Quang Binh aims to greet 4.3 million tourists in 2019

Visitors at Phong Nha - Ke Bang National Park 

The central province of Quang Binh targets to welcome 4.3 million visitors in 2019, about 250,000-300,000 of them foreigners, and earn some 5 trillion VND (more than 214 million USD) from tourism. 

Deputy Director of the provincial Department of Tourism Dang Dong Ha said that in order to realise these goals, the tourism sector must continue diversifying and improving the quality of its products and services at popular sites such as the Thien Duong, Phong Nha, and Tien Son caves; Nuoc Mooc spring; the botanical gardens; and Chay River– Toi cave.

It will also push to develop a variety of branches, such as marine, resort, adventure, and ecological.

The province will continue introducing new tourism products, including festival tours and meeting, incentive, convention, and exhibition (MICE) tourism, as well as promote its strengths in spiritual, cultural, historical, and community-based tourism.

Ha said developing tourism must be associated with the protection and preservation of the ecological environment.

In 2018, the locality greeted more than 3.9 million visitors, a year-on-year rise of 18.2 percent. 

Notably, the number of foreign arrivals to the locality exceeded 200,000, up 53 percent compared to 2017.

The tourism sector raked in nearly 4.5 trillion VND (more than 192 million USD) in revenue in the year, 20 percent higher than that of the previous year.

The results were attributed to efforts by local authorities to tap local advantages for tourism, focusing on diversifying products. 

Many tours were opened to serve increasing demand of visitors, especially eco-tours, community tours and tours of Quang Binh’s popular destinations. 

Travel agencies operating in the locality have also paid attention to developing infrastructure facilities. 

Quang Binh is home to about 350 tourist accommodation facilities, including one 5-star hotel, five 4-star hotels and eight 3-star hotels. About 40 travel companies are operating in the locality, including 14 international ones.

Local authorities have also worked hard on national, regional and international tourism promotion, while enhancing connection with other localities in this field. 

Quang Binh boasts rich tourism resources and is home to the UNESCO World Heritage Site Phong Nha -Ke Bang National Park and the world’s largest cave Son Doong.

The province also has the longest coastline in Vietnam, with beautiful beaches and delicious seafood. It was chosen as one of the filming destinations of the Hollywood blockbuster movie “Kong: Skull Island”.

Da Nang to prioritise tourism industry

Son Tra Peninsula in Da Nang city 

The central city of Da Nang will prioritise the development of tourism and services associated with commercial real estate for resorts.

This was one of the five key areas given in the Politburo’s newly issued Resolution 43 on the city’s construction and development by 2030.

According to the resolution, Da Nang needs to have a policy focusing on developing five key sectors, including travel and high quality services associated with resort real estate; seaports and airports; high-tech industry associated with creative urban construction and start-ups; information technology, electronics and telecommunications associated with the digital economy; and high-tech agriculture and fisheries.

In particular, there will be policies to develop Da Nang into a marine economic centre, forming a logistics service supply chain in the central region with the city as a central hub.

Da Nang must develop its high-tech park into a competitive, scientific and technological urban area in accordance with international standards to ensure competitiveness. At the same time, it is necessary for the city to become a centre for entrepreneurship and innovation in the Central Highlands region.

The resolution also requires the city restructure the agricultural sector towards building a new countryside and developing high-tech agriculture. It must promote the development of large-scale commodity production and focus on products with competitive advantages and high economic value.

The city must also focus on deal with land management violations to protect the interests of organisations, individuals and sources of State budget revenue.

The resolution says the city must create a favourable investment and business environment, actively attract foreign-invested projects, promote socialization and build a mechanism to effectively mobilise domestic and foreign investments.

The Politburo asked the city to focus on developing modern infrastructure to connect the city traffic system with neighbouring, regional and international provinces by road, rail, sea and air.

The city should encourage enterprises from all economic sectors to develop telecommunications infrastructure, universalise services and develop modern public services, the resolution said.

Vinacomin ships first tonnes of coal on New Year day

The Vietnam National Coal-Mineral Industries Holding Corp., Ltd. (Vinacomin) loaded its first tonnes of coal onto the Viet Thuan Sky ship at Cam Pha port in the northern province of Quang Ninh on February 5 (the first day of the Lunar New Year).  

According to a sealed contract, the vessel received 40,300 tonnes of coal dust, which will be delivered to the Vinh Tan 1 thermal power plant in the south central coastal province of Binh Thuan. 

Vinacomin said it sold over 4 million tonnes of coal in January 2019, the highest ever recorded in a month.

So far this year, its subsidiaries - the Cam Pha Port & Logistics Company and Cua Ong Coal Sorting Company - handled more than 3 million tonnes of coal for shipments at the port.

Last year, the group produced 36.95 million tonnes of coal and sold 40.5 million tonnes. This year’s figures are set to reach 40 and 42 million tonnes, respectively.-

Phu Quoc to boost investment in socio-economic development

A view of the sea area off Phu Quoc Island from the Hon Thom cable car system 

Phu Quoc island district continues to deploy synchronous solutions, creating favourable conditions, supporting investors and enterprises to implement projects as planned, speeding up construction and contributing to local socio-economic development.

This was revealed by the Phu Quoc Economic Zone management board in the southern province of Kien Giang.

In particular, the island is concentrating on investment capital to speed up the construction schedule to complete key infrastructure projects; overcome limitations and weaknesses in planning management, land, construction, compensation and site clearance; drastically handle disputes, compensation, clearance, resettlement and support for people to have "clean land" for investors to implement the projects.

According to the Phu Quoc Economic Zone management board, investment attraction in Phu Quoc mainly focuses on tourism and marine economic development. Although a number of projects on the island have been granted investment policy decisions, the implementation of these projects is still slow.

The reasons include the compensation for site clearance, support and resettlement of projects takes a lot of time; disputes and complaints leading to land handover in the field face many difficulties and problems; coordination between investors and State management agencies is not synchronised, so some projects are encroached and re-occupied, causing difficulties and shortcomings in implementing projects in accordance with the plan.

In addition, the source of infrastructure investment capital of the Government has not met the demand for development investment, affecting the construction progress of key infrastructure projects compared to the plan. So far, Phu Quoc has paid compensation and support to more than 10,897 households, with an amount of over 6.12 trillion VND (261.6 million USD).

The Phu Quoc Economic Zone management board said that to date, Phu Quoc island has 299 valid investment projects in planning areas with a total area of 10,578ha. Accordingly, 258 projects were granted investment certificates, investment policy decisions, with a total area of 8,893 hectares, total registered investment capital of over 270.3 trillion VND (11.9 billion USD), and 41 projects are completing procedures.

Currently, 46 projects have been put into operation on an area of 1,200 hectares with a total investment capital of more than 13.47 trillion VND. The other 41 projects are under construction, covering an area of 3,246ha with total investment of 101.3 trillion VND, including six partially operated projects, the remaining projects are completing investment procedures.

In addition, up to now, on Phu Quoc island, there are 31 foreign direct investment (FDI) projects with total registered capital of 293 million USD.

Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue 

Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue has highlighted remarkable results of Vietnam's economic development in 2018 and made positive forecasts for the national economic growth in 2019 in an interview recently granted to the Vietnam News Agency. 

Accordingly, the country’s GDP recorded the highest growth ever of 7.08 percent in 2018, making the economic scale increase quickly too, hitting 240.5 billion USD, 1.3 times higher than that of 2015. 

Per capita income approximated 2,600 USD, up nearly 200 USD compared to 2017, Hue said.

The Deputy PM highlighted efforts from all sectors to fulfill and surpass the GDP growth target set for 2018, saying that available resources have been fully tapped to ensure sustainable and comprehensive growth. 

Processing, manufacturing industries and service sectors remained the key contributors to 2018’s growth, he noted. 

In addition to the high growth, the quality of growth has also improved remarkably with increasing productivity, quality, efficiency and competitiveness of the national economy,which was reflected by the TFP (aggregate factor productivity) index reaching 40.23 percent in the year, as compared to 33.58 percent in the whole 2011-2015 period. 

He underlined the need to not only promote economic growth, but also strengthen macroeconomic foundations and control inflation. 

The Deputy PM also voiced his concern about issues related to disbursement of public investment, equitization and divestment of State-owned enterprises (SOEs)and handling of weaknesses in big projects, which still remain slow, especially in key ministries, sectors and localities. 

More attention must be paid to tightening administrative disciplines, especially the responsibility of leaders in organising the implementation of duties, thus creating breakthroughs to well fulfill set goals and tasks, Hue said. 

Despite the substantial and comprehensive achievements last year, in their speeches, Party General Secretary and President Nguyen Phu Trong and PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc shared the view that Vietnam will still face major difficulties and challenges in 2019 and the following years.

Hue noted there remain long-standing weaknesses that cannot be resolved overnight. It is necessary to simultaneously build production capacity and strongly dealing with loss-making projects.

While unpredictable developments still happen in the world economy such as fierce trade wars between big economies, the openness of Vietnam’s economy is considerable. Therefore, the country needs to make stronger efforts, carry out concerted and comprehensive solutions and stay clear of complacency to fulfill all socio-economic development tasks for 2019, he said.

Pointing out things that need to be done, the Deputy PM said ministries and sectors whose activities cover a wide range of economic issues like the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the Ministry of Finance, the State Bank of Vietnam and the Ministry of Industry and Trade should be more active in making forecasts and proposing solutions. They must always remember that consolidating the macro-economic stability is the top priority.

Additionally, they have to create a truly favourable investment and business climate for all enterprises, especially private firms, to develop and become one of the important driving forces of the economy, he said, admitting that this is a challenging problem.

Hue added ministries and sectors also need to step up the equitisation of State-owned enterprises, divest State capital from companies more substantively, and push ahead with reforming the growth model in order to improve the economy’s productivity, quality and competitiveness.

Over recent years, Vietnam’s farm produce and vegetables have overcome severe barriers on quality standards to enter fastidious markets like those of Europe or Japan.

Vietnam’s agricultural exports rank 15th in the world, but their competitiveness in the market is not yet significant.

Huy Long An is one of the first Vietnamese companies directly exporting agricultural products to Japan. Each year, it earns millions of USD from exporting bananas to Japan and the Republic of Korea, with last year’s revenue amounting to 3.3 million dollars. 

To be able to export to  demanding countries, Huy Long An has to grow 200 ha of banana pursuant to VietGap standard on cultivation and preservation, meet 200 criteria of Japanese businesses, and 170 criteria of the South Korean market in regard to land, water, fertilizer, pesticide, and daily cultivation practices.

It has also closely adhered to commitments with Japanese and South Korean businesses on food safety and hygiene. Thanks to its strong commitment, Huy Long An company has contracts to export bananas at twice the price of the local market.

Receiving more orders, the company has cooperated with households in Trang Bom district, Dong Nai province, to grow 100-ha of bananas for export.

Director Vo Quan Huy said “I invested in growing bananas with farmers. They have the necessary labor force. I have market experience and technical managers. We cannot let them use old customs of using chemicals. They have to follow new standards  and be able to ensure the quality of their products. We have to keep our reputation for trust and quality in the interest of long-term cooperation.” 

Most of Vietnam’s agricultural products are exported only in small and scattered volumes.

Experts say in order to increase exports to developed markets through official channels, Vietnamese products must meet international standards on quality and food safety and hygiene such as Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HCAAP) and Global Good Agricultural Practices (Global GAP).

The Global GAP certificate is considered a good passport for Vietnamese products to enter distribution networks and retail chains in almost all developed markets.

Nguyen Hieu Huu in Tan Hiep commune, Binh Phuoc province, has a 5-ha farm of longan berries certified with Global GAP standards.

He said in order to again the certification, he invested 12,000 USD and spent a lot of time and effort on upgrading the farm and the warehouse facilities to store fertilizer and pesticide, together with the quarantine area, and quality control of water and land. 

Huu suggests that farmers and cooperatives should cooperate with each other in applying Global GAP to save expenses:

“First we should apply Local GAP, seeing as how it is a transit step towards Global GAP. We should form cooperatives to share expenses in the interest of receiving large orders. I work on a small scale farm whose productivity can only fit 1 or 2 containers of longan berries. It will be more effective if we can meet bigger demand,” said Huu.

The Business Association of High-Quality Vietnamese Products (BSA) has worked with Global Gap organization to build Local GAP as an intermediary step for Vietnamese agricultural products to make their way into global markets.