Before the colors are not bright...

In the overall picture of the province’s economy, some “backbone” indicators still have dark colors. To achieve the growth target of over 8% in 2025, Dak Lak has set a plan for the total product value (GRDP at 2010 comparable prices) to reach 68,425 billion VND.

By the end of the first quarter of 2025, the whole province will have achieved over 12,706 billion VND, an increase of 6.5% over the same period in 2024 but only reaching 18.57% of the plan.

Thus, in the remaining 9 months of this year, the whole province must realize a total product value of over 55,718 billion VND. Some growth pillars, the "backbone" indicators of the economy, are facing many difficulties, affecting the province's total product value in the first months of the year.

Although the province has recently implemented many solutions to support local businesses, in the first 3 months of 2025, the number of dissolved and temporarily suspended enterprises is still higher than the number of newly established enterprises. Specifically: in the first quarter of 2025, the whole province had 382 newly established enterprises (up 9.1% over the same period but only equal to 12% of the 2025 plan), with a total registered capital of VND 11,600 billion, up 259% over the same period. However, the whole province had 60 dissolved enterprises and 545 temporarily suspended enterprises (up 14.8% over the same period). These are "telling" numbers, clearly showing the difficulties that businesses are facing.

Production and processing of coffee for export at Simexco DakLak factory.

Identifying the causes of the above situation, the Provincial Business Association said that the production and business activities of enterprises in the area in the past time have faced many difficulties, especially in terms of borrowing capital. Currently, enterprises in the province are mainly small and micro-sized, so it is difficult to mortgage to borrow credit capital. In addition, the current mechanisms and policies of the State still have bottlenecks, there are still "asking - giving" mechanisms, cumbersome administrative procedures... This has caused great obstacles for enterprises. In addition, the remnants of the COVID-19 pandemic as well as economic and political fluctuations in the world have also significantly affected the "health" of enterprises.

In order to achieve a growth target of over 8%, in 2025, our province set a target of total export turnover of 1,860 million USD. However, in the first quarter, the total export turnover of the province only reached 510 million USD, equal to 27.4% of the plan, down 2.7% over the same period. According to the analysis of the Department of Industry and Trade, the reason for the decrease in the province's export turnover is that in recent times, the world economy has been difficult, consumer demand has decreased, and the inventory of key products such as green coffee beans and pepper is not as high as in the same period last year, affecting the export quantity. Specifically, the amount of green coffee beans decreased by over 24,000 tons, cashew nuts decreased by 1,134 tons, pepper decreased by 937 tons, rubber decreased by 42 tons...

Wind power project in Ea Nam commune, Ea H'leo district. Photo: Nguyen Gia

Dak Lak 2-9 Import-Export Company Limited (Simexco DakLak) is one of the leading coffee exporters in Vietnam, but in the first quarter of 2025, the company's coffee export volume was just over 33,000 tons, down 44% over the same period. Mr. Le Thanh Son, Sales Director of Simexco DakLak, said that in addition to the difficulties caused by economic fluctuations, the US's reciprocal tax policy with other countries is posing many challenges for the business community. Because the US is a market that consumes many Vietnamese goods, mainly key products with high added value. Therefore, increasing taxes not only affects industries but also the entire economy.

Investment promotion and attraction activities, business activities and project implementation in the province have not achieved the desired results, partly due to the slow progress in establishing and adjusting land use plans to 2030 and land use plans for 2025 of districts, towns and cities compared to the regulations and requirements of the Provincial People's Committee.

According to the provisions of the 2024 Land Law, the annual district-level land use plan is one of the bases for carrying out procedures on land allocation, land lease, land use purpose conversion, and land recovery to implement socio-economic development, national defense and security projects. The delay in approving the 2025 land use plan affects the settlement of land procedures for investment projects under the approval authority of the Provincial People's Committee according to the provisions of the investment law and public investment projects under the investment policy approval authority of the District People's Council and Commune People's Council.

Director of the Department of Agriculture and Environment Nguyen Minh Huan said that although the Provincial People's Committee had issued directive documents early, the time for organizing the establishment and adjustment of land use planning until 2030 and the land use plan for 2025 was during the transition period between the 2013 Land Law and the 2024 Land Law; the effective date of the 2024 Land Law was pushed up 4 months earlier than prescribed, while the documents guiding the implementation of the law were issued urgently and slowly, leading to confusion in implementation by localities. Moreover, the units were not really proactive, lacked determination, and still had the mentality of waiting for the Provincial People's Committee to issue economic and technical norms, while there were already guiding documents.

Source: https://baodaklak.vn/kinh-te/202504/truoc-nhung-gam-mau-chua-sang-b6219c1/