Natural advantages ‘key to progress'

Bags of coffee beans at Lam Dong-based Thai Hoa Ltd Co. The Prime Minister has urged the province to better exploit its natural advantages. — VNA/VNS Photo Tran Viet

LAM DONG — Central Highland Lam Dong Province needed to thoroughly utilise its natural advantages to accelerate and sustain its development, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said yesterday.

These were its temperate subtropical climate, soil and minerals, he told a meeting of senior public officials in Da Lat City.

All provided the chance to develop agriculture, industry, including services and tourism, he said.

The Prime Minister said tourism and services should be made a focus of the provincial economy with more five-star hotels built in the capital Da Lat.

The climate was also conducive to hi-tech flower growing, salmon-and – sturgeon breeding, animal husbandry and tea and coffee cultivation.

Forest management and protection should be enhanced; more rubber trees planted on fallow land; tea and coffee cultivation expanded and minerals exploited.

The work should be done while providing the province's minority people with healthcare, education and reducing their poverty, he said.

Government Office Chairman Nguyen Xuan Phuc, who was in Lam Dong with the Prime Minister to check preparations for the forthcoming congress of the provincial Party committee, said it needed more national and international recognition of its tourism, flowers, tea, sturgeon, salmon and craft villages.

The province's target for GDP growth this year is 13.1 per cent with a total social investment of more than VND4 trillion (US$210 million).

It has averaged yearly GDP growth of 14 per cent during the past five years.

Per capita income of VND19 million ($1,000) is forecast this year, 2.8 higher than 2005.

Lam Dong has received about 1.5 million tourists so far this year, 30 per cent more than the same period of last year. — VNS