Speech of Provincial Party Secretary Duong Van An at the 19th session of the Provincial People's Council

Dear Chairman of the meeting!

Dear delegates!

Dear voters and people of the province!

Today, the Provincial People's Council (11th tenure) held its 19th session to assess the socio -economic situation, national defense and security, and the judicial sector in 2023, and the directions and tasks for 2024; decide on many important issues submitted by the People's Committee and conduct questions and answers according to regulations. The contents discussed in this session are very important for the development of the province in 2024 and the following years; there are many issues that voters and people of the province are very interested in.

Before the People's Council considers, discusses and decides, on behalf of the Provincial Party Executive Committee, I would like to raise the following issues:

- We enter 2023 with many opportunities, advantages, and motivations for development. That is the determination to develop our province when we summarize valuable lessons after 30 years of re-establishing the province, shaping the direction, vision, and development path of the province in the coming time and the vision to 2050. That is the great attention and support of the Party and State leaders, leaders of Central departments, ministries, and branches with visits, work, and very profound and comprehensive guidance. That is the opportunity when the North - South expressway Vinh Hao - Phan Thiet, Phan Thiet - Dau Giay is put into use, helping to shorten the travel time, transport passengers and goods from places to Binh Thuan , especially from the key economic zone in the south and vice versa, much more convenient, ... That is the initiative of our province to host the National Tourism Year with more than 70 exciting, attractive and novel activities, helping the tourism industry quickly recover and develop impressively. That is the fact that many large investors see more clearly the potential and development prospects of Binh Thuan and our province becomes an attractive investment location.

However , there are also many difficulties and challenges, including impacts from external factors (such as the global economic crisis causing disruption of the supply chain, decline in import-export turnover, high prices and input materials, difficult financial, monetary and real estate markets, etc.) and internal factors such as fear of mistakes and responsibility among a number of officials and civil servants, leading to delays in work. These are some of the problems, obstacles and violations pointed out through inspection, examination and investigation in the process of implementing socio-economic development tasks that have not yet been resolved or handled; thus, many socio-economic development projects have had to "lie in wait", not be implemented, wasting social resources.

In that context, all levels, sectors, localities and people in the province have made many efforts; thanks to that, we have achieved many positive and quite comprehensive results in all fields. I would like to emphasize some of the following outstanding highlights:

- The 3 sectors identified as the province's economic pillars continued to grow, of which tourism had the highest growth with a total of 8.35 million visitors (up 46%), revenue reaching more than 22.3 trillion VND (up 63%), being one of the 10 provinces and cities with the highest total number of visitors and tourism revenue in the country. GRDP growth reached 8.1% , ranking 14th out of 63 provinces and cities and 4/14 provinces and cities in the North Central and Central Coast regions (while in 2022 it increased by 7.75%, ranking 45th out of 63 provinces and cities nationwide and 10th out of 14 localities in the region). The economic scale of the province in 2022 was only 96.4 trillion VND, now it has increased to more than 100 trillion VND, ranking 30th out of 63 provinces and cities. State budget revenue is over 10 trillion VND. Many difficulties and obstacles in socio-economic development that have existed for many years in many areas are being gradually resolved.

- The cultural and social fields have many positive changes, the quality of education has been improved, social security and social welfare have been well implemented, the poverty rate has decreased; average income per capita has increased by 5.1% compared to 2022. Digital transformation has had initial results, typically, Phan Thiet city has put into operation the Smart Urban Operations Center. The appearance of urban and rural areas continues to be invested in and renovated, somewhat more beautiful and spacious than before. National defense, security , order and social safety in the province are maintained.

Along with the management and administration of all levels of government, the Provincial People's Council has always accompanied the Provincial People's Committee, supported and issued policies and guidelines within its authority; strengthened supervision of the implementation of legal policies and the results of the implementation of the Resolutions of the Provincial People's Council. Through meetings with voters, the People's Council delegates conveyed many wishes and recommendations of voters, contributed ideas and built the government, implemented tasks and solutions for socio-economic development, etc.

However , we still have many limitations, weaknesses, and many things that need to be improved, such as:

- The budget revenue growth rate is not high, some revenue sources are lower than estimated. Although the economic scale is more than 100,000 billion VND, the mobilization of GRDP into budget revenue is still low (about 8.1% ), while the whole country is 15.7% . The number of enterprises ceasing operations increased by 26.95% ; the number of dissolved enterprises increased by 10% compared to 2022; the unemployment rate among working-age people in urban areas is higher than the general rate of the whole country. The number of people withdrawing social insurance at one time is nearly 14,000 people , an increase of 24.7% compared to 2022 .

- The progress of implementing key projects is still slow. The results of disbursement of public investment capital by the end of November 2023 only reached 64.41% of the plan; the use of the budget and the balance of revenue and expenditure are not reasonable, leading to a situation where there is money but no projects to allocate (previously, projects were waiting for money, now money is waiting for projects). The work of establishing and adjusting all types of planning is still prolonged; up to now, many localities have not completed the zoning and general planning; the difficulties in determining land prices to calculate land allocation fees, land lease, land use rights auction, to compensate people when clearing land; support, resettlement and project implementation have not been resolved.

- Land and mineral management is not strict, there is confusion in handling violations, many petitions in this field are slow to be resolved, causing resentment among the people; the situation of encroachment on public land, project land , illegal mineral exploitation in some places is still complicated but prevention is not effective, leading to people suspecting that there is "cover-up" and "backing" by some officials. The results of implementing the theme of the year "Urban beautification, preserving and protecting the environment, green, clean and beautiful landscape" are still low, not creating a widespread effect in the whole province, while illegal construction and littering causing environmental impacts still occur in many places.

- In the last session of 2022, we assessed : There are still many legal documents with contents that are not suitable for reality, causing obstacles and troubles for people and businesses, and are slow to be amended. However, in 2023, the above situation still exists. Along with this limitation are the limitations and weaknesses in administrative procedure reform, especially in procedures on land, investment, and public procurement. The "asking" in handling work of state management agencies has many contents that are not correct for competent agencies; the response and comments when "asked" by competent agencies are still general, unclear in content or delayed for a long time. This situation not only causes frustration among the people but also causes frustration in state agencies in the process of implementing assigned tasks. Here, the main cause is the fear of mistakes and fear of responsibility among a number of cadres and civil servants. The Prime Minister has issued many directive documents on this matter, the Provincial Party Standing Committee and the Provincial Party Standing Committee have commented many times , but improvement is still slow.

- There is a resolution issued by the Provincial People's Council but lack of supervision leading to a situation of not being implemented for many years. I would like to give a specific example for the Council to consider and resolve implementation in the coming time. That is the Resolution of the Provincial People's Council on the Funeral Home project. This project was agreed upon by the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee (term XII) for investment in Phong Nam commune, Phan Thiet city in 2012; after that, the Provincial People's Committee directed the implementation of the conclusion of the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee. However, due to the lack of determination and drasticness in performing the tasks and the lack of inspection and supervision by relevant agencies, it was not until 2018 (after 06 years) that the Provincial People's Committee submitted and received the investment policy of the project from the Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Council on October 31, 2018. However, the advisory body cited difficulties in compensation and site clearance as the reason for not being able to implement the project, causing the project to continue to be delayed. Only when the Provincial Party Standing Committee urged, reminded, and organized 02 meetings to give opinions did the project restart; currently, the authorities are implementing the next tasks.

For the Provincial People's Council delegates (among the delegates are leaders of the Provincial People's Committee, leaders of departments, branches, and localities), through contact with voters, they promised to implement or promise to forward voters' petitions to competent state agencies , but there are also cases of forgetting , or forwarding but it is still formal , not following up on supervision and monitoring .

Provincial Party Secretary Duong Van An met with voters of his home province.

Once I met with voters in Tien Thanh commune, a voter said: the State allocated residential land for relocation to prevent landslides since 1994, the State agency "promised" the people that when they built houses, they would issue land use right certificates. Up to now, nearly 30 years have passed and they have not been issued certificates. That voter told me: 6 terms, dozens of meetings with voters, everyone came back with promises but there were no results. I say this, maybe many leaders, many delegates are not happy, but we are representatives of the people, the authority of the people, by the people, for the people; we must self-criticize before the people to better fulfill our promises, not to let the people wait any longer.

Dear delegates!

The year 2024 is forecasted to be full of difficulties. If we do not try harder , it will be very difficult to achieve the growth target , the targets of GRDP per capita, people's income, self-balancing the budget by 2025 ... as the Vice Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee has just reported. Therefore, at this meeting, we propose that the Provincial People's Council, the Provincial People's Committee and localities, through the Provincial People's Council Delegation Groups, pay attention to implementing the following tasks:

Firstly, I propose that, based on the report of the Provincial People's Committee on the socio-economic development and national defense situation in 2023 and the directions and tasks for 2024; the results of the implementation of the budget revenue and expenditure estimates for 2023; the budget estimates and allocation plan for 2024; the situation and results of the implementation of the public investment plan for 2023, the expected public investment plan, the public investment portfolio for 2024..., the Provincial People's Council delegates discuss measures and solutions to focus on overcoming difficulties and limitations, promoting potentials, internal resources, and new opportunities to continue to develop evenly the three economic pillars: industry - tourism - agriculture; promote attracting social investment; promote administrative procedure reform, improve the investment environment, and enhance the satisfaction of people and businesses with state agencies; Strengthen coordination between agencies and localities in the process of performing assigned tasks... At the same time, it is recommended that the Provincial People's Council delegates support the Provincial People's Committee when it presents policies on revenue and expenditure of the budget, the list of public investment, the list of land acquisition projects, policies on supporting people..., support when compensating, clearing land, resettlement,...

Request the Provincial People's Committee, the People's Committees of localities, departments, branches and staff, civil servants and public employees to work with responsibility and affection, with heart and vision; dare to think, dare to do, dare to take responsibility, take work efficiency, the satisfaction of people and businesses and the development of the province as a measure to evaluate the level of task completion, strive to fulfill well their duties and tasks and complete the common tasks of the province.

Second, I propose that in the 2024 work program, the Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Council, the committees of the Provincial People's Council, the Provincial People's Council delegations, and the Provincial People's Council delegates focus on reviewing the implementation results of the Resolutions issued by the Provincial People's Council, ensuring that each content of the Resolution must be seriously implemented. At the same time, continue to promote the work of monitoring the results of overcoming some remaining limitations and shortcomings that have lasted for many years, such as :

Perspective of Ca Ty river embankment project from Le Hong Phong bridge to Tran Hung Dao bridge - A key project in the province.

( 1 ) Investment in construction of key projects in the province; the progress of implementation of projects has been decided and approved by the Provincial People's Council but implementation is slow, and has not yet achieved results.

( 2 ) The amendment, replacement or abolition of legal documents with inappropriate content and many difficulties in the implementation process.

( 3 ) Resolving administrative procedures, especially procedures for granting land use right certificates , converting land use purposes and related issues for people and businesses.

( 4 ) Attitude and responsibility of staff, civil servants and public employees in the process of performing their duties, especially in positions that regularly contact and directly handle recommendations and proposals from people and businesses.

Through the monitoring work, it is recommended that each delegate of the Provincial People's Council make recommendations to the competent authority to rectify, correct or handle any violations .

Third , the Chairman of the Provincial Fatherland Front Committee has just presented a report summarizing the recommendations of voters in the province. These are legitimate wishes and proposals, stemming from real life. I request the leaders of the Provincial People's Committee, leaders of departments, branches and localities to study, absorb, promote responsibility , and strengthen coordination to effectively resolve the legitimate needs and aspirations of voters and people.

Propose that the Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Council, the committees of the Provincial People's Council, the delegations of the Provincial People's Council and each delegate of the Provincial People's Council pay more attention to monitoring the results of handling voters' petitions and aspirations by state agencies at all levels; promptly criticize and rectify cases of delay, prolongation or shirking of responsibility.

*Activity "Keeping the party member oath"*

Fourth , the Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Council and the committees of the Provincial People's Council should study and continue to innovate the agenda of the sessions. In the process of developing the agenda of the sessions, it is recommended that the Provincial People's Council not only wait for the Provincial Committee to submit policies and guidelines within its authority to include them in the content of the session, but the Provincial People's Council should base on the provisions of the law, policies and guidelines of the Party, the National Assembly, and the Government . If it finds any issues under the authority of the locality but not yet institutionalized, or through supervision and contact with voters, it is found that the province needs to have specific policies and regimes in a certain field, the Provincial People's Council should proactively raise the issue, assign tasks, remind and urge the Provincial People's Committee to study and coordinate with the committees of the Provincial People's Council to develop, complete and submit to the Provincial People's Council for comments or decisions . Add to the agenda of meetings the report on the progress and results of implementation of resolutions issued by the Provincial People's Council to monitor and supervise the implementation results, and avoid the situation where resolutions have been issued but cannot be implemented .

Dear delegates!

The regular meeting of the Provincial People's Council at the end of 2023 is very important, the workload is very large. I believe that with the sense of responsibility and enthusiasm of each delegate, the Provincial People's Council will make the right decisions, in accordance with the actual conditions, meeting the socio-economic development requirements of Binh Thuan province in the coming time and the expectations of the province's voters.

I wish the meeting great success .

I wish good health to all distinguished guests and delegates .

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