Binh Duong (VNA) –The Government expects the southern province of Binh Duong to become a strongdriving force of the national economy, which drives the growth of the wholecountry as well as key economic regions, said Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phucat a working session with provincial leaders on January 1.

In the future, Binh Duong shouldbecome a central-run city and an industrial hub of the country, a smart city anda destination for investment and creative ideas, he stated.

The PM expressed impression atBinh Duong’s speedy socio-economic growth, saying that the province is one ofthe leading localities in administrative reform and a few having an effectiveadministration centre. He lauded Binh Duong’s policy to promote immigrants’contributions to the local socio-economic development.

However, he also pointed to anumber of shortcomings Binh Duong needs to fix in the coming time. He said theprovince has yet to fully tap its advantage as the gateway of Ho Chi Minh City to develop high qualityservices and support industries.

Binh Duong’s provincialcompetitiveness index remains low at 25th position among 63localities nationwide and fourth in the Southeastern region, he noted, addingthat there are few hi-tech firms and high-quality products in the province,along with high risk of environmental pollution.

He asked Binh Duong to createbreakthroughs in the business and investment environment, while improving humanresources quality and fostering urban infrastructure links with the wholeregion.

Expressing his hope that theprovince will become a startup centre of the region and the country, theGovernment leader assigned Binh Duong to have 50,000 enterprises by 2020,doubling the current number.

The province should focus onboosting the growth of support industries, encouraging local firms to renovatetheir technology to protect the environment, he said. The PM also stressed theneed for the local government to enhance the efficiency of the administrativesystem, and submit a project on setting up a smart city to the Government soon.

Re-established on January 1, 1997,Binh Duong is located in the southern key economic region. With its drasticreform policies, the province has risen to a leading industrial locality of thecountry and one of 13 localities nationwide having the highest budgetcollection.

In 2016, the province’s totalgross regional domestic products grew 8.5 percent, while its per capita incomereached 108.6 million VND (USD). Currently, industry makes up 63 percent of thelocality’s economic structure, while that of service is 23.5 percent and agricultureonly 4.3 percent.

Over the past five years, the industrialproduction index of Binh Duong increased 11 percent annually. Its budgetcollection in 2016 exceeded the set target by 3 percent to hit 40 trillion VND,a year on year rise of 9 percent.

Thanks to its improvedinvestment environment, Binh Duong has attracted 25.7 billion USD in foreign investment,with 2.4 billion USD in 2016 alone. So far, the province has built 28industrial parks and 10 industrial clusters.

Also on January 1, PM Phucattended a ceremony to mark 20 years of Binh Duong’s development, during whichhe presented the Independence Order, first class, to the Party Organisation,government and people of Binh Duong in recognition of their achievements innational construction and development.-VNA