VietnamTimes had a discussion with Tran Duc Thang about Hai Duong's opportunities when the Resolution was implemented. During the interview, he also shared his confidants as the head of the Hai Duong Party Committee.

At a recent conference on the implementation of the Government's action program to enforce Resolution 30-NQ/TW on Red River Delta's overall development, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh emphasized the breakthrough based on the connection of transport infrastructure. How will Hai Duong concretize this requirement?

At the Conference, the Prime Minister clearly directed and stated the role of the transport infrastructure for socio-economic development. He also gave typical examples in some localities with breakthrough development in recent times.

On February 27, 2022, the Standing Board of the Hai Duong Party Committee issued Resolution No. 27/NQ-BTV to concretize local tasks. The Resolution identifies 10 main tasks and solutions to implement Resolution 30-NQ/TW and the Government's Action Plan, of which the development of regional transport infrastructure is among the top tasks to fulfill the requirements of sustainable development of urban systems and modern socio-economic infrastructure systems.

Owning a special geographical position, adjacent to 6 provinces and cities, Hai Duong has many national highways passing through such as Hanoi - Hai Phong, Kep - Ha Long, and Yen Vien - Cai Lan railways; 12 central river routes with a total length of over 400 km; convenient connection with international airports (Noi Bai, Van Don, Cat Bi), seaports (Cai Lan Port, Hai Phong Port)... Hai Duong has promoted coordination activities with provinces and cities in the region to develop a system of connected transport infrastructure and has achieved many important results such as investment and coordination of investment in bridges and connecting roads: Chanh bridge, Dinh bridge, Quang Thanh bridge connecting with Hai Phong; Hiep Bridge with Thai Binh; Hiep Thuong Bridge, Da Vang Bridge, Trieu Bridge, Dong Mai Bridge with Quang Ninh. Currently, it is coordinating to invest in Dong Viet bridge with Bac Giang, Kenh Vang bridge with Bac Ninh, and Hung Hai bridge with Hung Yen.

For the 2020 - 2025 tenure, with the desire to continue to promote the release of resources, to maximize the potential and advantages of the province, Hai Duong has been directing to speed up the construction progress of 2 interchanges connecting the Hanoi - Hai Phong highway, provincial road 392 in Binh Giang district and provincial road 390 in Thanh Ha district. Those projects are expected to be completed in 2023, or early 2024.

Along with that, the province prepares to invest in the intersection of National Highway 5 - East-West route of Kim Thanh district - Lach Tray river bridge connecting National Highway 10 (Hai Phong city); coordinates with Quang Ninh to prepare for investment in the route connecting National Highway 18 - Chi Linh city and Dong Mai bridge with the high-speed riverside road in Dong Trieu town, prepares to invest in An Dong bridge (crossing the Luoc river) and the road connecting Ninh Giang district with Quynh Phu district, Thai Binh province.

By 2030, Hai Duong will identify a number of key projects for the sustainable development of the urban system and modern socio-economic infrastructure system, which are: (1) Mobilize resources to join the central government to invest in the section of the ring road 5 in the Hanoi region that passes Hai Duong, (2) Invest in a specialized industrial park in the area of Binh Giang and Thanh Mien districts to contribute to developing Hai Duong into a dynamic industrial center of the region.

I believe that with a clear strategic direction, the attention to allocating resources to invest in traffic works connecting the province and other provinces, along with focused industry development, Hai Duong will have a solid premise for a breakthrough in the near future.

- Resolution 30-NQ/TW of the Politburo is considered a special foundation for localities in the region. From your personal assessment, what additional advantages will Hai Duong have when the resolution comes into effect?

- With the goals, tasks, and solutions of Resolution No. 30-NQ/TW and the Government's Action Program, Hai Duong will have more advantages to fully exploit its potential and distinct advantages compared with other localities in the sub-region, the Northern region, and the whole country.

It will be very convenient for the province to form clusters of industry linkages, and concentrated agricultural production areas; promoting economic restructuring in a positive direction. Notably, it helps Hai Duong have many conditions to restructure the industry towards modernity, high technology, application of digital and environment-friendly platforms, and rationally distribute industrial space according to economic corridors; associated with seaports, highways, and national highways connecting with neighboring regions.

It will also be helpful to develop highly efficient, sustainable, ecological agriculture, adapting to climate change; to develop ecological agriculture, modern rural areas, and civilized farmers, and the formation of clusters linking production, processing, and consumption of agricultural products associated with enterprises and cooperatives.

Promoting the advantages of the province's geographical location, Hai Duong will have advantages in developing the service and trade sectors in a modern and diversified direction, focusing on developing trade, logistics, tourism, and finance - banking, regional and international tourist centers, on the basis of promoting their own unique identities; to associate the development of traditional craft villages with tourism development.

- The thorough vision in regional development resolutions is to have awareness of benefits from regional linkages, not to place emphasis on local interests. Considering this request, how should Hai Duong approach development views?

- Resolution No. 30-NQ/TW of the Politburo identified one of the limitations and weaknesses in regional development as the slow renewal of regional linkages, and the lack of coherent mechanisms and policies between development goals and objectives of the locality with the common goals of the region.

In the recent period, the Red River Delta region as well as other regions in the country faced difficulties due to the lack of mechanisms and policies for regional linkage development, especially in economic development cooperation and resolution for inter-provincial and inter-regional issues, the allocation of resources for implementation; provinces and cities that receive special attention from the central government to enjoy specific mechanisms have outstanding development opportunities (for example, Hai Phong).

In fact, localities in the region only have scattered and bilateral cooperation and links, mainly for the exchange of information and experience. If there are inter-provincial and inter-regional projects, it depends on the ability to resource capacity of each locality, so the efficiency is not high, and the potential and strengths of each locality have not been fully exploited and promoted.

Moreover, resources to invest in regional linkage projects are still low. Contributions from the local budget for regional linkage projects face difficulties because they are not consistent with the provisions of the State Budget Law and other relevant regulations (for example, in a local transport project, if a locality has good resources, then it will soon invest in its own section, but it cannot connect with others because they do not have resources to develop theirs, leading to the fact that the work is completed but can not be used, causing a waste of resources. Meanwhile, the project involves the budget arrangements of different localities have so many procedures, which must be reported to the central ministries and the Government for decisions while the guidelines and funds are available, leading to a prolonged implementation time).

Recognizing the importance of connection, and cooperation for development, over the years, Hai Duong has cooperated and signed development contracts with neighboring localities such as Hai Phong, Quang Ninh, Hung Yen, and Bac Giang, in which, we deploy cooperation and association, promote rapid and sustainable socio-economic development in association with firmly ensuring national defense and security in the fields of transport - transportation, industry, trade, agriculture, tourism, labor, defense - security.

Especially recently, Hai Duong cooperates with Quang Ninh and Bac Giang in building a scientific dossier to submit to UNESCO to recognize Yen Tu - Con Son and Kiep Bac relic as world heritage, implementing investment projects in connection with infrastructure, especially inter-regional traffic projects.

- What do you expect from Hai Duong's growth after the strong implementation of Resolution 30-NQ/TW?

- In line with the general development orientation of the country and the Red River Delta, Hai Duong has determined a comprehensive development goal looking up to the year 2030 to develop Hai Duong into a modern industrial province that has an economy scale among 10 leading provinces nationwide and is a dynamic industrial center of the Red River Delta, meeting some basic criteria to become a municipal city. The province's average economic growth will reach over 9% per year. The economic structure by 2030 will be: agriculture, forestry, and fishery accounting for about 4.8%; industry-construction accounting for about 58.4%; services accounting for 31.2% and product tax minus subsidies accounting for 5.6%.

To achieve the above goal, in addition to the province's efforts and initiative in allocating resources for development investment, calling on businesses to invest in large projects in the area, and strongly improving the investment environment, Hai Duong would like the Government to direct central ministries and branches to soon deploy investment in the V-belt highway system connecting the capital region; soon research and invest in the construction Noi Bai - Ha Long expressway, the interchange between National Highway 5, Hanoi - Hai Phong railway and National Highway 17B connecting National Highway 10 and National Highway 5, National Highway 18... to ensure synchronous and inter-regional connectivity in the Northern Delta region. It also recommends the Government simultaneously, and synchronously implement the Eastern Expressway Corridor Economic Connectivity Agreement (signed by VCCI and 4 provinces and cities in September 2022).

When these works and projects are put into operation, Hai Duong and other provinces in the region will surely have a breakthrough development, making great contributions to the overall development of the country.

- It has been nearly 4 months since you were assigned to be the Secretary of the Hai Duong Party Committee. At this point, how do you feel about Hai Duong's Party Committee and the people?

- I was entrusted with new tasks by the Central Committee, Politburo, and Secretariat in the context that Hai Duong had certain difficulties in Party building and the political system.

From the very beginning, I understood that Hai Duong has many potentials, strengths, and favorable opportunities for rapid and sustainable development. With a market-oriented and drastic attitude, performing tasks only for the sake of socio-economic development, political stability, and maintaining internal unity, during the past 4 months, I have felt that the Party the authority, and the people of Hai Duong have been treating me as a son of the homeland, initially trusting, sharing, supporting and collaborating, especially the comrades in the Standing Committee, the Party Executive Committee. Comrades are willing to participate in candid comments and discussions to reach a consensus in the leadership, thereby achieving the best results in management.

I believe that, with my best efforts, upholding the pioneering spirit and exemplary role of myself as the leader, I will continue to maintain and promote the solidarity of the Standing Committee, the Executive Board of the Party committee, and the political system. From there, it is possible to seize opportunities, overcome difficulties and challenges, and join hands to organize the successful implementation of the Resolution of the 17th Provincial Party Congress, contributing to the successful implementation of the Resolution of the 13th Party Congress.

- Thank you very much!

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