Illustrative image (Source: VNA)DakLak (VNA) – The Central Highlands region is expected to attractmore than 230 trillion VND (10.1 billion USD) worth of investment in theperiod of 2016-2020.
Of the figure, 51,000 billion VND will come from the State budget, 7,500billion VND from Government bonds and the remaining from domestic and foreignbusinesses, according to the Steering Committee for the region.
The committee said most of the sum will be used to restructure the agriculturalsector, targe😼ting a large-scale goods-oriented agriculture with highcompetitiveness and sustainable development.
Theregion will focus on applying scientific advances and technologies in agro-forestryproduction to improve productivity and product quality while building brands fora number of key products like coffee, rubber and pepper.
It plans to maintain the area of coffee growing, develop industrial plants,vegetables, flowers and fruit trees with high-value, and boost cattle breeding.
Resources will also be invested in processing industry and mining; developing ecologicaland community-based tourism; and building infrastructure for transport,irrigation, electricity supply, and infrastructure of urban areas andindustrial parks.
Regional localities will work to build strategies and master plans for theregion’s socio-economic development, aiming to attract foreign directinvestment (FDI).
In the coming time, the region will give priority to developing border economy,trade, agriculture, tourism and energy services, besides intensifying investmentpromotion activities.
Measures will be devised to simplify administrative procedures and improve theefficiency of State management, in order to draw more investment.
Ata recent conference to call for investment in the region, Prime Minister NguyenXuan Phuc asked regional localities to form large-scale organic agriculturalareas.
He recommended them promote industrial development by modernising agriculture,boosting processing activities, and expanding the value chain of products fromindustrial trees.
The Central Highlandsregion covers an area of 5.46 million ha, accounting for 16.8 percent of thenation’s total area. The region has a population of more than 5.6 million.
Of the 5.46 million haof natural land, two million ha are used for agricultural production and 3.2million ha are forestland.
The region has 74.25 percentof the country’s red basalt soil at almost 2.1 million ha, making the region anideal place to grow cash crops such as coffee, rubber and cashew nuts, amongothers.
Coffee, rubber andpepper are the agricultural mainstays of the region. Meanwhile, tea,particularly oolong tea, plays an important position in Lam Dong province.
The GRDP (Gross RegionalDomestic Product) in the 2011-15 period was about 10.45 percent per annum. In 2016,the GRDP per capita was 39.56 million VND (1,700 USD) – an increase of 8.57 percentover the previous year.
In the 2011-15 period,the region attracted a total investment of 265.7 trillion VND (11.7 billionUSD) – double that of the previous five years. As a result, its average annualgrowth rate was 11.33 percent during the period.
To date, the region has140 foreign direct investment (FDI) pro✤jectꦏs worth 772.5 million USD.-VNA
