At a meeting with provincial leaders on January 6, Mr Triet praised Binh Phuoc’s socio-economic development achievements, which has helped reduce the number of poor households to 4.7 percent.

Last year, despite facing the global economic downturn, the province’s GDP reached more than VND5,383 billion, a 10 percent increase over a year earlier when per capita income was US$970. State budget collection hit VND1,600 billion, 14 percent more than the set target and 26,000 jobs were generated.

This year, Binh Phuoc aims to reach a GDP growth rate of 12-13 percent, maintain sustainable socio-economic development, ensure social security and reduce poverty by creating more jobs for local workers.

Provincial leaders said they will focus on addressing some important issues such as developing a power grid for districts, building a borderline and border road system, upgrading border gates and accelerating the construction of the tran-Asia railway running through Tay Nguyen, Binh Phuoc and HCM City.

Mr Triet urged provincial leaders to solve every difficulty and further boost socio-economic development and human resource development to meet the requirements of the process of national industrialization and modernization.