(A recording of speech by Mr. Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Member of Secretariat Committee, the Prime Minister at Lao Cai Province's Investment, Trade and Tourism Conference in 2019)

 Lao Cai in H’Mong language is "old market street", showing that this place used to be a bustling and vibrant land with international trade and international activities.

 With its geomorphologic position, Lao Cai is like a golden turtle, one of the four spirits of Vietnamese culture (long, ly, quy, phoenix), and again at the top of the country, the image of Kim Quy further strengthens the majesty position. 

 In the northern mountainous region, Lao Cai is a province with full potential, advantages that not all localities have to attract investment in developing industry, agriculture and services, especially tourism services.  calendar.

 There are invaluable resources such as natural resources, mountains, landscapes, rivers, ecosystems, many hot mineral springs, 50 rare and precious species of plants of Vietnam, which are a treasure of genes, that is  Extremely convenient resources for development.  Lao Cai is a place to converge and circulate unique cultural values, historical traditions and heritage of 25 ethnic minority brothers in the Northwest.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc speaks at the conference.

Lao Cai has Sapa, a town in the mist, bringing attractive beauty, blending between nature, culture and indigenous colors.  Since the 1920s, Sa Pa has been called by the French as the "Summer Capital" of Tonkin.

 While Vietnam's sea tourism is quite successful with many coastal projects, such as those of FLC Group, Sungroup, the development of mountain tourism, especially the Northern Mountains, is not commensurate with the potential. Therefore, it is necessary to do better to turn potential mountains in the North, including Sa Pa, Lao Cai into attractive and interesting tourist destinations that tourists from near and far know.

The Prime Minister witnessed the People's Committee of Lao Cai province and businesses sign an investment agreement.

The tourism potential here is huge, need to be raised, developed faster, with more quality.  Over the years, Lao Cai has attracted millions of international visitors, a high figure for a province with a population of less than 1 million.  However, the scale of tourism compared with the potential is still low.  I emphasize that the beauty of nature is that resources cannot be deteriorated or depleted only by human sight and enjoyment, unless there is unintentional destruction and poor management;  On the contrary, it becomes more beautiful, more valuable if we take advantage of it.

 Fortunately, despite the rapid development, up to now Lao Cai has basically retained a diverse and clean environment.  This is an important factor to create an ideal tourist destination for domestic and foreign tourists.  Therefore, losing this important resource, Lao Cai will lose everything.  I wish the Party, authorities and people of Lao Cai ethnic groups to know this.

 By the way, I want to repeat the 5 questions posed as well as 5 questions so far that no locality has responded well.

 If Lao Cai sees tourism as a key, first of all, how do tourists find it to Lao Cai more?  How can tourists spend more money instead of having money and don't know what to spend?  How do visitors stay longer instead of leaving early?  How do tourists feel interesting in travel stories with relatives and friends in an inspiring way, instead of decrying or telling bad stories about Lao Cai?  How do travelers come back more, not one on no return?  Lao Cai must aim for the goal of sustainable and inclusive tourism development, all objects in society enjoy the fruits of tourism, not leaving anyone behind, to achieve the goal, not that tourism develop but the people are still poor.

The Prime Minister visits the booth displaying traditional products.

 The potential for industrial development of Lao Cai is very large, with many types of minerals that can be exploited, however, it is also necessary to conduct surveys and researches to systematically.  The central government of Lao Cai province does not encourage investors to exploit minerals with short-term vision, to use outdated technologies, fragmented and small-scale exploitation scale to take advantage and threaten the sustainability of  the provincial.  Industrial development is reasonably planned and prioritized for development to avoid damaging other economic sectors, especially tourism.  Ensure harmony, sustainability of 3 pillars of economy - society - environment.

 I also emphasize the potential of Lao Cai's agricultural sector with many special crops and fruit trees with high income value, but currently low, investors can fully raise them to 200-300 million VND / ha.  This is a field that is highly relevant to the people. I suggest that Lao Cai province needs to step up the attraction of businesses investing in this field.  Lao Cai needs to develop agriculture on the basis of organic agriculture, high-tech agriculture, associating production with processing, forming sustainable linkage production chain.

High-tech agricultural production is the strength that Lao Cai is aiming for.

 Lao Cai has the potential of a border gate economy, can build a logistics center, an international exchange and trading center along with international tourism.  The Government continues to prioritize investment in building synchronous infrastructure and policies to turn Lao Cai into an international trade and tourism center.

 Especially, with the Hanoi - Lao Cai railway being expanded and the Lao Cai airport project being evaluated for economic feasibility and implementation, the benefits brought about in opening up the development potentials.  The development of Lao Cai and neighboring provinces will be extremely large.  Traffic system is invested synchronously is also a condition for Lao Cai to attract investors here.

 Many investors told me to ask the Government and Lao Cai province to extend the route from Lao Cai to Sapa, such a tourist center so that the road has more than 30 km and it takes more than 1 hour to  dangerous slope.  This needs research to have an appropriate form of investment.

 By the way, I have some more guidance, first of all, to mobilize the use of manpower for development investment, we have talked about human resources that are optimal for development, so it is necessary to strengthen education for  training and building boarding schools and vocational schools.  Economic restructuring is difficult, labor migration in provinces like Lao Cai is even more difficult.  The next issue is that technological development, e-commerce in Lao Cai must be paid more attention.  Focusing on developing local and local businesses, I am very happy today that the US $ 6.3 billion invested today is largely from domestic corporations.  The province needs to pay attention to local businesses so that 15,000 individual business households will be promoted, creating conditions to become 15,000 enterprises, together with 5,000 existing enterprises, to become a more forceful force and become a partner.  With large corporations, international partners contribute to creating jobs for local workers.

 The business investment environment also needs a lot of efforts for better reform.  10 years ago, Lao Cai had the slogan "The prosperous business, the developed Lao Cai", we must consider the victory of investors and enterprises as the success of local governments.  Lao Cai must strive, efforts to improve competitiveness index towards better.

 Lao Cai needs to pay attention to the problem of regional integration in development strategy, both at the national and local level.  If everyone looks on the map, the central cities of the three provinces of Lai Chau, Lao Cai and Ha Giang are on the same line.  This is a coincidence but of course.  This shows an indispensable connection need of localities in the region to promote competitive advantages for not only each locality but also the whole region.

 For investors, I appreciate the investors coming to Lao Cai in particular, the Northwest and the mountains in general, all are very respectable, because this land has great potential but in many  difficult places and people, limited infrastructure, unfavorable geographical position compared to many other provinces and cities across the country.  Therefore, every single capital of investors, every livelihood and job created for the people is very valuable.  Besides business purposes, there is a whole heart for the society, for the people, for the country.  The government and local authorities respect investors "words go hand in hand".  I expect investors to pay attention to the harmony between corporate interests and the interests of the people and the State.  Investors unanimously unanimously condemn acts of environmental pollution, disrupting national and historical cultural values, illegal employment, tax evasion, etc. All of these acts  are not welcome and will be dealt with according to regulations.

 I affirmed the commitment of the Government and local authorities to facilitate full support, accompany, create a better investment environment, more stable macroeconomic, keep peace, and integrate into the world.  extensive to investors to Vietnam and Lao Cai most favorable.

 It can be affirmed that, in a short time, Lao Cai has achieved very proud achievements, comprehensive development from local strengths, with many breakthrough fields, especially tourism, services,  socialization of strong investment with many domestic and foreign investors, mature and solidarity cadres, dynamic investment environment, ethnic cultures of ethnic groups are preserved and promoted.  These are lessons learned for Lao Cai to continue to achieve successes in the coming period.

 With the results achieved in many past terms, with the current potentials, advantages and opportunities, I believe that if we are highly determined, in the next 15-20 years, Lao Cai will be a  a big highlight on Vietnam's economic map, a center of trade, investment, tourism of Vietnam and the region, an attractive destination not only for Asia but for the whole world.