Soc Trang province bagging rosy results

Despite headwinds in both local and global standing this year, Soc Trang province has carried out measures to drive socioeconomic development, from there securing impressive results across the board.

From the outset of 2024, Soc Trang People’s Committee urged relevant authorised agencies to ramp up measures to stimulate production and businesses, particularly ensuring effective implementation of policies for business rebound and development.

As a result, the province’s economy expanded 6.54 per cent in H1 compared to a 3.73 per cent hike one year ago, plus witnessing a positive transformation in local economic structure with a bolstered percentage of industry-construction and services sector and diminished share of the agro-forestry-fisheries sector.

Many key economic indexes mirrored a fair growth compared to a similar period in 2023. In H1, the province’s index of industrial production surged by an estimated 5.5 per cent compared to an almost 10 per cent contraction one year ago, in which major segments all bagged growth beyond 5 per cent.

For instance, frozen seafood surged 5.81 per cent in value, breweries picked up 6.8 per cent, footwear up 43.7 per cent, and medical equipment soared 75.7 per cent, among others.

Controlled progress

Due heed was also paid to the deployment of wind power and renewable energy projects. Soc Trang has granted investment policies to 19 wind power projects with a total combined capacity reaching almost 1,400MW.

Of which, seven projects or their components are in commercial operation with a combined capacity of 340MW, two projects have finalised construction, and another two are still undergoing construction.

As for agriculture, production and consumption were favourable, including in terms of pricing compared to one year ago. The epidemic situation on crops and animals is under control, and the locality’s One Commune, One Product (OCOP) items system has been carried out effectively.

Currently, 235 products in the province have acquired OCOP certification, with one product securing 5-star standards, 21 products winning 4-star standards, and the remainder reaching 3-star standards. These products come from over 130 businesses, co-operatives, and family households.

As for trade promotion, attention has been paid to promoting exports, particularly for the province’s key products, through supporting local firms to participate in diverse trade fairs and networking events to boost consumption.

In H1, total retail sales and services revenue in Soc Trang climbed 14.2 per cent on-year to touch $2.07 billion, of which $1.3 billion came from retail sales, up 12.2 per cent on-year.

The province’s total export value came to $800 million, showing an 18.1 per cent jump on-year, of which seafood export amounted to $420 million, rice export reached $325 million and garment export generated $53 million.

Meanwhile, the tourism sector continues thriving in both the number of visitors and revenue figures.

In the first half of the year, Soc Trang hailed more than 1.7 million visitors, up 13 per cent on-year. The tourism sector reaped $38.5 million in total revenue, equal to 58 per cent of the full-year plan and up 18 per cent on-year.

By dint of strengthened inspection and drastic measures to ensure finance and budget discipline, during the period, total budget collection in the province hit $127.4 million, or 61 per cent of the full-year plan and up 15.4 per cent on-year.

In addition, regarding public investment capital disbursement, the province mandated relevant stakeholders, including project developers and people’s committees of relevant districts and towns, to work out concrete plans and assign work to oversee and ensure progress at specific projects.

Simultaneously, efforts have geared towards expediting pivotal projects at provincial and national level, such as expediting procedures for the Ha Tien-Rach Gia-Bac Lieu expressway project, national highway 91B, and proposing and drawing up the Tran De port project, among others.

The province has also focused on crafting an action plan to implement the provincial planning for the rest of the decade, with a vision towards 2050; as well as procuring comments from central management bodies relevant to the draft decision on enactment of Soc Trang action plan.

Business environment boost

Since the inception, reforming administrative procedures and improving local investment and business environment has been deemed one of the key tasks of Soc Trang province.

From the beginning of 2024, Soc Trang People’s Committee has exercised policies for business support; held periodical meetings with relevant departments and businesses; and urged the taskforce on business support to resolve problems facing investors and enterprises during procedure settlement and project implementation.

In H1, the People’s Committee convened three meetings with the local business community, and up to now all proposals from investors and businesses have been tackled by relevant management departments and sectors.

During the period, Soc Trang received nearly 50 investors on a quest for investment and cooperation opportunities in the province, in which ventures on industrial park and cluster investment, as well as renewable energy, have secured investors’ particular attention in the locality.

The first half of this year also saw stable business operation in the province, with an increasing number of new business setups and others returning to operations.

Particularly, Soc Trang saw 205 new business setups, surging 7.3 per cent on-year, and 43 firms resuming operation, up 7.5 per cent on-year.

Soc Trang People’s Committee is continuing to support investors and firms in search of information about support policies for small- and medium-sized enterprises, investment wish-lists and incentives, and online business registration procedures via an e-handbook posted on ipc.soctrang.gov.vn.

This year, nearly 130 individuals and businesses have received consultation either online and offline, from there saving time and costs and facilitating administrative procedure settlement.

In order to ensure business development to reach 2024 set targets, Soc Trang province will continue to implement solutions to create a favourable business environment. This includes further reduction and simplification of administrative procedures and business regulations, strongly promoting digital transformation, being proactive and flexible in management and operations, and crafting suitable measures for market development for the rest of 2024 and beyond.