Bac Giang (VNA) - Though Bac Giang was a COVID-19epi-centre when the fourth wave of the pandemic struck the country last year,the northern province has managed to keep the virus at bay and revive theeconomy with strong determination and action of the local administration andthe solidarity among the political system, business community and citizens.

The province was among the country’s best performers infulfilling the twin goals of placing the COVID-19 under control and boostingthe economic development. Its Gross Regional Domestic Products (GRDP) expanded7.82 percent in 2021, making it one of the 10 cities and provinces posting thehighest economic growth.

The size of its economy reached approximately 130 trillionVND (5.68 billion USD). The province raked in a total of nearly 1.6 billion USD ininvestment, some 83.1 percent of which or 1.33 billion USD was foreign directinvestment (FDI), helping Bac Giang to maintain its place among the top 10 FDI recipients of Vietnam.

The province granted investment approvals to 23 new projectswith total registered capital of 645 million USD and capital adjustment approvals to 51projects with additional investments of 686 million USD.

Notably, Fukang Technology Factory, a project with registeredcapital of 453 million USD, has started phase-1 operation with around 300million USD disbursed. The phase-2 operation will kick in from the secondquarter of 2022 and Phase-3 from the second quarter of 2023. A photovoltaic celltechnology project invested by JA Solar Investment (Hong Kong) Limited withregistered capital of 200 million USD is set to begin operation in the firstquarter of this year.

Foreign trade exceeded 31 billion USD last year, an increaseof over 40 percent from 2020, also making Bac Giang one of the country’s 10largest exporters.

The province has also focused efforts on developingmodernised and uniform infrastructure and giving a facelift to both urban andrural areas while accelerating Party building and improving leadership capacityof Party organisations and authorities at all levels.

This year, Bac Giang plans to implement a number of key solutions, said Secretary of the provincial Party CommitteeDuong Van Thai. The province will pay greater attention to translating intoreality its planning for the 2021 – 2030 period with a vision towards 2050, andhasten the agricultural restructuring with a shift to hi-tech and commodityproduction, Thai noted.

At the same time, it intends to attract large corporationsto invest in agriculture and rural development projects and mobilise allpossible resources for the construction of roads to provide more space for growth.It will speed up the progress of major projects set out in the mid-term publicinvestment plans for the 2021 – 2025 period and for 2022, he said.

The province has no plans to lower the guard against thecoronavirus but is placing the highest priority to combating the pandemic, heemphasized, adding that it will continue to streamline the political apparatusto improve its operational effectiveness and efficiency.

Bac Giang is facing a great opportunity to createbreakthroughs, he continued, and it must convert the opportunity into reality.

Accordingly, all-level Party organisations must redoubletheir efforts in directing the creation of strategic breakthroughs with an aimof enhancing policy institutions and mechanisms, developing infrastructure andimproving the human resources.

It will ramp up public administrative reforms, betterbusiness environment and enhance competitiveness and these solutions must beviewed as a long-term key task of Bac Giang, he further stated.

The province will also heighten the effectiveness of stategovernance in all sectors, particularly planning; investment; construction;management of land, natural resources and minerals; environment protection;finance – budgeting; settlement of complaints and forest land disputes; and effectiveimplementation of key Party building tasks, the official said./.