The northern mountainous province of Cao Bang should redefine its development priority list and should focus investments on agriculture and rural areas, suggested National Assembly (NA) Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan.

The NA Chairwoman and her entourage had a working session with provincial leaders on June 21 to examine the locality’s accomplishments of socio-economic targets, its construction of new-style rural areas from 2010-2016 and agriculture restructuring.

Though Cao Bang made effort in connecting producers of farm products and export markets, it should take measures to address the slow pace of economic restructuring, she said.

NA Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan *standing) speaking at the working session in Cao Bang

The province’s proposal on promoting regional connectivity as part of transport connections to create more trading opportunities needs to be considered thoroughly, she noted.

The legislator also realised that the combined modern rural area construction and agricultural restructuring programme is a hard nut to crack for Cao Bang when only two out of its 177 participating communes have met the set criterion over the past five years.

She affirmed that the National Assembly will consider the allocation of capital for the programme for localities nationwide in the coming time.

The locality paid attention to developing agricultural and forest production, as well as holding dialogues with enterprises to help them overcome difficulties in business and production.

In the first half of 2016, its industrial production value is estimated at 1.08 trillion VND (48.4 million USD).

The same day, the top legislator visited Nam Tuan commune in Hoa An district, requesting the district to exert more efforts to improve the living conditions for locals, citing the high percentage of poor households, 35.7 percent of the population.

Earlier, she visited the Pac Bo national special relic site in Ha Quang district, where late President Ho Chi Minh lived and worked from February 8, 1941 to late March 1941.

Source: VNA