In the afternoon of August 9, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and government’s delegations serveyed Thi Vai river. Looking at the progress of seaport construction along Thi Vai River, the PM said: “This is the key task of Ba Ria- Vung Tau province, and local authorities to focus on building transport infrastructure, so that Ba Ria- Vung Tau is to become a seap seaport transshipment centre for the region in the next five years”.

Before that, in the morning, in a meeting with provincial authorities, PM Dung said the province should create major industrial products and improve their hi-tech processing to become competitive in both domestic and international market.

The province needs to coordinate with other ministries and agencies to screen the planning of its seaport system to ensure that it is well connected with infrastructural network, PM Dung said.

He urged the locality to focus on building transport infrastructure, including roads and airport, pledging Government help with estimating investments necessary for the work.

Ba Ria-Vung Tau should pay due attention to the training of human resources in rural areas, the PM said, advising it to cut the proportion of the workforce engaged in agriculture as 50 percent of these workers contributed to only 5 percent of the provincial GDP.

In 2006-2010, the locality registered an average annual GDP growth rate of 17 percent and a 2.28 times rise in average per capita income.

Industries and services continue to provide up to 95 percent of the province’s economic structure, the number of trained workers reached more than 55 percent of its workforce, and the poverty rate was reduced strikingly to stand at 0.5 percent.

At the working session, PM Dung and leaders from the Government ministries and sectors addressed the province’s proposals regarding the planning of industrial zones, investments in the offshore district of Con Dao, the development of Vung Tau City, the construction of a transport system linking with the Cai Mep-Thi Vai deep seaport, and other transport infrastructure projects.

Also in the same afternoon, PM Dung made a tour of the the Long Son Oil Refinery Complex.