Mr. Tran Hong Thai: Will strive to make Lam Dong forever a destination for everyone.

For those interested, how the new Chairman of Lam Dong Provincial People's Committee Tran Hong Thai will work and what results he will achieve is still an unpredictable mystery. Being assigned by the authority to be the head of Lam Dong government after the changes in leadership personnel here is indeed a difficult job, so whether he can affirm his mettle in the face of difficulties or not, and what he will accomplish are the topics that Thoi Dai discussed with Mr. Thai after nearly 60 days of taking on this responsibility.

-Sir, after less than 2 months of taking on the responsibility of Chairman of Lam Dong Provincial People's Committee, is there any pressure at work beyond your expectations?

-Before taking on the position of Chairman of Lam Dong Provincial People's Committee, I worked at the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and the Ministry of Science and Technology . During that time, I had many connections with localities. However, I clearly identified the need to improve my experience in local work. And when I was assigned to Lam Dong, this was the environment for training and educating cadres and gave me the opportunity to directly apply the policies of the Party, the State and the rich life in the locality.

Although many tasks are still new, I am deeply aware that my decisions and activities and those of the Provincial People's Committee will directly affect the lives of nearly 1.4 million Lam Dong people. Therefore, I personally put in the highest possible effort in every task.

But even so, I am very confident because Lam Dong in general and I personally have been receiving the attention of the Government , central ministries and branches, the close attention of the Standing Committee, the Provincial People's Council, the consensus of officials, civil servants and public employees of Lam Dong province, all with the same goal of "Lam Dong overcoming difficulties and rising up with the country". Therefore, although the work is still very heavy, I do not have any pressure beyond my endurance.

-The responsibility of the head of the People's Committee of a province or centrally-run city is very great, especially for localities with many heritages like Lam Dong. Therefore, what are the things you will pursue for a long-term value for Lam Dong when assigned to be the Chairman of the province?

-First of all, let's look at the natural values ​​and advantages of Lam Dong in general and Da Lat in particular. Lam Dong is located in the Southern Central Highlands region with an altitude difference of 300-1,500 m above sea level, with an average temperature of 18-25 ^degrees Celsius (this is a unique advantage of Lam Dong that no other province in the South has).

Chairman of Lam Dong Provincial People's Committee Tran Hong Thai always hopes that Lam Dong will be a place where only words of love and warmth are spoken to each other.

Lam Dong has a developed transportation system with national and provincial highways connecting with the Central Highlands, Southeast and South Central Coast provinces; and has Lien Khuong International Airport (the only international airport in the Central Highlands). With its geographical advantages and gradually improving transportation infrastructure, Lam Dong can become and will become a vital traffic hub for the entire Central Highlands with other economic regions as well as with many countries in the world.

Therefore, it can be affirmed and oriented that Lam Dong is the leading province in the Central Highlands region with key economic sectors of tourism, agriculture, forestry and industry.

Along with that, Lam Dong is also a gathering place and home to 47 ethnic groups, so it has cultural resources imbued with traditional identity, with many unique customs, house architecture, and folk cultural festivals.

Lam Dong currently owns 3 world cultural heritages recognized by UNESCO, which are: Intangible cultural heritage “Cultural space of gongs in the Central Highlands”; Documentary heritage “Nguyen Dynasty woodblocks” and Da Lat city - UNESCO's global creative city in the field of music. Besides, there is the unique architecture of wooden houses, castles and villas in French style, so the preservation and exploitation of this architectural heritage can create quality tourism opportunities.

Lam Dong currently has 539,403 hectares of forest land, with a coverage rate of 55%, ranking 6th in the country and 2nd in the Central Highlands; has 2 national parks, Cat Tien and Bidoup - Nui Ba; has Lang Biang Biosphere Reserve (the 9th world biosphere reserve in Vietnam and the first in the Central Highlands), these are great potentials for developing sustainable green tourism for the province.

With the above mentioned unique potentials and heritage values, the leaders of the Provincial People's Committee and I agree on the direction to best promote the distinct potentials, outstanding opportunities, and competitive advantages to make Lam Dong a typical province of the Central Highlands, especially in terms of cultural values.

Along with that are new potentials (air connectivity, traffic connectivity, high-tech agricultural development, industrial development associated with raw material areas) so that not only Da Lat is the city of thousands of flowers, the city of love, the global creative city of UNESCO in the field of music, but the whole Lam Dong province is forever a destination of love, warmth and friendliness.

As the head of the Provincial People's Committee, I also request the leaders of the Provincial People's Committee and the departments, branches and localities to be responsible for "understanding" in order to organize implementation according to the general direction of the province. In addition, the province is also aware that it is necessary to strengthen propaganda and mobilize people and businesses to "understand" and accompany the government, because only then can we create a combined strength to successfully implement the Provincial Planning approved by the Government.

Lam Dong Provincial People's Committee and departments, branches and localities are determined to work with the army and people of Lam Dong to build the province to be richer and more beautiful, and forever a destination - a place where people only say to each other words of love, warmth and affection!

-In reality, every locality has its own advantages and difficulties, and the goal depends on the context and resources. In your opinion, should the choice be to focus on the development advantages of the province first or handle both sides in parallel ?

-As mentioned above, Lam Dong has many advantages in terms of geographical location, natural resources, cultural heritage and people... but along with that there are also many difficulties and problems that need to be resolved.

We need to look at the advantages, difficulties, and development advantages dialectically and inseparably. The Provincial People's Committee and departments, branches, and localities will focus first on removing shortcomings and inadequacies in the system of directive documents on the basis of existing regulations and updating the latest legal contents. The goal is to handle bottlenecks in planning and compensation for site clearance, thereby creating a favorable economic development environment and attracting investors.

As I have shared, for people, businesses and the government to “understand” each other, this is a two-way relationship. For one side, business and production must comply with legal regulations, and for the other side, it is necessary to minimize the number of times a task must be handled and decided at many levels; there must be clear decentralization and assignment of responsibilities; every task must have a destination, a responsible person and a specific deadline.

Overall, the province will strive to build the highest results in transport infrastructure, industrial infrastructure, and residential infrastructure, develop agriculture associated with tourism, promote the consumption chain of OCOP products (one commune, one product) of the province throughout the country, thereby gradually promoting cultural values ​​and realizing the new potential of Lam Dong province.

- In June this year, the Government announced the Lam Dong planning for the period 2021-2030, with a vision to 2050. The goals set out in the planning are very impressive, and the Provincial People's Committee is the agency with the main responsibility for implementing this content. To ensure feasibility, sir, what is the order of priority tasks for you?

-On June 23, 2024, Deputy Prime Minister Tran Luu Quang, on behalf of the Government, announced the Lam Dong planning for the 2021-2030 period, with a vision to 2050. Accordingly, the goal by 2030 is for Lam Dong to become a fairly comprehensively developed province in the country; build Da Lat city and its vicinity into a high-quality tourism center of the country and Southeast Asia, and a center for education and innovation.

Lam Dong considers agricultural and forestry development as the focus and pillar; processing industry development as the driving force; tourism development as a breakthrough. Regarding agriculture, Lam Dong province strives to become a national and international high-tech research and production center; an organic agricultural production area, producing high-value goods in the Southeast Asian market.

Regarding tourism, the province strives to become a "Green Paradise" with the attraction of leading resort - ecological - health care - high-class sports tourism centers in Vietnam and Southeast Asia.

Here I would like to emphasize that tourism is expected to become a spearhead economic sector towards high quality and sustainability, creating momentum for the development of related industries based on the foundation of green economy, circular economy, digital economy and creative industry.

Regarding industry, the province will prioritize sustainable development of bauxite and alumina mining and processing industries, aluminum processing industry and aluminum products; and development of agricultural and forestry product processing industries.

To realize the above goals, the Provincial People's Committee is focusing on directing the construction of traffic infrastructure, focusing on starting and striving to complete as soon as possible the two expressway projects Tan Phu-Bao Loc and Bao Loc-Lien Khuong, creating an important traffic axis to quickly connect Da Lat with Ho Chi Minh City and the Southeast region (the country's dynamic economic region); speeding up the proposal of expressway projects, upgrading national highways connecting Lam Dong with neighboring provinces, building a dry port in Duc Trong district and upgrading Lien Khuong international airport; building and calling for investment in industrial parks and auxiliary logistic areas to maximize the advantages of the two expressways mentioned above.

Along with breakthroughs in infrastructure construction, Lam Dong will simultaneously remove difficulties in planning, update new legal regulations... to turn this into a great opportunity to attract reputable domestic and foreign investors.

Of course, we also pay great attention to social welfare, because above all, social security is a core value for stable development. Lam Dong encourages businesses to invest so that Lam Dong people can gradually enjoy high-class social facilities such as high-quality hospitals, bilingual schools, conference services, resorts, high-class hotels that meet international standards... With the motto that the state only manages output by indicators, giving and creating maximum conditions for people and businesses to maximize the advantages of the province for the common goal of Lam Dong overcoming difficulties and moving forward with the country.

- Recently, in his opening speech of the 8th session of the 15th National Assembly, General Secretary To Lam mentioned the need to remove institutional bottlenecks. From the practical perspective of Lam Dong, do you have any recommendations to the Central Government on institutional reform so that Lam Dong can have more favorable conditions in the investment and development process?

- I really appreciate the enthusiasm of General Secretary To Lam, especially when he returned to work at the local level. Personally, I think that institutional and policy reform is the prerequisite for the country to enter the "New Era - the era of the Vietnamese people's rise", which is the modern era when we are looking towards the 100th anniversary of the Party's founding in 2030 and the 100th anniversary of the country's founding in 2045.

That is to make a breakthrough in thoroughly resolving the bottlenecks, weaknesses, limitations, and difficulties that are holding back and hindering the development of Vietnam in general and Lam Dong in particular.

Institutional and policy reform is the goal and condition for Lam Dong to develop, in which it is necessary to focus on building unified planning; attracting investment and improving social security conditions.

-Finally, please tell us how you hope the Party Committee and people of Lam Dong will welcome you when you are assigned by the Central Government to become a provincial leader?

-Thank you for this question. After more than 2 months of living and working in Lam Dong, working and living with the Party Committee, government and local people, I personally feel very happy to work and contribute to Lam Dong province, the homeland of 47 ethnic groups, a good land for people from all over the country to join hands in building.

Although the work is still busy, but for a common goal of making Lam Dong richer, Lam Dong people happier, for me every day going to work is a happy day, full of meaning.

In Lam Dong, I saw the love, sharing and support of everyone, from the consensus and agreement for the common goal of the comrades in the Provincial People's Committee, from the departments, branches, and localities; the entire government system under the leadership of the Provincial Party Committee, the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee formed a unified block, highly promoting the potential advantages of the province, determined to overcome difficulties and challenges. That is striving for 500 days and nights to build the highway, determined to create a flower festival as a gift for the people of Lam Dong, the people of the whole country and international friends.

Truly, working, worrying and thinking with the government, people and businesses in the province gives me more energy to contribute more to the goal of making Lam Dong a fairly comprehensively developed province of the country, self-sufficient in budget, forever a destination - a place where people only say to each other words of love, warmth and affection.

-Thank you very much!

Source: https://thoidai.com.vn/ong-tran-hong-thai-se-no-luc-de-lam-dong-mai-mai-la-diem-den-cua-moi-nguoi-207756.html