Building Dien Bien to become increasingly rich and powerful

Noong Bua Park was built to contribute to the urban landscape, meeting the needs of the people. *Photo: Tran Dung*

The victory of the August Revolution and the establishment of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam fundamentally changed the destiny of our country and people, opening an era of independence, freedom and socialism. The great achievements and invaluable historical lessons of the August Revolution, in which the decisive factor was that our Party and President Ho Chi Minh had brought into full play the strength of the great national unity bloc, became the luggage and driving force urging our entire people and army, under the leadership of the Party and President Ho Chi Minh, to carry out long and arduous resistance wars, defeating the colonial and imperialist invaders; establishing glorious feats of arms, the peak of which was the Dien Bien Phu Victory in 1954 and the Great Spring Victory in 1975, completely liberating the South, reunifying the Fatherland, and leading the whole country to build socialism.

The spirit and indomitable will of the August Revolution continue to guide and encourage our people to overcome all difficulties and challenges to achieve great and historic victories in the cause of renovation. Our country is becoming more and more dignified and beautiful. Our people have increasingly prosperous and happy lives. Our country's prestige and position are increasingly enhanced in the international arena.

Proud of and promoting the indomitable spirit and valuable lessons of the August Revolution, in harmony with the country's changes, over the past years, the Party Committee, government, army and people of all ethnic groups in Dien Bien province have united, strived to overcome all difficulties and challenges, focused on comprehensively developing all aspects of social life; consolidating national defense and security, building a strong political system. In particular, from a poor province with poor physical facilities and socio-economic infrastructure, slow economic development, and difficult people's lives, Dien Bien has been making impressive changes in all aspects.

Notably, the economic picture has grown quite well, in 2022 the economic growth rate (GRDP) reached 10.19%, exceeding the target set by the Resolution and being the first year since 2010 to date, the economic growth rate has increased impressively, reaching double digits, ranking 14/63 provinces and cities nationwide and ranking 2/14 provinces in the Northern Midlands and Mountains. The average GRDP is estimated at 39.68 million VND/person/year... The economic structure has shifted in the right direction, reducing the proportion of sector I (agriculture, forestry, fishery) increasing the proportion of sector II (industry, construction) and sector III (services). Specifically, sector I accounts for 16.86%; sector II accounts for 21.25%; sector III 57.7%.

Infrastructure has been significantly improved; priority has been given to mobilizing resources to implement key transport projects with high regional connectivity. Inter-district, inter-commune, rural roads, border gate roads, openings, and border patrol roads have been invested in new construction, upgrading, renovation, and repair, creating favorable conditions for people in difficult areas to travel, connect, and trade goods. In particular, taking advantage of the typical advantages of sub-climate regions, localities in the province have gradually formed production areas for typical agricultural products according to the value chain (to date, the whole province has 56 products certified as OCOP products at the provincial level).

After more than a decade of implementing the National Target Program on New Rural Construction (NTM) in the province, along with effectively using investment capital sources from the Party and the State; our province has promoted communication activities, aroused the will and spirit of solidarity, actively mobilized people to contribute ideas, donate land, and contribute labor to join hands to complete the criteria for building NTM, contributing to improving the material and spiritual life of the people. It is estimated that in the first 6 months of the year, the whole province has 1 commune meeting the advanced NTM standards, 21/115 communes meeting the NTM standards, 120 villages and hamlets recognized as meeting the NTM and model NTM standards; the average criteria reached 13.07 criteria/commune, the poverty rate in rural areas decreased to 36.57%.

In particular, as a mountainous and border province with 19 ethnic groups, mainly home to ethnic minorities. Therefore, in recent years, our province has synchronously and flexibly implemented programs, projects and policies to support ethnic minorities, contributing to promoting economic development, improving material and spiritual life and gradually changing the face of ethnic minority areas. Programs and policies focus on solving the shortage of residential land, housing, production land, and domestic water; planning, arranging, and stabilizing population in necessary places; developing sustainable agricultural and forestry production, promoting the potential and strengths of regions to produce goods according to the value chain; investing in essential infrastructure to serve production and life in ethnic minority and mountainous areas; Developing education and training to improve the quality of human resources... In 2023, the total capital mobilized to implement the National Target Program on Socio-Economic Development in Ethnic Minority and Mountainous Areas in the province is 1,335,632 billion VND.

78 years since the fall of independence in 1945, the heroic revolutionary homeland of Dien Bien Phu has made comprehensive developments on the path of innovation. Every Dien Bien citizen vows to share the same will, join forces, and unite, uphold the spirit of self-reliance, self-improvement, and the aspiration to rise up, striving to successfully implement the Resolution of the 14th Provincial Party Congress, gradually realizing the goal of making Dien Bien a province with a fairly developed socio-economic situation in the Northern midland and mountainous region.

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