QUẢNG NAM – Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc yesterday praised the residents of Quảng Nam for their efforts in making the central province one of 15 localities with the biggest contributions to the State Budget in 2016.

He made the laudatory comments while attending the 20^th anniversary of the province’s re-establishment, when it separated from former Quảng Nam-Đà Nẵng Province, as well as the 42^nd anniversary of the Quảng Nam Liberation Day.

“The province has witnessed rapid socio-economic development over past decades. It had a GDP of just VNĐ607 billion (US$26.6 million) in 1997, but this has grown to VNĐ 20 trillion ($878 million) in 2016,” Phúc said.

“The province was once one of the poorest localities in the country, but now it has joined the ranks of the top contributors to the state budget. Quảng Nam no longer needs to receive aid from the Government,” he added.

Phúc noted that the province changed its economic structure from a predominantly agricultural economy to one where the industrial and service sector accounted for 88 per cent of its GDP.

The PM advised the province to boost tourism as a key industry because it has two UNESCO world heritage sites – Mỹ Sơn Sanctuary and Hội An City - as well as the World Biosphere Reserve, Chàm Island.

Phúc presented the province with the Independence Order First Class for the great contribution it had made to national development over past decades.

Quảng Nam Party secretary Nguyễn Ngọc Quang said the province had seen face-lifting growth in the past 20 years.

He said Quảng Nam, which once drew 70 per cent of its budget from the State Treasury, started contributing to it after 20 years of development.

Last year, the province began construction of the Nam Hội An Casino Resort Project in the UNESCO heritage city of Hội An.

With total investment of US$4 billion, the project will become Việt Nam’s second largest casino resort after the Grand Hồ Tràm Strip Resort and Casino in the southern province of Bà Rịa – Vũng Tàu, Đỗ Xuân Diện, head of the management board for the Chu Lai Open Economic Zone, told Việt Nam News.

Nam Hội An was among the 12 projects that received investment certificates in Quảng Nam last year.

Quảng Nam People’s Committee Chairman Đinh Văn Thu said the new licensing process was part of the province’s efforts to establish a reliable partnership with investors, and to accelerate the progress and efficiency of its investments.

The Trường Hải Automobile JSC (Thaco) has also begun work on expanding the Trường Hải – Chu Lai Mechanical Automobile Industrial Zone with an investment of VNĐ794 billion (US$35.3 million) in Quảng Nam. The company has invested US$400 million in building the Chu Lai – Trường Hải Industrial Complex, which has a logistics centre, car production lines, a vocational training college, a seaport as well as a shipping service. — VNS