Bac Ninh (VNA) – The northern province of BacNinh will make most of its potential and advantages as well as overcomedifficulties and challenges to continue creating strong breakthroughs insocial-economic development and become a centrally-governed city by the 2020s.

Nguyen Nhan Chien, Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of thePeople’s Committee of Bac Ninh, made the remarks at the 20th anniversary of theprovince’s re-establishment on January 3.

The province will also strive for becoming one of the leading localities inbuilding an e-government and developing a smart city, Chien said.

Speaking at the event, To Lam, Minister of PublicSecurity, recognised and praised important achievements the province’s Party Committeeand its people have achieved in the past 20 years.

Lam recommended Bac Ninh to optimize its potential andadvantages for sustainable development.

The province needs to review the planning of sectorsin connection with the master plan for social-economic development, the overallurban planning and the modified Hanoi Capital region planning.

He also urged the province to apply informationtechnology in urban management, restructuring economy, reforming growth model,effectively managing and using resources, and solving environmental pollution,especially at industrial clusters and craft villages.

He also recommended the province to boost activitiesin attracting investment and developing support industry and applying hightechnology into agriculture and implementing the national goal programme onbuilding new rural areas.

Bac Ninh province was re-established on January 1,1997. After 20 years, the province has transformed from an agriculturalprovince into an industrial one with the economic growth rate of 15.1 percenton average during the 1997-2016 period.

The province’s 16 concentrated industrial zones haveattracted 935 projects with a total registered capital of 12.3 billion USD, includingmany multinational corporations like Samsung, Microsoft, Canon, and Pepsico.

The province’s 2016 industrial production value isestimated at 766 trillion VND (34.5 billion USD), a 1,200-fold rise over thatof 1997.

The province has 58 communes and two districts qualifiedas new rural localities. Healthcare and education have been improvedsignificantly.

The province has two UNESCO-recognised intangiblecultural heritage – Quan Ho (love duets) and Ca Tru (ceremonial song). It alsohas four special national relic sites, five groups of artifacts recognised as nationaltreasures, one ritual, one folk game, eight festivals and villages honored asnational intangible cultural heritages.-VNA