Socio-Economic Development Goals of Thanh Hoa Province in the Coming Years

Thus, the coastal economic development policy in Thanh Hoa still has many limitations because right from the assessment and recognition of the potential of marine and island resources, there are aspects that are not yet appropriate, the coordination between relevant functional sectors to build a master plan for the use of sea and islands is still inconsistent and lacking an action mechanism. The province does not have a suitable policy to build a master plan, unified and synchronous. The development of a master plan for the exploitation and use of sea and islands is not considered a central and top priority task to use and exploit the maximum potential and advantages of sea and islands, serving socio-economic development, ensuring national defense and security while protecting the marine ecological environment.

Third, the planning of coastal socio-economic development is still slow and lacks uniformity . Until 2010, Thanh Hoa only had a master plan for the province's general socio-economic development and a plan for the development of specific economic sectors. Coastal socio-economic development is reflected in these master plans, including plans for the development of economic zones, industrial parks, and industrial clusters in coastal districts. We can specifically consider the planning for the development of Nghi Son economic zones and industrial clusters in coastal areas.

Nghi Son is located in the south of Thanh Hoa province, with a favorable geographical location and natural conditions to become a national economic zone. Under the direction of the Government, the Ministry of Transport and directly the People's Committee of Thanh Hoa province, Nghi Son area has developed continuously, forming a dynamic multi-sector and multi-field economic zone, with seaports, urban areas, petrochemical refineries... On May 17, 2001, the Prime Minister issued Decision No. 604/QD-TTg approving the master plan for the construction of Nghi Son New Urban Area in Thanh Hoa province until 2020, determining the nature of the urban area as multi-sector industrial development with a focus on construction materials industry, petrochemical refining, services, tourism... The area of the area is 9,700 hectares, of which the industrial development area is 870 hectares, the seaport (specialized port, general port) is 410 hectares.

To create a driving force to promote and develop the socio-economy of Thanh Hoa province in particular, the Nam Thanh - Bac Nghe region and the country in general, on May 15, 2006, the Prime Minister issued Decision No. 102/2006/QD-TTg to establish and promulgate the operating regulations of Nghi Son Economic Zone, Thanh Hoa province. On October 10, 2007, the Prime Minister

Maybe you are interested!

The Prime Minister has issued Decision No. 1364/QD-TTg approving the master plan for the construction of Nghi Son Economic Zone in Thanh Hoa province. The nature of Nghi Son Economic Zone is a multi-sector, multi-sector economic zone with a focus on heavy industry and basic industries such as oil refining industry, high-grade steel rolling industry, mechanical engineering, automobile manufacturing and assembly, ship repair and building, electricity industry, construction materials industry, consumer goods production, processing and export... associated with the construction and effective exploitation of Nghi Son seaport. The total area of the economic zone is 18,611.8 hectares, of which industrial construction land is 2,965 hectares, the seaport area is 860 hectares.

Along with Nghi Son Economic Zone, Thanh Hoa also plans to develop industrial clusters in coastal districts. For example, on June 25, 2010, the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee issued Decision No. 2255/QD-UBND approving the list of priority industrial projects in the province until 2020. Accordingly, there are 117 industrial development projects, of which 40 are in coastal districts. This shows the policy of prioritizing industrial development based on the province's coastal advantages. (Appendix).

However, the planning and exploitation of marine resources still have many shortcomings and lack of synchronization, especially the planning of marine space, the structure of marine and coastal economic sectors is not reasonable, and the plan for coastal economic development within the framework of comprehensive development has not been well prepared. Up to now, we have mainly exploited the "visible" material resources, not paying attention to the types of non-material resources, the spatial values and service values of coastal ecosystems.

Some important marine economic sectors such as shipbuilding, mineral exploitation, seafood exploitation and processing, port services and maritime transport, and marine tourism do not have internationally competitive products and their technology is still backward; especially sectors with future competitive advantages such as exploration and exploitation of seabed resources, oil and gas, wind power, solar energy, etc. have not received adequate investment in research.

For the marine economy, the investment required is very large, to be effective, it must be high and long-term. Due to the lack of planning, plans and policy tools, it is not possible to create a legal framework to encourage businesses and investors to confidently invest in the socio-economic development of Vietnam's coastal areas; as well as not attracting investors with high technical qualifications, for

allows the creation of deep-processed products that bring high economic value to the province. Current planning does not meet the requirements for rational allocation of marine resources, ensuring sustainable development of the marine environment and efficiency of the marine economy for large strategic investment projects.

Furthermore, the coastal area of Thanh Hoa is inherently a rural area, the main industry is agricultural economy. Up to now, Thanh Hoa has only had an agricultural development plan for the whole province, including the coastal area. The rural planning work of this area has not been implemented. Therefore, many issues related to coastal economic development have not been fully paid attention to, such as preventing seawater intrusion, coastal dike systems, rural infrastructure systems, overall development of rural industry, etc. have not been fully paid attention to, which is one of the reasons limiting the current development of Thanh Hoa's coastal economy.

Fourth, the capacity to organize and coordinate the implementation of coastal economic development policies still has many shortcomings.

- Coastal resources are shared resources, containing "spatial elements", which are the premise for multi-sectoral development. However, the management of coastal and island areas is currently mainly managed by sector and province. New methods and approaches are slowly applied such as: systemic, integrated, interdisciplinary, inter-regional approaches, ecosystem-based management...

Coastal economic development requires coordination among localities nationwide, first of all within a region. Many researchers have pointed out the current lack of coordination in economic development of economic zones in localities. The general situation is the lack of connection due to division according to administrative boundaries. The provinces are adjacent to each other but do not want to build a unified economic space (Nguyen Quang Thai, 2010, p.116). This is clearly shown in the North Central provinces, the three provinces of Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Ha Tinh and Quang Binh are side by side, but each province has its own coastal economic zone, with similar functions and similar product structures, leading to fierce competition in terms of capital investment and labor but low development efficiency. This requires new awareness and action in perfecting the mechanism and methods of management, operation and coordination to develop the coastal economy, from the central level to each province and each region.

- Along with attracting investment capital with high scientific and technological level, developing marine economic sectors mostly requires highly qualified human resources with knowledge of science and technology; some sectors such as maritime transport and marine exploitation require good physical strength. Meanwhile, the quality of human resources is generally low. Currently, our country in general, coastal provinces in particular, still lack high-quality human resources in terms of professional qualifications, foreign language proficiency and management experience when the economy integrates more deeply into the world economy for coastal economic development. This has limited the capacity of policy makers, policy implementation organizations as well as workers.

For example, when answering our interview, up to 90.1% of 595 Thanh Hoa officials said that in policy making, they have not paid enough attention to the factors of the development process, especially not valuing the position and role of science and technology, not fully assessing financial resources, mineral resources, the importance of tourism activities, the position of a province with abundant labor resources and the ability to quickly absorb science and technology... The important cause of this situation comes from the capacity of the team not meeting the requirements.

Structure %

Science and technology

4.6%

1.7% 1.7%

0.5%

Financial resources

18.6%

6.7%

Mineral resources

Tourism resources

8.0%

Population Labor Resources Water Resources

Land resources

17.8%

12.2%

Climate, hydrology

Geographical and political location of the locality

Topographical features

13.7%

14.5%

Other

Figure 2.4: The situation of ignoring resources in building coastal economic development policies

Source: Author's investigation in 2010

Coastal economic development is a big, rich and diverse problem. From oil and gas exploitation, minerals, seafood, maritime, sea tourism to shipbuilding and repair, oil and gas processing, aquaculture and seafood processing... But our resources are still limited, first of all in terms of human resources, training facilities and the number of people studying about the sea is very small. There are not many experts with deep understanding of the sea, and there is a lack of technical staff working at sea. Therefore, when building coastal economic development policies, many important factors are often overlooked to ensure the exploitation of potential advantages to promote coastal economic development.

CONCLUSION OF CHAPTER 2

As a province with a coastline of 102 km, through 6 districts from Nga Son through Hau Loc, Hoang Hoa, Sam Son Town, Quang Xuong to Tinh Gia with an area of 6 districts of 123,067 hectares, a population of nearly 1.2 million people, with Nghi Son deep-water port and many estuaries, fishing ports, and Sam Son Beach, famous for tourism for hundreds of years, Thanh Hoa is one of the provinces with the potential for overall development of coastal economic sectors. In recent years, Thanh Hoa has had many key policies and strategies to develop coastal economic sectors. Thanks to that, the socio-economic development of Thanh Hoa coastal area has developed quite rapidly, especially the development of industry and fisheries. However, Thanh Hoa coastal economy has not yet exploited its inherent potential advantages, so the comparative advantages of the coastal area have not been effectively promoted, the contribution of Thanh Hoa coastal area to the overall achievements of the province is still modest, not worthy of the potential advantages.

There are many reasons leading to the above situation, including the lack of awareness of leaders at all levels about the potential, advantages and importance of coastal economy in current conditions; lack of independent planning, with an incomplete and unified system of policies in coastal economic development; lack of coordination in unified management and operation of the Central Government; management level and human resource level do not meet the demand, these are the current pressing issues for Thanh Hoa. These issues need to be focused on to solve in order to exploit the potential and advantages of coastal economic development, soon turning Thanh Hoa into a dynamic region of the key North Central region.

Chapter 3

POLICY SOLUTIONS FOR COASTAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF THANH HOA PROVINCE TO 2015,

VISION TO 2020

3.1. GOALS, ORIENTATIONS FOR SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND ORIENTATIONS FOR IMPROVING THE COASTAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT POLICY OF THANH HOA TO 2015, WITH A VISION TO 2020 [3] [14] [15] [28] [29] [30] [40] [41] [50] [51] [52] [53] [54]

Completing the coastal economic development policy of Thanh Hoa to 2015, with a vision to 2020, must be based on the potential and current status of the coastal economy of Thanh Hoa province and the goals and requirements for socio-economic development in general and the development of coastal economic sectors in particular of the province in the coming years. The potential and current status of coastal economic development of Thanh Hoa have been specified in the previous chapter. In this section, we will analyze in more depth the goals and requirements for socio-economic development and the development of coastal economic sectors in particular of the province in the coming years, as a basis for proposing directions for completing the coastal economic development policy of Thanh Hoa in the coming years.

3.1.1. Thanh Hoa coastal economic development goals to 2015, vision to 2020

3.1.1.1. Socio-economic development goals of Thanh Hoa province in the coming years

At the 17th Thanh Hoa Provincial Party Congress, the general direction for Thanh Hoa's socio-economic development to 2015 and orientation to 2020 was pointed out as:

Promoting comparative advantages, maximally mobilizing and effectively using resources, proactively integrating into the international economy for rapid and sustainable socio-economic development; creating clear changes in the structure, growth quality, competitiveness of the economy and key products; increasing investment to improve the infrastructure system.

socio-economic strata; create a breakthrough in improving the quality of human resources; promote socialization, improve the quality and efficiency of scientific, technological, cultural, medical, educational and training activities; effectively implement social security policies, effectively resolve pressing issues, improve people's material and spiritual life; strengthen the protection of environmental resources and proactively respond to the impacts of climate change; combine socio-economic development with maintaining political stability, ensuring national defense, security, and social order and safety. Promote Party building, improve the leadership capacity and fighting strength of Party organizations; improve the effectiveness and efficiency of government operations at all levels; innovate the content and methods of operation of the Fatherland Front and socio-political organizations. Strive to reach the average income of the whole country by 2015, and by 2020, Thanh Hoa will basically become an advanced province " [15].

To implement that general direction, the province has set specific targets for economic, social and environmental efforts.

In terms of economy, strive to achieve an average annual economic growth rate of 17-18% by 2015, GDP per capita of 2,100 USD; added value of agriculture, forestry and fishery increasing by 3.4%; added value of industry increasing by 22.4%; added value of service increasing by 16.8%; Economic structure in GDP: agriculture, forestry and fishery accounting for 14.4%, industry accounting for 49.8%, service accounting for 35.8%; Average annual mobilization rate into the state budget of 8% of GDP or more; grain output reaching 1.6 million tons or more; total value of exported goods and services reaching 850 million USD or more, an average annual increase of 19% or more; total social investment capital 2011-2015 reaching about 310,000 billion VND.

In terms of social culture , in 5 years, jobs were created for over 300,000 people. By 2015, the proportion of agricultural labor in the total social labor force was 40%; the proportion of trained laborers reached 55% or more; the proportion of schools meeting national standards reached 47%; the average annual poverty rate decreased by 3-4%; the natural population growth rate decreased to below 0.65%; the proportion of urban population reached 25%; the proportion of communes meeting national standards on health reached 90%; telephone density reached 61 phones/100 people.

Regarding the environment, by 2015, 100% of the urban population will have access to clean water and 95% of the rural population will have access to hygienic water; 100% of new production facilities in the 2011-2015 period will have waste treatment facilities that meet standards; by 2015, 80% of production facilities will meet environmental standards; forest coverage by 2015 will reach 52% [15].

The above orientation and goals of Thanh Hoa province are very high, requiring efforts from all regions in the province. In particular, if there are reasonable policies, taking the sea as a driving force, Thanh Hoa's economy will have strong and steady development.

3.1.1.2. Socio-economic development goals of Thanh Hoa coastal area to 2015, vision to 2020

Based on the development goals and targets set by the Thanh Hoa Provincial Party Committee at the 17th Party Congress, on August 1, 2011, the Chairman of the Thanh Hoa Provincial People's Committee issued Decision No. 2482/QD-UBND on approving the Master Plan for socio-economic development of the coastal area of Thanh Hoa for the period up to 2020 , accordingly, socio-economic development of the coastal area of Thanh Hoa will be directed towards the following directions: Exploiting the potential and advantages of the region, promoting internal resources in combination with external resources; mobilizing and effectively using all resources with focus and key points to create a breakthrough in the rapid and sustainable development of the marine economy in harmony with cultural and social development; building the coastal area into a dynamic and economic locomotive of the whole province and the coastal area of the Southern Gulf of Tonkin.

Focus on building infrastructure, creating favorable conditions to attract investment to rapidly develop advantageous economic sectors such as ports and maritime services, petrochemical industry and oil products, electricity industry, shipbuilding and repair, island tourism, fisheries and fishing logistics services, agricultural development towards safe and sustainable commodity production... Implement economic development associated with social progress and environmental protection. Prioritize human resource development, poverty reduction, new rural construction, improving the lives of coastal residents; enhance capacity

Comment