Thai Nguyen urged to tap potential for stronger development

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung made this statement on March 25 during his working visit to examine the socio-economic situation in the northern province of Thai Nguyen.

PM Dung praised the province’s significant achievements over the past year and in the first quarter of this year. The local economy grew 7.2 percent, which helped generate 22,600 new jobs and reduce the number of poor households by 2.93 percent.

Its 18,500 hectares of tea trees have the great potential to be a spearhead in the province’s fight against poverty; therefore Thai Nguyen should develop industrial-scale processing and marketing for this product.

Dung said the Government is willing to create the best possible conditions for Thai Nguyen to develop into an economic, political, cultural and educational centre of the northern midland and mountainous region.

He also said the province still has a long way to go to improve its investment environment, reform administrative procedures and attract more high-tech projects.

The same day, PM Dung attended a ceremony to inaugurate the construction of the US$3.2 billion Samsung high-tech complex in Thai Nguyen.

The complex, which will house the world’s largest Samsung mobile phone factory, is expected to provide jobs for tens of thousands of local people and contribute billions of US$ to the country’s annual export turnover, in addition to boosting the development of support industries for the electronics sector in the northern region of Vietnam.

In his speech at the inauguration, PM Dung said the Vietnamese Government is very pleased with Samsung’s decision to expand its operations in Vietnam, adding that this will also contribute to the strategic cooperation partnership between Vietnam and the Republic of Korea.

The Prime Minister also praised the contributions Korean businesses have made to Vietnam’s economic development and pledged to facilitate long-term investment from foreign businesses for mutual benefit.