Thua Thien-Hue (VNA) –Nearly 300 delegates from 19 provinces and cities in the northern central,central coastal and Central Highlands regions gathered at a conference held bythe Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) in Thua Thien-Hue’s Hue city onAugust 12.

Addressing the event, DeputyMinister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Duc Trung suggested that delegatesshould focus on evaluating the implementation of public investment plan for2019, obstacles during the plan’s implementation and measures to conduct theplan for 2020, the last year of the five-year development plan.

He also called on the participantsto give solutions to remove difficulties and speed up the disbursement ofpublic investment.

Regarding the building of thesocio-economic development plan for the 2021-2025 period, Trung held that thelocalities should pay greater attention to choosing prioritised projects topromote growth of the whole regions, as well as the principles and criteria forusing State budget.

He said that the revised Law onPublic Investment will be the major basis for the building of the publicinvestment plan for the 2021-2025 period.

The Deputy Minister noted thatthe central, Central Highlands regions, covering more than 150,000 sq.km with apopulation of over 24 million, have seen good results in optimising itsadvantages for socio-economic development.

In 2018, 12 out of the 14northern central and central coastal localities recorded growth of 8.5 percent,higher than the country’s average. In the Central Highlands region, four out ofthe five provinces also reported growth rates higher the nation’s average level.

These are strategic regions interms of politics, economy, society, defence and security of the country aswell as a connecting point of the northern and southern regions.

Trung noted that the 1,900kmcentral coastline plays an important role in maritime economic development andeconomic activities of the country. Meanwhile, the Central Highlands region hasadvantages in hydropower and solar power, agro-forestry, agricultural productprocessing, and tourism.

At the conference, representativesof the provinces and cities pointed out a number of difficulties in implementingthe public investment plan.

According to Chairman of thePeople’s Committee of Thua Thien-Hue Phan Ngoc Tho, many central and CentralHighlands provinces have faced difficulties in infrastructure system, withsmall economic scale and low per capita income.

He said that the regionallocalities hope to receive more attention and support from the centralagencies, ministries and sectors in building their own strategies, planningschemes and plans for regional development.

It is necessary to design specialpolicies in attracting and allocating resources for the region in 2020 as wellas the 2021-2025 period, thus forming connectivity and create breakthroughs insocio-economic development of the region in line with coping with climatechange and sea level rise, and narrowing the growth gap with the Red Riverdelta and southeast regions, Tho said.-VNA