Ninh Binh persists with economic growth target in 2023

A mixed economic picture

In the past time, the provincial People's Committee, administrations at all levels, sectors, the business community and local people have overcome difficulties and challenges, and made great efforts to maintain its economic growth. 

The province's gross regional domestic product (GRDP) was estimated to reach 25.08 trillion VND (1.07 billion USD) in the first half of 2023, up 7.56% from the same period of the previous year. 

The service sector became a bright spot in the province's economic picture, especially tourism, accommodation and catering services. The sector's GRDP   reached 9.6 trillion VND, a year-on-year rise of 15.72%. 

The tourism sector has been recovering and developing strongly. The quality of tourism services has been improved remarkably. During the January-June period, Ninh Binh received 4.53 million visitors, a 2.5-fold rise from the same period last year and reaching 84.7% of the yearly plan. Of the total, 224,000 are foreign visitors.

Total revenue from the tourism industry was estimated at 3.85 trillion VND (165 million USD) in the first half of 2023, a 2.94-fold rise over the same period last year.

The strong performance of the agro-forestry-fishery sector has made great contributions to the provincial economy. The agro-forestry-fishery sector generated 2.53 trillion VND, a year-on-year rise of 2.38%.

The disbursement of public capital has helped spur the province's economic growth. By the end of June 2023, Ninh Binh disbursed over 2.23 trillion VND (95.6 million USD), equivalent to 27.2% of the plan. Though the public capital disbursement has not helped improve the province's economic growth, it is expected to be a big driver for economic growth in the following quarters.

Meanwhile, the province's economic picture still had some dark spots.

Industrial production has met numerous difficulties due to the bad effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

The low demand of markets, high prices of raw materials, and lack of orders are among the biggest difficulties for local firms. These have resulted in a merely 1.34% growth rate in industrial production in the first half of 2023.

In addition, the province's exports also faced similar challenges. The total export value hit 1.53 billion USD, down 3.3% year on year and making up 47.1% of the yearly plan.

Persisting with economic growth target

In an attempt to fulfill the yearly economic growth target, Director of the Department of Planning and Investment Dinh Thi Thuy Ngan has suggested some solutions.

Accordingly, administrations at all levels and sectors need to continue carrying out effectively measures to support enterprises, and production and business activities; keep a close watch on production and business activities of local firms in a bid to provide timely support and remove difficulties for them in the fields of construction, export-import; speed up the development of service sectors.

Ninh Binh needs to increase investment promotion and attraction; create favourable conditions for deploying projects in a bid to produce new industrial products with added value, thereby contributing to the economic growth and budget collection; accelerate the completion of documents and administrative procedures to attract investment in some key and strategic projects and fields. 

The provincial People's Committee should direct administrations at all levels and sectors to speed up the disbursement of public capital and the implementation of the socio-economic recovery and development programme as well as national target programmes, Ngan added.

Translated by Nguyen Thuy