Soc Trang (VNA) – The Mekong Delta province of SocTrang should expand the cultivation of high-yield rice varieties and fruittrees of its strength, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has told provincialofficials.

At the working session on April 23, heelaborated that each hectare of green-skin grapefruit and King orange herereportedly generates an economic value 10 times higher than that of one hectareof rice.

The farming of cattle on a large scale, which isa traditional practice of local residents, is also an advantage of Soc Trang asthe global demand for beef is big, he said, considering this another measure toreduce poverty that is still high among ethnic minorities.

He asked the province to strive to become ashrimp production hub of the Mekong Delta while paying more attention toindustrial development to create more jobs. He also highlighted the need todevelop renewable energy – another advantage of Soc Trang.

Representatives from ministries and centralagencies said Soc Trang has developed many high-yield rice varieties, 10,000dairy cows, and 40,000 hectares of brackish water surface for shrimp farming –the largest area in Vietnam.

PM Phuc said as it is one of the three mostdisadvantaged provinces in the Mekong Delta, Soc Trang should pay more heed toencouraging start-ups and improving human resources quality.

The number of businesses here is just one inevery 565 people, compared to the national average of 1/140. Whileinfrastructure hasn’t been developed well enough, the province ranks 40th amongthe 63 provinces and cities in terms of favourable public administrativeprocedures.

The Government leader suggested Soc Trangcapitalise on its own advantages that cannot be found in other localities amidlimited resources. It should be more active and creative to find out the growthmomentum for itself, instead of waiting for support from the Government.

He promised that more autonomy will be grantedto local administration so that they can design their province’s developmentplans to fully tap local potential.

Soc Trang is home to nearly 1.3 million people,about 65.2 percent of which are Kinh people, another 28.9 percent are Khmerethnics, and the remaining 5.9 percent are from the Hoa ethnic group.

In 2016, it attracted 1.13 million tourists,including more than 34,000 foreigners, and recorded 339 new businesses, raisingthe total number of enterprises to 2,366. The household poverty rate declinedto 15 percent under the multidimensional poverty criteria.

However, due to severe impacts of drought andsaltwater intrusion, the province suffered total loss of almost 1 trillion VND(44 million USD) last year, leading to an economic growth rate of 5.22 percent– lower than the target of 5.62 percent, statistics show.

Also on April 23, PM Phuc visited the Thanh Tinfood processing factory in Soc Trang city and a shrimp farm of the Khanh SungCo. Ltd in Dai Tam commune of My Xuyen district.

On April 22, he attended a ceremony marking 25years since the re-establishment of Soc Trang province.-VNA