The 18th provincial Party Congress in the northern province of Hung Yen commenced on November 1 with the attendance of 332 delegates representing 63,000 local Party members. Addressing the event, Politburo member and President of the Vietnam Fatherland Front Nguyen Thien Nhan said the Political Bureau highly valued the provincial Party Organisation’s drastic, creative steering methods used between 2011 and 2015. He said Hung Yen must increase labour productivity in agriculture, industry and services, as well as State managerial agencies, to improve people’s livelihoods. Labour productivity in agriculture is still low compared with industry and services, he noted, asking the province to switch from inefficient rice cultivation to more profitable crop or livestock farming. It should expeditiously join separate farming households to make new-style co-operatives, or connect them with businesses while providing comprehensive, effective assistance in farm work mechanisation, ultimately promoting agricultural output and product sales, Nhan said. The official also requested that Hung Yen strive for a more favourable business climate, because its current provincial competitiveness index was still low in the national rankings. The provincial Party Congress needed to work out measures to ensure pure, strong local government and the people’s well-being, he added. A political report at the event found that Hung Yen posted an annual economic growth rate of 7.8 percent from 2010 to 2015, faster than the national average. Per capita income was expected to reach 40 million VND (1,790 USD) this year, doubling the figure from 2010. During the period, Hung Yen converted more than 6,000 hectares of ineffective rice cultivation land to farmland for other crops and livestock. While local industrial production grew by 9.87 percent, trade in services recorded a yearly rate of 8.5 percent. Notably, export revenue soared by around 33 percent per annum, the report said, adding that Hung Yen was now home to more than 1,200 projects with a total registered capital of 7.1 billion USD. Over 100 trillion VND (4.48 billion USD) has been mobilised from social resources in the last five years for building socio-economic infrastructure facilities such as roads linking Hung Yen with Hanoi and National Road 1A, the highway connecting Hanoi and the northern port city of Hai Phong, and upgrades to National Road 38B and Provincial Road 200. The political report also highlighted that Hung Yen was among the leading localities in university entrance examination quality and universal education coverage. It has also paid attention to health care, as evidenced by its new and upgraded medical facilities. It has provided jobs for 20,000 people every year and lowered the household poverty rate to 3 percent. The province also designed practical action plans and blueprints for Party building, and had 78 percent of Party units recognised as pure and strong every year, the report added. The 18th provincial Party Congress for the 2015-2020 tenure is scheduled to last through November 2.-VNA