In 2020, despite numerous difficulties and challenges, especially the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, with the joint efforts and consensus of the entire political system, business community and people, Bac Giang achieved comprehensive achievements in all fields, with its economic growth hitting 13.02 percent - the highest in the country. This is an important premise for the province to effectively implement its comprehensive development goals for 2021 and following years.

Outstanding highlights

2020 was the last year to realize the Resolution of the 18th provincial Party Congress for the 2015-2020 tenure and the 5-year Socio-Economic Development Plan for 2016-2020. On the basis of the impressive results achieved in 2019, the provincial Party Committee, People's Council, and People's Committee set very high requirements for 2020 to successfully complete the goals for the whole period. However, 2020 was the most difficult year in recent years due to unfavorable weather and epidemics. 

Vice Secretary of the provincial Party Committee and Chairman of the provincial People's Committee Le Anh Duong (fourth, left) meets representatives of some businesses at the "Meet Japan 2020" Conference.

Especially, from the beginning of the year, the Covid-19 outbreak seriously affected all aspects of the socio-economic life. Facing those difficulties and challenges, the whole political system from the provincial level to the grassroots level focused on implementing synchronous solutions to successfully fulfill the "dual tasks” of both preventing and combating the pandemic and recovering the economy.

The province’s outstanding achievements during the year were rapid economic development with a growth rate for the whole year reaching 13.02 percent, the highest nationwide; social labor productivity increasing by 9.9 percent, estimated at nearly 110 million VND (4,470 USD); and per capita GRPD of 2,900 USD, up 14.2 percent compared to 2019. The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) in 2020 rose 19.4 percent annually, while the value of industrial production increased by 20.3 percent year on year to over 266 trillion VND (11.5 billion USD). Agricultural production reaped impressive results, with total value going up 6.7 percent, the highest ever so far, making Bac Giang a highlight of the national agriculture and affirming its role as the pillar of the economy.

For the first time, Bac Giang lychee has been exported to Japan and its grapefruit has been shipped to Russia. In the year, Tan Yen district and 27 more communes met new-style rural standards, making Bac Giang a leader in the northern midland and mountainous region in the movement. With total budget revenue of nearly 12 trillion VND (520.4 million USD), exceeding the yearly estimate, Bac Giang was one of the few localities in the country to complete the budget collection as set in the estimate.

The fields of education, culture, physical training and sports, people's health care continued to see progress. People's living standards have been improved, with poverty rate decreasing to 3.5 percent. In particular, despite difficulties, Bac Giang province showed a spirit of mutual support when donating more than 50 billion VND (2.17 million USD) to flood victims in central provinces. Political security, social safety and order were maintained.

Closely controlling the pandemic, promptly removing difficulties

In order to successfully implement the "dual tasks", the provincial Party Committee and People's Committee have always been consistent in thought and action, considering people's health the most important task. 

An urban area in Bac Giang.

During the time when the Covid-19 pandemic developed complicatedly, the province strictly followed the direction of the Government, promptly applying social distancing measures and strictly controlling people coming and returning from pandemic-hit areas, preventing the spread of the disease in the community. When the pandemic reappeared, with infections spotted in Son Dong district, the provincial People's Committee quickly and drastically directed the implementation of measures such as affected area zoning and contact tracing to stamp out the pandemic, let it not impact the daily life, production and business activities of people and businesses.

In the first six months of 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic seriously affected people's lives and business activities of enterprises, resulting in an economic growth of only 6.4 percent and suspended industrial production. Many workers lost their jobs, and export activities encountered difficulties. Facing the situation, the provincial Party Committee and People's Committee were proactive and flexible in directing and monitoring the realization of economic development tasks and budget estimates, while creating all conditions for economic sectors to soon recover production and regain growth momentum. At the end of April, Bac Giang was one of the first provinces in the country to open its doors to foreign investors, experts, workers and traders. At the same time, the province accelerated the construction of infrastructure in industrial zones and clusters in combination with enhancing the implementation of investment attraction solutions. The flexibility in direction and management was a decisive factor for the strong growth of the province's economy in the last months of the year.

Persistent in comprehensive and firm development goals

Bac Giang now has great chances as economic sectors as well as production and business activities are recovering rapidly. Free trade agreements like the EU-Vietnam FTA (EVFTA) and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) have opened up big opportunities, especially in attracting quality investment projects. The trend of shifting FDI inflows in the region has also created good chances. Along with these are the solidarity and determination of officials at all levels, the drastic participation of the whole system, as well as the efforts and consensus of the business community and people.

Producing electronic components at Viettonic Company in the Dinh Tram Industrial Park.

However, we also face enormous difficulties and challenges. Despite being among provinces and cities with the highest economic growth in the country for many years, Bac Giang has not ensured budget balance yet; urban development and services are still not commensurate with the potential; transportation infrastructure in industrial zones remains limited; service infrastructure around industrial zones has not kept pace with the development; the remaining clean land fund for attracting investment in industrial development is not much; mobilizing non-budget capital for essential infrastructure development is increasingly difficult; some problems and bottlenecks affecting socio-economic development have not been removed, such as difficulties in land recovery, site clearance compensation, solving environmental pollution problems, handling land violations, and addressing social problems related to industrial development.

To achieve the goal of being in the top 15 provinces with the highest GRDP in the country by 2025, the Party Organization, authorities and people of all ethnic groups in the province must make more efforts to thoroughly fix shortcomings, helping Bac Giang make strong breakthroughs in a comprehensive and steady manner. Right from the beginning of 2021, in addition to the primary task of continuing to prevent and combat Covid-19, we will focus on implementing the following socio-economic development solutions:

1. Well implementing the provincial planning for 2021 - 2030 with a vision to 2050; ensuring conditions for the development of industries and sectors, especially transport, industry, agriculture, urban areas and services in the next 10 years. A number of important targets must be taken into account toward 2050.

2. Focusing and prioritizing investment resources for development of socio-economic infrastructure, especially for transport, industry, irrigation, urban areas and tourism, education, health, information technology - digital technology. Bac Giang defines that the construction of a synchronous and modern infrastructure system is the premise and driving force to ensure its comprehensive and sustainable development.

2021 is the first year of implementing the medium-term public investment plan for the 2021-2025 period. Many major and important projects will be carried out, having great impacts on the socio-economic development of the province and localities. To ensure progress, 2021 has been identified as the year when the whole province focuses on compensation and site clearance.

3. Paying attention to supporting and creating conditions for enterprises to recover and expand production; focusing on solving the lack of clean space to welcome the wave of FDI investment shift. Regarding FDI, the province will attract a variety of investors from many different countries such as Japan, the US, China and Singapore, and not let its economy depend on a certain partner.

4. Focusing on improving the quality of human resources, especially high-quality personnel, to meet the requirements of the new era (the era of the fourth Industrial Revolution and digital technology); improving the quality of vocational training to satisfy the demands of investors; actively preparing on-the-spot human resources; raising labor productivity and competitiveness of the economy.

5. Continuing to promote agricultural restructuring, develop concentrated large-scale production models, and apply high technology to improve productivity, quality and value of products. At the same time, the province will focus on developing value chains, attracting businesses to join the chains to ensure stable sale for products, and expanding markets both at home and abroad, while optimizing key agricultural products to ensure the industry’s growth target.

6. Continuing to pay attention to socio-cultural fields; improving the quality of people's life; directing the good implementation of social security policies and policies towards people who rendered services to the nation, social protection beneficiaries, and the disadvantaged to ensure no one is left behind; and giving heed to job creation for laborers.

7. Focusing on promoting administrative reform, raising the effectiveness and efficiency of the operation of the state administrative apparatus; improving the investment and business environment and the provincial competitiveness index (PCI); stepping up the application of information technology in management activities of state agencies; and effectively implementing the smart city development project. The province strives to make its 2021 PCI higher than that of last year.

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