President Triet on central province visit

      President Nguyen Minh Triet has urged Quang Binh to further tap the Phong Nha-Ke Bang world natural heritage site for tourism development and other potential to list itself into the national club of developed provinces.
The State President made the advise during his working visit to the central province on April 25, saying that the local administration would open more air routes to cash in on the Dong Hoi airport in an effort to tap tourist attractions like Phong Nha-Ke Bang and lure more investors, both at home and abroad.
He also urged the province to further explore its limestone mountains to develop cement production for both domestic consumption and exports.
“Another potential is the Hon La seaport that the province should further invest in so as to turn it into a complex seaport that can load cements for shipments southward and exports as well as handle cargos for imports-exports via Laos and Thailand through the Cha Lo international border gate,” said the State leader.
He shared sympathies with the province’s economic difficulties, especially low living conditions among people in remote mountainous areas and ethnic minority groups.
The province’s per-capita incomes reached just two-thirds of the national average while the poverty rate remained high at 19 percent. The mountainous Minh Hoa district suffered the highest poverty rate at almost 52 percent and up to 28 percent of children under five are hit by malnutrition.