Dak Nong (VNA) – Central Highlands provinces should continue toeffectively carry out the Party and Government’s resolutions and directions onsocio-economic development, said Minister of Public Security Senior LieutenantGeneral To Lam, who doubles as Head of the Steering Committee for the CentralHighlands.

He made the statement at a conference held in Gia Nghia town, the CentralHighlands province of Dak Nong on December 19 to review the steeringcommittee’s work in 2017.

Lam stressed the key missions of the Central Highlands in the coming time,which include addressing land issues, preventing deforestation, protecting naturalresources and ecosystem and promoting sustainable poverty reduction,socio-cultural development and social security.

He asked the regional provinces to pay attention to consolidating the politicalsystem at grassroots levels and to carry out the resolution adopted at thefourth plenum of the 12th Party Central Committee, which aims toenhance Party building, and prevent and curb ideological, ethical and lifestyledegradation as well as “self-evolution” and “self-transformation” among partymembers.

Under the leadership of the Party and Government as well as coordination fromlocal authorities, the steering committee has worked to boost production andimprove the livelihoods of ethnic minority groups and to develop the economy,making significant contributions to the development of the Central Highlandsregion, Lam noted.

In 2017, the region’s Gross Regional Domestic Product (GRDP) picked up 8.09percent year-on-year to more than 165.4 trillion VND (7.28 billion USD).Meanwhile, per capita income in the year exceeded 41.6 million VND (1,800 USD),up 5.02 percent from 2016.

Agricultural production recovered after droughts, storms and floods thanks toinvestment in high-tech agriculture. Currently, the region is the country’s keycoffee and pepper production zone, with 582,149 hectares and 71,000 hectaresrespectively, yielding nearly 1.4 million tonnes of coffee bean and more than120,800 tonnes of pepper.

The region’s export revenue topped 2.66 billion USD in 2017, up 22.71 percentfrom 2016.

Thanks to renovation in administrative procedures and market support, the CentralHighland provinces have seen an increase in the number of businesses. It ishome to 23,330 enterprises, 14.9 percent more than in 2016.

The provinces, including Dak Nong, Dak Lak, Giai Lai, Kon Tum and Lam Dong, haveattracted 235 domestic projects worth 103.3 trillion VND (4.55 billion USD) andnine foreign direct investment projects valued at 109.9 million USD.-VNA