QUẢNG TRỊ — The central province of Quảng Trị needs to make greater efforts in improving its investment climate and better facilitate businesses critical to boosting the national and local economies, said Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc during an investment and tourism promotion conference that took place in the locality on Sunday.

The large-scale event witnessed the participation of many economists, investors, and representatives from trade promotion agencies, and domestic and foreign businesses.

The PM asked Quảng Trị to enhance inter-regional connectivity, develop hi-quality personnel resources and accelerate scientific and technological applications.

Ministries and central agencies should continue to support the province to make it more attractive to investment, the PM said. He also called on domestic and foreign companies to come and invest in the locality.

In terms of tourism, Quảng Trị should better advertise its brand name while ensuring adequate investment sources and skilful manpower for tourism development, the PM noted.

In his speech at the conference, National Assembly deputy Trần Du Lịch spoke highly of the province’s “geographic advantages such as being located on national arterial roads, railways and sea routes connecting Laos, Thailand and Myanmar with the Pacific Ocean through the East–West Economic Corridor.”

These reviewed advantages would help the province become an intersection of goods movement along the north–south and east–west routes and facilitate the province’s tourism development, he said.

In 2011-15, Quảng Trị attracted 262 domestically and foreign-invested projects with a combined investment capital of about VNĐ50.3 trillion (over US$2.23 billion), according to the province’s People’s Committee.

In the first four months, the province granted principal investment certificates to 15 projects with capital totalling more than VNĐ10 trillion (US$444 million).

These figures, however, failed to match the province’s potential or the expectations of local authorities, Committee Chairman Nguyễn Đức Chính told the meeting.

Looking forward, the province will focus on significantly improving its investment climate, investing in infrastructure and creating favourable conditions for several important sectors to develop, such as support, clean and environmentally-friendly industries

“We promise to consider and approve investment registration within 10 days and license foreign workers within four days,” Chính said.

A hotline through which the committee chairman could talk directly to investors and assist in removing obstacles for the firms would be set up, he added.

At the conference, the committee granted the principal investment certificates to 16 projects with a registered capital of over VNĐ10 trillion.

Martyrs commemorated

Earlier on the same day, PM Phúc paid homage to soldiers who laid down their lives for the fatherland’s independence and freedom in the central province of Quảng Trị.

The activity took place on the eve of the 41st South Liberation and National Reunification Day on April 30.

The PM and local officials offered incense at the Trường Sơn National Martyrs’ Cemetery, the Road 9 National Martyrs’ Cemetery, the Quảng Trị Ancient Citadel, and the war memorial on the northern bank of the Thạch Hãn River.

The Trường Sơn National Martyrs’ Cemetery is the last resting place of over 10,000 soldiers from across Việt Nam. Most of them were from Corps 559 – Trường Son Army Corps and sacrificed on Hồ Chí Minh Trail during the resistance war against the United States.

More than 10,000 martyrs were also buried at the Road 9, National Martyrs’ Cemetery. They fought in the Road 9 battlefield and in Laos during a campaign of the anti-US war.

Meanwhile, the Ancient Citadel of Quảng Trị witnessed a fierce struggle to protect the citadel and Quảng Trị Township in 1972. Thousands of soldiers laid down their lives during the 81-day battle. The fight contributed to Việt Nam’s triumph at the Paris Conference and was a prerequisite for the General Offensive and Uprising in the spring of 1975, which completely liberated the South and re-unified the country.

The memorial on the Thạch Hãn River’s northern bank is also to commemorate thousands of soldiers who were young people leaving their hometowns in the north to join in the resistance in the south.

The Quảng Trị Ancient Citadel and the Thạch Hãn River are considered two cemeteries without tombstones in the central province. —VNS