Thai Binh - breaking the oasis, creating regional connectivity, making a breakthrough in socio-economic development

With its geographical location bordered by rivers on three sides and the sea on the other, Thai Binh is likened to a floating island on the shore of the East Sea. If during the resistance wars, the "oasis" of Thai Binh was a strategic defensive position, then in the period of integration and development, the "oasis" position has become a difficult and disadvantageous thing. During the nearly 40-year journey of implementing the renovation process, the Party Committee and people of Thai Binh have gradually broken the "oasis" situation, actively finding new momentum with bold and creative steps to create a breakthrough in socio-economic development, bringing Thai Binh to progress quickly and firmly.

The Red River Bridge on the coastal road connecting Thai Binh and Nam Dinh provinces will be completed in September 2024. Photo: NGUYEN THOI

Traffic opens the way, industry takes off

Throughout its development, the surrounding river system has isolated Thai Binh, hindering trade in socio-economic development.

Sharing about the journey of breaking the "oasis" status, creating regional connectivity for socio-economic development of Thai Binh, Mr. Pham Quang Duc, former Director of Thai Binh Department of Transport, said: During the 1980s and 1990s of the 20th century, the entire Thai Binh transportation system mostly consisted of level IV and level V plain roads. The biggest difficulty of the province was the geographical isolation because the large rivers connecting traffic with neighboring provinces were mainly by ferry, which greatly affected trade, economic development, integration capacity, and investment attraction. In early 2002, an event that had a great impact not only on the transportation sector but also on the whole Thai Binh province was the inauguration of Tan De bridge connecting Nam Dinh - Thai Binh, connecting Thai Binh with the provinces in the region, fulfilling the people's eternal wish. This can be considered an auspicious start for Thai Binh when entering the new century, the 21st century. Immediately after the inauguration of Tan De bridge, a series of projects to build other large bridges in the following years, expanding, constructing, and upgrading inter-provincial and inter-district arterial roads have truly opened up "new roads" in both senses for Thai Binh in economic development breakthroughs. In particular, it is impossible not to mention Highway 10 which was upgraded, expanded, and cleared, meeting the criteria of a level III plain road connecting Tan De to Hai Phong, with up to 5 industrial parks (IPs) of the province at that time forming and developing along the road such as: Phuc Khanh IP, Nguyen Duc Canh IP, Song Tra IP, Gia Le IP, Cau Nghin IP, creating a spectacular boost for the industry. It can be said that Thai Binh, from a place with no industry, has been able to build concentrated industry from the period after 2000 to the present.

Located in the area directly affected by the Northern key economic zone and the economic growth triangle of Hanoi - Hai Phong - Quang Ninh, regional linkage is therefore an inevitable objective trend, a mandatory requirement, an important task and a great opportunity to accelerate the development of the province. Transport, with its pioneering role in paving the way, has fulfilled its historical mission in this period.

According to Mr. Pham Quang Duc's analysis, in just 20 years, Thai Binh has built nearly 20 large bridges, connecting almost a circle between Thai Binh province and neighboring provinces and connecting districts within the province. Along with the large bridge system across the river is a standard traffic system that creates a synchronous and modern traffic system, facilitating trade and connection between districts and cities in the province, between Thai Binh and neighboring provinces and cities, regional connectivity, and promoting investment attraction in the province.

The foundation for the province's successes during this period is the breakthrough in vision, innovative thinking, and creativity of the Party Committee in planning development strategies such as: "5 focuses to create a breakthrough in economic growth", "5 key tasks, solutions and 3 strategic breakthroughs in economic growth", "6 solutions for rapid and sustainable economic development"; developing a transportation system connecting Thai Binh with neighboring provinces and regions to break the "oasis" situation, forming industrial parks and clusters, especially Thai Binh Economic Zone.

Mr. Bui Huy Quang, Deputy Director of the Department of Construction, said: Up to now, the road traffic system of Thai Binh province has a total length of about 9,346.5km. The effort to complete the traffic infrastructure system with a series of key projects not only helps Thai Binh clear bottlenecks and break the "oasis" situation, but also creates a premise for the potential for socio-economic and urban development of Thai Binh to be aroused, both increasing competitive advantages and creating strong attraction for investors.

Lien Ha Thai Industrial Park is attracting more than 20 operating projects, including many FDI projects.

Not only known as the "homeland of five tons", in recent years, Thai Binh has been on the "map" of investment attraction, especially foreign direct investment (FDI). In 2023, by attracting nearly 3 billion USD of FDI capital, Thai Binh made a miracle when it was for the first time in the top 5 provinces and cities leading the country in attracting FDI capital. If in 2003, the whole province only had 26 investment projects in industrial parks (including 1 FDI project) with a total registered investment capital of 483.5 billion VND, up to now, the area has had 10 industrial parks attracting more than 330 projects with a total registered investment capital of over 187,600 billion VND; including 83 FDI investment projects with a total registered capital of 4.3 billion USD. A bright spot in the province's socio-economic picture in recent years is the formation and development of Thai Binh Economic Zone, contributing to bringing the total investment capital in the 2021 - 2024 period to over 180,000 billion VND, of which FDI capital reached 4.886 billion USD, 11.7 times higher than the 2015 - 2020 period. The economy has made a breakthrough development. The average growth rate of gross regional domestic product (GRDP) is estimated at 8.18%/year, higher than the national average. The economic structure has shifted positively and in the right direction.

In the coming time, with the focus on developing a full road network of all levels based on two main connection directions: Connection with the Hanoi Capital region and connection with the economic belt of the Gulf of Tonkin: Quang Ninh - Hai Phong - Thai Binh - Nam Dinh - Ninh Binh and the coastal region of the North, North Central through National Highway 10, National Highway 37, Thai Binh coastal road, CT.08 expressway. And most recently, the province decided to approve the project of an urban road to Hung Ha connecting with Hung Yen... which will certainly open up more brilliant development opportunities for Thai Binh.

Agriculture - the economic pillar creating a "three-legged stool"

If in many decades of the 20th century, Thai Binh's biggest policy in economic development was still "from labor, from rice and pigs", then entering the 21st century, the province's thinking about agricultural development has had a big change. Still determining the important role of agriculture in the process of industrialization and modernization, agriculture is one of the 3 pillars of economic development of the province (agriculture, industry and trade - services), but Thai Binh has moved from agricultural production thinking to agricultural economy.

Aiming to make Thai Binh a leading agricultural production center in the Red River Delta, many leading mechanisms and policies in the agricultural sector have been developed, issued, and urgently put into practice by Thai Binh to meet the requirements of the agricultural and rural revolution. Among them, major mechanisms and policies in recent years include Resolution No. 29/2021/NQHDND, dated December 10, 2021 of the Provincial People's Council on supporting land accumulation and concentration, purchasing transplanters, and drying equipment systems to serve agricultural production in the province in the period of 2021 - 2025; Resolution No. 08/2023/NQ-HDND, dated July 12, 2023 of the Provincial People's Council on promulgating regulations on mechanisms and policies to support land accumulation and concentration for agricultural economic development in Thai Binh province until 2028. With these resolutions, Thai Binh is also the first province in the country to have comprehensive mechanisms and policies to encourage and support land concentration, which have been enthusiastically received by localities and people and implemented as a major revolution in the fields.

Mr. Do Quy Phuong, Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Environment, said: With the province's breakthrough mechanisms and policies on land accumulation and support for agricultural machinery, up to now, the province has formed and developed many concentrated, large-scale commodity production areas with nearly 11,000 hectares of 270 cooperatives with over 20 enterprises inside and outside the province, linking production and consumption according to the value chain of large-scale commodity production. In the province, there are about 2,000 organizations, households and individuals implementing accumulation and concentration for large-scale commodity production associated with agricultural product consumption; the total area of ​​agricultural land accumulated and concentrated is over 8,000 hectares; an average of 4.08 hectares/organization, household, individual. Developing many effective production models such as the rice cultivation model towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions (about 5,000 hectares); concentrated model, land accumulation for large-scale production development (5,676 hectares); 33 agricultural development models implementing the Resolution of the 20th Provincial Party Congress. In addition, agricultural production has been structured according to key product groups, including 4 national key product groups, 9 provincial key product groups and local specialty product groups. Mechanization is rapidly applied in production: 100% of land preparation, nearly 100% of harvesting, 30% of rice area is transplanted by machine; the production value per hectare of cultivated land in 2024 will reach 198 million VND (an increase of 22% compared to 2020).

Vegetables grown according to VietGAP model by farmer Trung An (Vu Thu).

Mr. Nguyen Van Phat, Vice Chairman of Quynh Phu District People's Committee shared: Grasping the support mechanism and policy of the province, Quynh Phu has promptly deployed to localities so that people can access it soon. Up to now, the whole district of Quynh Phu has 312 households accumulating over 1,400 hectares for agricultural production, with a scale of 2 hectares, of which 39 households have accumulated a scale of 10 hectares or more. Many models of agricultural production linkage bring high economic value, creating a brand for the locality such as: the model of producing rice seeds and commercial rice in An My commune with an area of ​​nearly 200 hectares; the Tam Xuan sticky rice model in An Thanh commune with a scale of nearly 50 hectares; the Japanese rice linkage model in Quynh Tho with a scale of over 40 hectares...

Building concentrated agricultural production areas, applying high technology; focusing on building brands and expanding agricultural product consumption areas; creating industry and regional linkages, contributing to promoting sustainable, effective and highly competitive agricultural production development.

Mr. Nguyen Cong Toi (Thuy Thanh commune, Thai Thuy), one of the famous big farmers not only for the large scale of rice production but also the first and only person in the province to own organic rice products, said that converting from normal rice production to organic rice model requires 1.5 - 2 times higher cost, very time-consuming and laborious. With 50% support for seeds, techniques, pest control from the province's mechanisms and policies, he was able to successfully build the model... Without support from mechanisms and policies, it is very difficult for farmers to successfully implement new models, individuals will have difficulty in rising to commodity production, and the private economy, especially in the agricultural sector, will have difficulty in breaking through.

Not only concentrated, large-scale agricultural production, promoting modern agriculture, clean agriculture, organic agriculture associated with the development of agricultural processing industry, adapting to climate change, sustainably connecting value chains inside, outside the province and globally, creating momentum and bringing new breakthroughs in the province's agricultural sector is also one of the goals of Thai Binh province in the period of 2021 - 2025 to develop a green, circular and sustainable agriculture.

Up to now, scientific and technological advances such as the SRI program, the IPM integrated pest management program... have been transferred and strongly applied in crop production; closed, automatic or semi-automatic cage technology, biological bedding, VietGAHP process... have been deployed and widely applied in livestock farming. With mechanisms and policies demonstrating vision and strategic thinking on agricultural development, the value and growth rate of agriculture, forestry and fishery are always higher year after year. The value of agricultural, forestry and fishery production in 2024 (comparable price 2010) is estimated at 29,665 billion VND; the average growth rate of agricultural production value in the period 2021 - 2024 will reach an average of 1.73%/year, and in the period 2016 - 2020 will reach an average of 2.5%/year. The orientation and tasks for the coming time in the province's agricultural development are: Effectively and qualitatively deploy the contents of agricultural and rural planning; innovate forms of production organization, develop agricultural mechanization and agricultural processing industry; continue to implement, advise on promulgating mechanisms, policies and mobilization in the agricultural sector; build a civilized team of farmers, master the agricultural development process and promote the development of organic agriculture, high-tech agriculture, transfer of scientific and technological advances to agriculture...

Since the beginning of the year, in the context of the entire Party and people focusing on implementing the country's important tasks, including the revolution of streamlining the organizational apparatus, the entire province has been making maximum efforts, creating breakthrough factors in attracting investment, strongly promoting production, business and services; mobilizing and arousing all resources, motivations and creativity; exploiting and using all hidden potentials, opportunities and advantages of the province to carry out socio-economic development tasks. The provincial leaders affirmed: More than ever, we need to promote the spirit of solidarity, unity, "dare to speak, dare to think, dare to do, dare to break through for the common good". The Party Committee and people of Thai Binh continue to promote the tradition of the homeland of culture, civilization, patriotism and revolution, bravery and intelligence; More strongly innovate in awareness and leadership methods, successfully implement the Resolution of the 20th Provincial Party Congress and the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress, confidently enter the new era with the whole country.

Tran Huong

Source: https://baothaibinh.com.vn/tin-tuc/4/220342/thai-binh-pha-the-oc-dao-tao-lien-ket-vung-dot-pha-phat-trien-kinh-te-xa-hoi