While working with provincial leaders, Mr Triet praised the great efforts made by the local Party committee, soldiers and people in stimulating socio-economic development and ensuring security and national defence.

In 2006, despite facing a lot of difficulties caused by adverse weather, price hike and complicated political security, Gia Lai reached a rather high economic growth rate of 13.1 percent compared to the country’s average level. However, the province is still poor and confronted with a lot of difficulties in culture, education and healthcare services. In particular, the level of socio-economic development in rural areas and other areas inhabited by ethnic minority people in the province is not the same and the number of poor households remain high, said Mr Triet.

The State President said Gia Lai must spare no effort to ensure sustainable development while developing rubber trees to create more steady jobs for ethnic minority people.

Mr Triet asked Gia Lai to reinforce Party building and build a transparent and strong political system with a view to successfully fulfilling the tasks of boosting socio-economic development tasks and maintaining security and national defence.

The same day, Mr Triet paid a working visit to Kon Tum province, as part of his tour of Central Highland provinces.