Kiên Giang Province will develop aquaculture in a sustainable and environmentally friendly direction. Photo baotintuc.vn

KIÊN GIANG — Kiên Giang aims to make a breakthrough in economic development this year by focusing on removing difficulties and bottlenecks.

Accordingly, the province's goals include: achieving economic growth of 7.5 per cent or more; increasing Gross Regional Domestic Product (GRDP) per capita to approximately VNĐ90 million (US$3,500); raising agricultural, forestry, and fishery production value by 2.5 per cent or more; growing industrial production by 10 per cent compared to 2024; generating total budget revenue of more than VNĐ15 trillion ($597 million); mobilising VNĐ48 trillion ($1.9 billion) in social investment capital; reaching an urbanisation rate of 41.5 per cent for the entire province; and maintaining a multidimensional poverty rate below 2 per cent.

To achieve the above-mentioned goals, Chairman of Kiên Giang Provincial People's Committee Nguyễn Thanh Nhàn said the locality will synchronously deploy solutions for socio-economic development in 2025.

In particular, the province will focus on creating breakthroughs in industries and tourism services, increasing the added value of agriculture and aquaculture, mobilising maximum resources, taking public investment as the leading investment in economic development and disbursing public investment capital at 95 per cent or more.

It will also comprehensively and effectively deploy international integration and create favourable conditions to attract resources for investment and development.

The province will focus on developing culture, improving the quality of education and training, promoting the application of science and technology, innovation, and taking care of people's health, ensuring social security, improving people's lives, and striving to build and develop e-government and digital government.

At the same time, Kiên Giang will develop social housing for workers and sustainable poverty reduction programmes; and promote economic diplomacy, attracting external resources to serve the province's socio-economic development.

In addition to socio-economic development policies, Kiên Giang will also focus on removing bottlenecks for the province's key economic sectors.

Lê Hữu Toàn, director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, said that the province will restructure the agricultural sector and develop one million hectares of high-quality rice cultivation associated with green growth. The province will increase the application of science and technology in production, replicate large-scale field models, standard production areas, and build raw material areas to meet the needs of businesses and exports.

At the same time, the province will strongly develop aquaculture, especially industrial shrimp farming, replicate effective farming models and restructure the fishing industry towards sustainability associated with combating illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

The province will also build and develop the fisheries industry towards becoming a national marine economic centre, developing agricultural and aquatic product brands at regional and international levels.

Kiên Giang Province will have a million hectares of high-quality rice cultivation in the coming time. VNS Photo Văn Châu

Thereby, the province sets a target of rice output of 4.6 million tonnes, with the production rate of high-quality rice covering over 90 per cent of total cultivated area, and the output of exploitation and aquaculture of 811,000 tonnes, of which, exploitation accounts for 420,300 tonnes and aquaculture accounts for 390,700 tonnes.

Regarding the industrial sector, director of the Department of Industry and Trade Trương Văn Minh shared that the department will coordinate with relevant agencies and units to effectively implement policies to support businesses in recovering and developing production, along with thoroughly handling investment problems to mobilise resources to develop industrial parks and clusters in the area.

In addition, the department will advise the Provincial People's Committee to invest in key industrial projects associated with the development of agricultural and aquatic product processing plants in raw material areas, mobilising resources to invest in national grid electricity to An Son and Nam Du island communes.

The province sets a target of industrial production value reaching over VNĐ62.8 trillion, an increase of 10 per cent and export turnover of $1.07 billion, an increase of 7 per cent, compared to 2024.

For tourism, the province will restructure the tourism industry to become the province's key economic sector.

Bùi Quốc Thái, director of the Department of Tourism, said that the department will coordinate with relevant units to implement solutions and tourism stimulus programmes, improve the effectiveness of cooperation, linkages, promotions, advertising of tourism and develop specific tourism products associated with brand building.

The province aims to attract 10.65 million tourists, including 1.1 million international visitors, with total revenue reaching VNĐ28 trillion.

Kiên Giang provincial leaders emphasised that the province will continue to encourage and create a favourable environment for economic sectors and types of enterprises to develop; attract capable enterprises and large domestic and foreign corporations to invest in potential and advantageous fields.

The province will also accompany and actively support businesses to participate in trade promotion activities, connecting domestic and foreign manufacturers, suppliers, and consumers to expand the consumption market.

It will also promote cooperation with provinces and cities in the Mekong Delta region and HCM City to promote socio-economic development.  VNS