Steering Committee for Northwestern Region completes tasks

Binh, a member of the Politburo, Secretary of the Communist Party’s Central Committee and head of the Party Central Committee’s Economic Commission, said the SCNR has helped improve the capacity of Party committees and local governments.

The SCNR will end its operation following the 12th Party Central Committee’s Decision 18-TW dated October 25 and the Politburo’s Decision 104-QDTW dated November 28, he said.

Participants at the meeting proposed that after the SCNR’s operation ends, it is necessary to design preferential policies for Northwestern region’s development, while continue providing capital to the region to implement key development projects.

Binh asked regional localities to focus on ensuring growth targets for 2018, better managing budget collection and budget spending, while speeding up the restructuring of agricultural sector and administrative reform.

Localities should also improve ethnic and religious policies, thus maintaining national solidarity.

In 2017, gross regional development product of the region grew 8.43 percent from 2016, with per capita income of VND30.75 million (US$1,356), up VND2.25 million (US$99) compared to 2016.

The region’s State budget collection hit VND36.8 trillion (US$1.62 billion), exceeding the yearly target by 1.1 percent. Its industrial production is estimated at VND138.2 trillion (US$6.09 billion), up 13.6 percent over the previous year. Total investment reached VND153.3 trillion (US$6.76 billion), up 10 percent year on year.

This year, 106 communes have been recognised as new-style rural areas, raising total recognised communes to 318.