
In 2005, various factories were put into operation such as Krong Pa cashew nut export processing enterprise, Phu Tuc farm products export processing enterprise, Pleiku garment factory, Ia Mo 3 hydraulic power plant and the construction of H’Mun hydraulic power plant. The industrial production in the provincial territory has been maintained at high growth. Last year, the regions industrial value reached more than VND1,410 billion, up by 15.4 percent over 2004. However, compared to the annual plan, the total provincial industrial value reached only 90 percent due to a lack of materials and fuel, and general market uncertainty.
At the 13th provincial Party Congress held recently, the province identified the objectives and tasks for the next five years. Accordingly, priority should be given to industry development in the direction of modernisation, creating impetus for fast economic growth. As such, attention will be paid to developing the industries that already have a stable market, especially export, as well a industries with comparative advantages, high economic efficiency, using local material sources and labour intensiveness. The focus should be given to developing concentrating industrial complexes in Pleiku City towns and rural areas for accelerating the growth rate of difficult areas.
To do so, Gia Lai has paid special attention to diversifying the investment resources and economic sectors investing in the industry. Accordingly, it has facilitated state enterprises to increase the scale and product quality as well as fostered the cooperation of other economic sectors. In the coming years, the province will focus its investment on four main industries with the first priority given to food and farm produce processing industry. It is trying to reach the value of VND1,560 billion and 3,045 billion by 2006 and 2010, respectively. The agro-forestry development will be speeded up in the direction of commodity production, creating concentrated and stable material zones with main products like rubber, coffee, pepper, tea, cashew nut, sugarcane, food processing, fine art wood furniture and MDF wood.
The second prioritised industry is power generation. With the advantage of rivers and springs, after the IaLy Hydraulic Power Plant, the Ministry of Industry is continuing its investment in a series of hydraulic power plants like Se San 3, Se San 3A, Se San 4, An Khe - Ka Nak and many small plants. It is trying to increase the total locally produced power output to 8.1 billion KWh by 2010 including 460 million KWh generated by local industry reaching the value of VND200 billion. The third industry of importance is mining and construction material production with attention being focused on the mechanic industry and capital repairing.
In the period from 2006-2010, Gia Lai expects to invest more than VND17,000 billion in developing industrial units to obtain an average growth rate of 22 percent per year, and as a result, raising the GDP growth rate of the province to 12.6 percent. The total industrial production value will reach over VND3,800 billion by 2010.
To achieve this objective, Gia Lai will boost technology innovation, training management and technical personnel, and skilled workers for mastering modern technologies. The province will develop mechanisms and policies for creating stable and high quality material zones. It will invest in new processing enterprises, small and medium hydraulic works. For generating capital sources, it will apply investment incentives, production protection, preferential loans and taxes. The industrial development will be linked to environment protection. The urbanisation rate will be speeded up facilitating industrial development. Furthermore, state-owned enterprises will also be rearranged to meet the requirements of the market economy.
Quoc Tuan