Long-term vision, great effort
On the morning of October 23, 2013, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung gave the order to start construction of the Nghi Son Refinery and Petrochemical Complex project. At this ceremony, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung jokingly said that the distance from Hanoi to Thanh Hoa is now much shorter, "It takes me about 2 hours to get here from Hanoi." The Prime Minister said and laughed happily, everyone in the hall also laughed happily because everyone knew that at that time, it took at least 3 hours to drive from Hanoi to Thanh Hoa by car, and only the Prime Minister's car could take 2 hours.
But now, the story of a 2-hour drive has become a reality. Not only the highway, but also the traffic infrastructure over the past 10 years has been a major development for Thanh Hoa.
In August 2014, Thanh Hoa organized the groundbreaking ceremony for the Nghi Son - Sao Vang route project, also known as the "road connecting two ports" in Thanh Hoa. This route is nearly 66 km long, connecting Tho Xuan Airport with Nghi Son Economic Zone.
After being put into use, the route has contributed to completing the transport network in the province, promoting socio-economic development, ensuring security and defense, as well as creating a connection between Tho Xuan Airport and Nghi Son Economic Zone. This creates favorable conditions for attracting investors to Nghi Son Economic Zone and Lam Son - Sao Vang High-Tech Park.
At the same time, Thanh Hoa expanded Highway 1A running through the area, started and completed phase 1 of Nam Song Ma Avenue, Vo Nguyen Giap Avenue and a series of inter-district connecting roads with an investment capital of many billions of VND.
Now, the roads to mountainous districts such as Lang Chanh, Ba Thuoc, Thuong Xuan, Muong Lat… are no longer bumpy but smooth and quiet like silk strips around the hillsides. Young people in mountainous districts can now ride their motorbikes to Thanh Hoa City to visit their girlfriends, drink coffee and then return home in the evening…
Back to the groundbreaking ceremony of Nghi Son Refinery and Petrochemical Complex. In early 2014, this place was still a vast rice field, but now, after 10 years, the country's leading industrial park has come into operation, contributing mainly to increasing budget revenue and creating jobs for hundreds of thousands of workers. Thanh Hoa has created all conditions to focus on developing this economic zone from policy mechanisms to infrastructure, including the relocation and liberation of an entire commune like Hai Yen commune. In addition to Nghi Son Refinery and Petrochemical with an investment capital of more than 9 billion USD (about 207,000 billion VND), contributing over 10,000 billion VND to the budget each year, Nghi Son Economic Zone also has many large industrial projects such as Nghi Son Steel Rolling Mill, Nghi Son Cement Factory, Nghi Son Thermal Power Center with many large capacity factories, Nghi Son Seaport with the ability to receive ships with a tonnage of up to 70,000 DWT...
Nghi Son is now not only the leading industrial park of Thanh Hoa but also the leading industrial park in the country, the number 1 petrochemical refining center in Vietnam.
The sound of modern machines day and night, the laughter, the bustling enthusiasm of production workers, the electric lights shining brightly in a corner of the sky all year round in Nghi Son have demonstrated the vision and efforts of generations of provincial leaders and the great determination to escape poverty and the desire for prosperity of Thanh Hoa people.
Continuously setting new records
Hundreds of beautiful speeches are not as convincing as numbers. Thanh Hoa's proudest figure in the past 10 years is economic growth. In the period 2014 - 2024, Thanh Hoa achieved impressive results in terms of growth in gross regional domestic product (GRDP). The period 2014-2019 was the period when Thanh Hoa laid an important foundation for economic breakthrough. GRDP growth rate maintained at an average of 9.1%/year. In the period 2020-2021, due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the growth rate slowed down but still maintained a rate of over 7.5%.
From 2022 to now, Thanh Hoa's economy has shown an astonishing and admirable breakthrough growth rate. In 2022, GRDP increased by 12.93%, among the highest in the country, and by the end of 2024, Thanh Hoa's GRDP set a new record with a growth rate of 12.16%, exceeding the plan and ranking 2nd in the country (only after Bac Giang province with a growth rate of 13.85%).
More specifically, the total budget revenue in the area. It is difficult to say it all with beautiful words, here is the chart of total budget revenue growth of Thanh Hoa in the period 2014 - 2024 to see the efforts and admirable development.
In 2014, Thanh Hoa's budget revenue only reached about 7,000 billion VND. But since then, the growth rate from year to year has averaged about 20%. The strongest growth rate has been from 2020 to present. In 2020, despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, budget revenue still reached 20,000 billion VND, an increase of 11.1% compared to 2019.
The joy in all the year-end meetings in Thanh Hoa in 2023 was the budget revenue of 43,000 billion VND, an increase of 22.9% compared to 2022. And even more joyful and proud when ending 2024, Thanh Hoa set a new record with a revenue of over 56,400 billion VND, exceeding the estimate by 52%, an increase of over 26% compared to 2023. This is the highest revenue of the province ever. With this result, Thanh Hoa continues to maintain its leading position in the North Central provinces and ranks 8th in the country.
From a poor province, wanting to invest in infrastructure, attract development but struggling to see a lack everywhere, not knowing where to get resources, Thanh Hoa has broken through with great efforts with numbers, countable and measurable projects and continuously setting new records for itself.
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10 years ago, I and many others, no matter how imaginative, could hardly imagine a Thanh Hoa as developed as it is today. And now, welcoming a new spring, we hope and believe that in the next 10 years (2025 - 2035), Thanh Hoa will have even more miraculous developments. The story of going from Hanoi to Thanh Hoa is no longer 3 hours or 2 hours but only 30 minutes by high-speed train. People from Hanoi and other places flock to Thanh Hoa to invest, work, travel, relax...
(Posted in the Special Publication of Labor North Central Spring At Ty)
