Hanoi (VNA) – Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has urged the northern province of Thai Binh to speed up agricultural restructuring and strive for a production value of between 400-500 million VND (22,420 USD) per hectare ▨by 2020.

During a working session with provincial leaders on August 8, the PM pointed out that the province’s agriculture sector has faced poor organisation of its retail system, together with ineffective business investments to the sector. The re-organisation of agriculture has remained limited, he said, noting that in spite of a rise in budget collection, the domestic accumulation of the province’s economy has stayed low. He suggested that Thai Binh encourage the stronger engagement of businesses in agriculture, while streamlining the administrative system to make the local government more transparent and friendly to locals and enterprises. At the same time, Thai Binh should speed up the transformation of its production structure, associating agriculture growth with climate change response, while effectively exploiting its advantages in coal and gas resources, and calling for the contributions of large firms to the locality’s growth, he said. He also asked Thai Binh to speed up the application of advanced technology in production. The PM highlighted Thai Binh’s glorious tradition, which was once the country’s largest rice production hub, as well as the province’s contributions to the success of the country’s revolution by sending food and a large number of soldiers to the battle fields. He asked the provincial government to pay special attention to policy beneficiaries and give better support to revolutionary contributors, especially in housing. He also lauded Thai Binh for a good performance in implementing the new-style rural building programme, adding that if the province fulfils its targets of having 267 communes meeting the programme’s standards at the end of this year, Thai Binh will be the leading locality nationwide in the field. Currently, 164 communes, or 62.4 percent of the province’s total communes, have been recognised as new-style rural area. He also pledged to give timely support to the province to overcome the recent Typhoon Mirinae, which caused heavy losses to the production and growth of the province. Before being devastated by the typhoon, Thai Binh was one of the Red River delta localities to record high growth in the first half of this year at 8.03 percent, its highest growth in five years. The production of rice, the province’s strong product, yielded at 7.15 tonnes per hectare. Meanwhile, its budget collection reached 85 percent of its estimate, a rise of 23 percent year on year, while the number of newly-established firms increased 40 percent. However, Typhoon Mirinae, which hit the province in late July, flooded 50,000 hectares of rice fields, destroyed 7,000 hectares of fruit trees and over 10,000 hectares of aquaculture farms, with total losses estimated at about 2.5 trillion VND. Along with support to surmount the disaster’s aftermaths, Thai Binh’s leaders asked for the Government’s approval of a number of major infrastructure projects, including a coastal road linking the northern province of Quang Ninh to the central province of Thanh Hoa that would cross through Thai Binh for 44.5km, at a cost of 5.66 trillion VND. On the occasion, PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc witnessed the signing of a cooperative document between the Chamber of Industry and Commerce and the Thai Binh People’s Committee on supporting local businesses. Earlier, he offered incense to heroic martyrs at Thai Binh Martys’ Temple, where more than 51,000 fallen soldiers from Thai Binh are worshiped. Currently, more than 32,000 wounded war veterans are living in the province, together with nearly 29,000 veterans exposed to Agent Orange/dioxin.-VNA