Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue has lauded the northern mountainous province of Thai Nguyen’s optimal conditions for tourism development, particularly Nui Coc lake and tea culture.
He made the praise during a local ceremony on December 25 to announce a master plan on developing the Nui Coc lake national tourist area to 2025 with orientations to 2030. The Deputy PM suggested attention should also be paid to the maintenance and preservation of ecological environment within and around the lake, given that the lake also helps with irrigation, aquaculture and flood prevention. Hue revealed that the government will devise an action plan to materialise the government’s resolution on Viet Nam’s tourism restructuring for 2016-2020, which focuses on tourism infrastructure, environment and products imbued with traditional cultural characteristics. Apart from calling on strategic investors, the province was advised to develop community-based tourism, considering the people a crucial factor during the process. According to the Deputy PM, the government has directed ministries and agencies to refine policies regarding investment, taxation, fees, electricity and e-visa while strengthening State management in tourism. As part of the capital zone master plan and the country’s third largest hub of human resources development, Thai Nguyen must become economically and militarily strong, he stated. At the event, he also witnessed the signing of 10 investment projects in the fields of electricity, tourism, infrastructure and telecommunications worth over 45 trillion VND (1.95 billion USD) in total, and a ceremony to begin the construction of Nui Coc lake road, one of the first works in the master plan. According to the Nui Coc lake master plan, 1,200ha, exclusive of water surface, will be earmarked for the development of a national tourist area, which will offer sightseeing and resort, water sports and community-based ecological services in association with Tam Dao national park in Quan Chu Commune. The lake is expected to be recognised as a national tourist area before 2025. By 2030, it looks to be a major ecological and resort centre of the country and serves 4 million tourists, earning nearly 2 trillion VND (86.9 million USD). In the morning the same day, the official attended a ceremony announcing the PM’s decision on approving adjustments to the Thai Nguyen master plan by 2035 and beginning the construction of a flood-proof system on Cau River and completing urban infrastructure on two banks of the river. The project, costing over 18 trillion VND (780 million USD), comprises nine components invested by a joint venture between Phuc Loc Group and the Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CIENCO) No.8 in the public-private partnership and build-transfer model. The Deputy PM emphasised that the adjustments aim to develop Thai Nguyen into an economic, cultural, education, health care, tourism and service centre in the northern mountainous and midland region, and in the development quadrangular of the northern key economic region. On the occasion, he presented the PM’s decision to the provincial authorities.
