favourable conditions for organisations and individuals both in and
outside the country to invest in Vietnam and the Mekong Delta
region in particular.
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan
Dung delivered this message at a conference on investment and
development in the Mekong Delta, which opened in Can Tho city on Sept. 6
with the attendance of more than 700 domestic and foreign delegates.
The leader said he hoped that the conference would
serve as an opportunity for concerned agencies and the business
community to update Vietnam ’s investment policies, projects calling
for investment, as well as obstacles hindering business and investment
activities.
PM Dung urged the regional cities and
provinces to work closely together on mechanisms and policies to attract
more investment, fully tap local potential and strengths and mobilise
all internal and external resources so as to further foster the region’s
socio-economic development and improve local people’s living
conditions.
The government has always paid special
attention to the Mekong Delta’s development through support and
facilitation policies such as a socio-economic development scheme until
2015 with a vision through 2025 and a construction plan for the region
until 2020 with a vision through 2050, he said.
The
government also approved a plan to turn the Mekong Delta into a key
economic region, under which the region is defined as a centre for rice
growing, aquaculture and aquatic product processing of the whole country
and a major hub of energy, the PM added.
The Mekong
Delta encompasses 13 cities and provinces which cover an area of 4
million hectares and boast a population of approximately 18 million,
accounting for 21 percent of the country’s total population.
The region shares a 330-km border with Cambodia and has a 700-km
coastline and territory waters of 360,000 sq.km. It contributes around
18 percent to the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) each year.
The Mekong Delta is the largest rice granary and aquaculture region in
Vietnam , making up 50 percent of the country’s rice output and 52
percent of the aquatic product volume. It accounts for up to 90 percent
of the nation’s rice export volume and 60 percent of the aquatic product
export turnover each year.
During the 2006-2010
period, the region has recorded an annual average GDP growth rate of
between 10-12 percent, of which industry and service have contributed an
increasing proportion.
It has also reaped a broad
range of achievements in terms of infrastructure, health care, education
and poverty reduction, while maintaining national defence, security and
social order.
However, the region is still facing
shortcomings and challenges, including the tardy application of
scientific and technological advances in production, the poor
competitiveness of products and businesses, the shortage of high-quality
human resources and the ineffective attraction of foreign investment./.
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