Delegates at the press conference.
Due to the COVID-19 impacts last year, signals hurting economic growth and macro-economic stability appeared in the country. In the first half of this year, annual declines in many indexes impacted socio-economic development. Under the leadership and direction of the provincial Party Committee, People’s Council and People’s Committee and efforts of departments, agencies, business community and people, the province saw positive socio-economic results in various areas.
The province’s gross regional domestic product was estimated at over 29.4 trillion VND (1.27 billion USD), up 3.9 percent annually. Of which, more than 6.3 trillion VND was in agro-forestry-fisheries sector, up 4.33 percent; over 12.6 trillion VND in industry-construction sector, up 4.21 percent; over 8.8 trillion VND in services, up 2.55 percent. Taxes on products went up 5.59 percent to more than 1.5 trillion VND. The local growth was above the country’s average, placing the province at the 28thout of 63 cities and provinces and ninth out of 14 northern mountainous mid-land provinces.
Economic structure continued to shift in the right direction, with agro-forestry-fisheries accounting for 22.95 percent, industry - construction 41.52 percent, services 30.4 percent, product tax 5.13 percent. Average GRDP per capita in 2020 reached 60.5 million VND, up 7.55 percent from 2019.
During the year, 16,000 new jobs were created, 15,800 workers received vocational training, unemployment rate stood at 2.6 percent, down 0.4 percent annually. The rate of poor households fell by 2.8 percent year-on-year to 8.56 percent.
Though the province earned positive results in socio-economic performance, shortcomings remained. Agricultural production met difficulties with African swine fever hitting animal husbandry while competitiveness of farm produce was low. Internal structure of industry remained unbalanced, with manufacturing-processing sector making up 39.59 percent, and electricity production and distribution 55.08 percent. Foreign direct investment attraction was low with only two projects. Service sector failed to meet targets. Many enterprises met difficulties in production and trade, some operated below capacity or perfunctorily due to the shortage of materials as well as limited demand.
At the press conference, leader of the Statistics Office and representatives from several sectors made clear several issues of concern such as the impact of African swine fever on agricultural production, forecast for production,COVID-19’s impacts on local employment and tourism, the province’s directions to propel economic growth, measures and orientations to sustainable budget collection./.