Gia Lai and Kon Tum need new drivers to achieve short-term and long-term growth targets.

Deputy Prime Minister Bui Thanh Son speaks at a working session with leaders of Gia Lai and Kon Tum provinces - Photo: VGP/Hai Minh

On the morning of March 21, at the headquarters of the Gia Lai Provincial People's Committee, Deputy Prime Minister Bui Thanh Son chaired a working session with leaders of Gia Lai and Kon Tum provinces on the situation of production, business, construction investment and import and export in the two localities.

Attending the meeting were Gia Lai Provincial Party Secretary Ho Van Nien, Kon Tum Provincial Party Secretary Duong Van Trang; representatives of leaders of central and local ministries and branches.

In 2025, the Government has assigned an economic growth target of 8% for Gia Lai and 10% for Kon Tum. To realize this target, the two localities have developed growth scenarios higher than the Government's target, with Gia Lai at 8.06% and Kon Tum at 12%.

For Gia Lai, this is a very ambitious goal because in 2024, the local GDP will only reach 3.28%, ranking 62/63 provinces and cities nationwide. Chairman of Gia Lai Provincial People's Committee Rah Lan Chung said that the province has identified 7 viewpoints and 12 groups of solutions to achieve the growth target of 8.06%, focusing on reviewing all stuck projects to focus on resolving them first, including 5 wind power projects with a total capacity of 384 MW.

In recent years, Kon Tum province has always been at the top in terms of growth rate in the Central Highlands region, reaching 8.02% in 2024. Chairman of Kon Tum Provincial People's Committee Le Ngoc Tuan emphasized the need to promote traffic connections with the Central coastal provinces to unleash the huge development potential of Kon Tum in particular and the Central Highlands in general.

The Deputy Prime Minister highly appreciated the two localities for proactively developing scenarios and affirmed their determination to achieve a growth rate higher than the target assigned by the Government - Photo: VGP/Hai Minh

At the meeting, representatives of central ministries and branches answered recommendations and suggested directions for the two localities on exploiting renewable energy potential; leasing special-use forests; linking agricultural development and tourism; mineral management and exploitation; carbon certification; growing medicinal herbs under forest canopy; handling problems in the press sector; preserving and promoting cultural heritage and tourist areas such as Bien Ho and Mang Den; implementing national target programs; mobilizing resources to eliminate temporary and dilapidated houses, etc.

The Ministry of Construction updated the progress and requested localities to closely coordinate in preparing for investment in the construction of key projects in the two localities such as: Pleiku airport upgrade project; Quy Nhon-Pleiku expressway construction project, 124 km long; Quang Ngai-Kon Tum expressway, 136 km long, to strengthen traffic connectivity between the Central Highlands and the central coastal provinces.

Speaking at the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Bui Thanh Son reiterated the request of senior leaders that localities across the country must focus all their efforts and strive to achieve a growth target of at least 8% by 2025, creating momentum for double-digit growth in the next period.

The Deputy Prime Minister highly appreciated the two localities for proactively building scenarios and affirming their determination to achieve a growth rate higher than the target assigned by the Government; highly appreciated the positive signals in the socio-economic picture of the two localities, especially in attracting FDI, budget revenue of Gia Lai, or industrial production and total retail sales of goods of Kon Tum in the first two months of 2025.

Regarding the tasks in the coming time, the Deputy Prime Minister requested the two localities to continue to effectively implement all directions of General Secretary To Lam; the Government and the Prime Minister to promote potential and strengths so that Gia Lai and Kon Tum in particular as well as the Central Highlands region can stabilize for development, develop to ensure national security and defense.

The Deputy Prime Minister emphasized that Gia Lai and Kon Tum must have great determination and great solutions for both the short and long term, and the solutions must be feasible to achieve the growth rate set for 2025 and the following years.

Deputy Prime Minister Bui Thanh Son talks with leaders of Gia Lai and Kon Tum provinces - Photo: VGP/Hai Minh

The Deputy Prime Minister suggested that the two localities should pay special attention and proactively coordinate closely with relevant ministries and branches in removing difficulties and obstacles in backlogged projects and projects in the energy sector to clear bottlenecks and free up resources for growth in 2025.

The two localities must clearly identify growth drivers, in which traditional growth drivers lie in the fields of agriculture, forestry, and cultural tourism.

In the agricultural sector, it is necessary to strongly promote the application of science and technology to develop high-tech agriculture, improve quality, diversify products, especially Ngoc Linh ginseng, and develop the industry like the Korean model.

Along with that, the two localities need to develop new growth drivers such as renewable energy and digital transformation; strongly improve the business investment environment index to attract domestic and foreign investment; pay attention to promoting the strong development of the private economic sector to promote the combined strength for the locality to develop quickly and sustainably in the future.

The Deputy Prime Minister requested Gia Lai and Kon Tum to speed up the work of streamlining the apparatus so that the new apparatus can be put into operation as soon as possible, to do a good job of ideological work and policies for cadres subject to streamlining; to speed up the completion to soon submit to competent authorities the dossiers of key traffic projects in the area.

The two localities must focus on implementing the goal of reducing at least 30% of administrative procedure processing time; reducing at least 30% of business costs (compliance costs); abolishing 30% of unnecessary business conditions; having a plan to assign specific tasks to each agency, unit, and locality, ensuring strict implementation and allocating sufficient resources to effectively implement Resolution No. 57-NQ/TW dated December 22, 2024 of the Politburo; Resolution No. 03/NQ-CP dated January 9, 2025 of the Government on the Action Program to implement Resolution No. 57-NQ/TW in conjunction with the implementation of Project 06 of the Prime Minister.

Regarding the task of eliminating temporary and dilapidated houses, the Deputy Prime Minister emphasized that this is a task of great political and humanitarian significance in the context of the whole country celebrating the 50th anniversary of the liberation of the South and national reunification. Therefore, the Prime Minister has decided to allocate the use of 5% of the regular expenditure savings in 2024 to support localities in eliminating temporary and dilapidated houses for poor and near-poor households. Gia Lai and Kon Tum need to focus on mobilizing resources to eliminate over 6,000 temporary and dilapidated houses in the two localities, of which Gia Lai has 3,721 households and Kon Tum has 2,752 households, according to the request of the Government and the Prime Minister.

The Deputy Prime Minister also suggested that Gia Lai and Kon Tum provinces exchange experiences in tourism development with the Northwestern provinces; and exchange experiences in preserving and promoting cultural heritage values ​​to serve socio-economic development with Ninh Binh province.

The Deputy Prime Minister requested relevant ministries and agencies to focus on resolving Gia Lai's recommendations at the working session of General Secretary To Lam and Kon Tum province's recommendations at the working session of the Prime Minister.

The Deputy Prime Minister assigned the Government Office to coordinate with relevant ministries and agencies to synthesize the proposals and recommendations of Gia Lai and Kon Tum, and draft a conclusion of today's meeting, clearly stating the work to be done, the deadline for completion, especially the remaining projects./.

Hai Minh