Tiền Giang Province is striving to ensure the 2020-21 winter-spring rice crop is bountiful. — VNA/VNS Photo Minh Trí

TIỀN GIANG — Tiền Giang is determined to achieve the economic growth target of 7 per cent this year despite being affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Party chief of the Mekong Delta province has said.

Speaking at a People’s Council session recently the province Party Committee Secretary and council chairman, Nguyễn Văn Danh, said for this the province had to take urgent and synchronous measures in various areas like agriculture, fisheries, rural development, industry, urban development, and the collective economy.

He said the People’s Committee should direct the Southern Horticultural Research Institute to guide farmers in areas affected by drought and saltwater intrusion in restoring fruit orchards.

It should encourage them to switch to crops and livestock that are resistant to natural calamities, he said.

More than 8,500ha of rice, thousands of hectares of vegetable and 5,300ha of fruits were damaged by natural disaster this year, he said.

The administration should make preparations after the 2020 flooding season to ensure the 2020-21 winter-spring crop is good, he said.  

Co-operative models that are part of value chains or link farmers with enterprises should be expanded, and the province should give priority to rice, fruit, vegetables, and seafood value chains he said.

It also should provide assistance to the industrial sector, he said.

It should assess the impact of the pandemic on each sector and help affected companies stabilise their business soon and achieve the targeted rate of growth in the remaining months of the year.    

According to the People’s Committee, the province targets revenues from  retail sales and services of VNĐ39.8 trillion (US$1.7 billion) in the second half of the year.

It seeks to attract 17 new projects and set up 16 new co-operatives.

In the first half its gross domestic product was marginally down year-on-year.

It has provided dole of more than VNĐ217.6 billion to poor people, those near the poverty line and others this year.

It will continue to pay the allowance this month.

Trương Văn Hiền, chairman of the province’s Trade Federation, said trade unions had called on and given gifts to 14,000 workers facing financial difficulties.

It has exhorted companies to buy fruits from farmers for their workers’ lunch. —VNS