Economic growth in the first quarter exceeds expectations

At the conference, leaders of the Department of Planning and Investment said that in the first 3 months of 2024, although Bac Giang continued to face many difficulties and challenges, the province's socio-economic results still achieved positive results. Economic growth rate (GRDP) in the first quarter of 2024 was estimated to reach 14.15%. All manufacturing sectors grew, of which agriculture, forestry and fisheries increased by 1.83%; industry - construction increased by 17.78% (industry increased by 18.69%, construction increased by 7.0% ); services increased by 6.55%, product tax increased by 3.4%.

Service industries maintained stable operations. Production value of the entire industry increased by 6.55%. Consumption and circulation of goods and agricultural products were convenient. Total retail sales of goods and services reached over 15,960 billion VND, increasing by 17.9% over the same period, reaching 24.9% of the plan. Total import-export value was estimated at 10.03 billion USD, an increase of 10.03%.

Total domestic revenue in the first 3 months of the year reached nearly 4,700 billion VND, equal to 32.6% of the estimate, increasing by 11.1% over the same period in 2023. Some of these revenues achieved outstanding results such as land use fee collection was estimated to reach over 1,000 billion VND, equal to 16.4% of the estimate assigned by the Provincial People's Committee in 2024, an increase of 27.1% over the same period in 2023. Revenue from FDI enterprises reached nearly 1,990 billion VND, equal to 85.2% of the estimate, increasing by 13.9% over the same period.

Attracting investment and developing businesses was quite good. As of March 15, 2024, the whole province had attracted about 624.26 million USD in equivalent investment capital. Particularly, the province attracted 9 domestic projects with registered capital of nearly 7,600 billion VND (25.8 times higher than the same period). In the first quarter, there were 310 newly established businesses, an increase of 18% with registered capital reaching nearly 2,600 billion VND; creating new jobs for nearly 9,000 people, an increase of 9% over the same period. The whole province currently had 191,000 workers working in industrial zones, an increase of nearly 32,000 workers over the same period.

Socio-culture continued to develop; the quality of education was maintained; many large-scale cultural and sports activities were organized to better meet the needs of the people; people's lives were basically stable. Administrative reform, administrative unit arrangement and digital transformation had been promoted. The sense of discipline and discipline in performing duties of officials and civil servants had been improved. The quality of citizen reception and settlement of complaints and denunciations had been improved. Local military had been strengthened. Political security, social order and safety was guaranteed. Traffic accidents decreased sharply, etc.

However, industrial production in some industries and fields still faced many difficulties. The order of some large enterprises (in the electronics and garment sectors) had not recovered, there had been no new orders as the consumption level in some markets was still not high following Covid. Domestic enterprises participating in the production chain were still very limited.

Compensation and site clearance had been highly focused to achieve many positive results, but in general there were still difficulties and obstacles directly affecting the investment progress of projects. Some urban area projects, residential areas, and social housing projects were behind schedule compared to plan. Progress in investment and construction of centralized waste treatment plants was still slow. The situation of waste not being collected and thoroughly treated in some districts, the city, the district-level town, etc. Crime of fraudulent appropriation of property showed signs of increasing, especially online fraud, etc.

At the conference, delegates focused on discussing difficulties and obstacles in the process of implementing socio-economic development in the first quarter, analyzing the growth results of the province in the coming time; at the same time, exchanging and proposing solutions to build job positions and arrange administrative units at district and commune levels on schedule; accelerate the progress and quality of provincial planning adjustments. Provide tasks and solutions to be focused on in the coming time with a high focus on accelerating the implementation of public investment projects in the area, especially large and key projects. Actively implement and disburse capital to implement 3 national target programs. Improve local innovation index, etc.

Speaking at the conference, Standing Vice Chairwoman of the Provincial People's Council Lam Thi Huong Thanh suggested that it was necessary to further calculate and evaluate solutions for socio-economic development of the province in the second quarter due to many difficulties in agricultural production, especially in early lychee flower with low rate of lychee flowering. Focus more on disbursement of public investment capital.

She said that in the coming time, the Provincial People's Council would supervise the compliance with the law in the management and use of public assets in the area, so departments, sectors and localities should prepare good content to serve the supervision.

Promote attracting high-quality investment and skilled labor

Conculding the conference, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee Le Anh Duong summarized the results achieved in the first quarter of 2024, while stating the difficulties and challenges the province must face in the coming time. He said that the biggest challenge the province was the development of the foreign investment sector; small businesses in the province also faced many difficulties. Disbursement of public investment capital and implementation of national target programs was low compared to recent years directly and indirectly hindering the province's growth.

To promote growth, Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee requested departments and sectors to organize labor promotions at universities and colleges to help businesses recruit skilled and highly specialized workers to meet investment attraction in the province; resolve problems and ensure power sources for businesses in production activities.

For agricultural production, it was necessary to ensure safety for livestock areas, and to do good disease prevention for plants and animals; specially focus on taking care of lychee, orienting consumption promotion in conditions of low flowering rate.

Faced with the above situation, in April and the second quarter of 2024, he requested highly concentrated industries to promote investment attraction, improve the investment environment, promptly remove difficulties for businesses, and accompany businesses. This included doing a good job of labor promotion, meeting the labor recruitment requirements of businesses. Besides, pay attention to the conditions to attract high-quality, new generation foreign investment capital flows. Along with that, urgently prepare land funds, implement plans to train human resources for the industry (AI, semiconductor). Pay attention to listen and remove difficulties and obstacles for businesses.

Continue to further accelerate the disbursement rate of public investment capital and national target programs. He assigned the Department of Planning and Investment, the Department of Construction and relevant sectors to advise the province to organize a symposium on dismantling and disbursing public investment capital, practicing thrift and combating waste in public investment.

Sectors shall urgently coordinate to complete adjustments to provincial planning; accelerate the roadmap for arranging district and commune-level administrative units; at the same time, complete urban classification procedures on conditions for establishing wards. Resolve obstacles in the socialization of healthcare to maximize the facilities and medical staff to ensure better service to the medical examination and treatment needs of the people.

Sectors and units shall proactively develop public investment projects for the coming term; focus on preparing good conditions for the thematic meeting of the Provincial People's Council in April 2024.

Vote to approve a number of draft documents

At the conference, delegates commented and voted to approve a number of draft documents: Report on the implementation of public investment plans, 3 National Target Programs; Resolution of the Provincial People's Council amending Resolution No. 40/2023/NQ-HDND dated July 14, 2023 stipulating tuition and fee rates, management mechanisms and use of service revenues to support operations education from the 2023-2024 school year and the following school years at public preschool, high school and continuing education establishments in Bac Giang province. Proposal to develop a Resolution of the Provincial People's Council on specific mechanisms and policies to support redundant cadres, civil servants and public employees due to the arrangement of district and commune-level administrative units in the area.

At the conference, delegates also voted to approve the following documents: Proposal to develop a Resolution of the Provincial People's Council to regulate prices for medical examination and treatment services in state-owned medical examination and treatment facilities in Bac Giang province; Report on the current state of facilities and teaching staff at Vocational and Continuing Education Centers, public preschool and general education establishments in Bac Giang province; Proposal to develop a Resolution of the Provincial People's Council to repeal the Resolutions of the Provincial People's Council; Proposal to develop a Resolution of the Provincial People's Council specifying the level of expenditure for dissemination and legal education, legal access standards and conciliation at the grassroots level in Bac Giang province; Proposal to develop a Resolution of the Provincial People's Council to amend Resolution No. 26/2018/NQ-HDND dated December 7, 2018 regulating the content and spending levels for Technical Creativity Contest and Youth Creativity Contest of the Youth in Bac Giang province; Proposal to develop a Resolution of the Provincial People's Council amending and supplementing a number of articles of Resolution No. 47/2022/NQ-HDND dated December 9, 2022 of the People's Council of Bac Giang Province regulating support levels for some contents of economic use non-business fees from the central budget to implement the National Target Program on building new rural areas for the 2021-2025 period in Bac Giang province.

Draft Plan of the Provincial People's Committee on building facilities and arranging teachers until 2025 and 2030; Draft Resolution of the Provincial People's Council on the decision to change the forest use purpose to another purpose; Decision of the Provincial People's Committee amending and supplementing Decision No. 171/QD-UBND dated February 14, 2023 of the Provincial People's Committee promulgating the regulations on organization, operations and working relationships of the Public Administrative Service Center Bac Giang province; Plan to implement the Memorandum of Understanding between the People's Committee of Bac Giang province and the People's Government of Nanning city, Guangxi province, China./.