Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc on January 14th presented gifts to more than 200 families of social policy beneficiaries, workers and poor households in the Mekong Delta province of Tra Vinh, ahead of the traditional Lunar New Year (Tet) festival.
Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc (right) and local residents in Tra Vinh (Photo: VNA)
The PM was reported that Tra Vinh has organised many delegations to visit and hand over gifts to poor and near-poor households on the occasion of Tet – the country’s biggest festival.
The government leader expressed his hope that workers will improve their scientific-technological knowledge and professional skills in order to raise productivity and income.
Meanwhile, businesses need to pay more attention to employees, he added.
During his trip to Tra Vinh, PM Phuc visited and extended New Year greetings to the executive board of the provincial Buddhist Sangha at Luong Xuyen pagoda.
Later the same day, the PM had a working session with Tra Vinh’s leaders, where he lauded the province’s plan to organise an investment promotion conference on January 15th.
Tra Vinh is one of the provinces and cities posting the highest growth rate nationwide, and one of the localities in the Mekong Delta taking the lead in budget collection. Thanks to efforts in coping with saltwater intrusion, the province has reduced losses caused by the phenomenon to the farming sector.
However, Tra Vinh has remained poor, he said, adding that its budget collection of nearly 13.7 trillion VND (589.96 million USD) has met only half of the demand and the local infrastructure system has faced many problems.
Given this, PM Phuc asked the province to make greater efforts to overcome shortcomings, perfect local planning schemes and mobilise resources for infrastructure development.
According to provincial officials, last year, apart from climate change, unfavourable weather conditions and diseases in the husbandry sector, Tra Vinh had to cope with falling agricultural product prices, unemployment and the complex development of rural security, among others.
However, with continuous efforts, the province’s gross regional domestic product grew 14.85 percent and per capita income stood at about 60 million VND last year. The number of poor households also contracted 2.62 percent to 9,214 households.
On the same day, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc shared the joy of the Lunar New Year (Tet) festival with workers, low-income people and Agent Orange victims at a programme in the Mekong Delta province of Vinh Long.
Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc (L) presents 100 houses for poor households (Photo: VNA)
At the event in Vung Liem township of Vung Liem district, Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Lu Quang Ngoi said in the run up to Tet, local authorities have visited and presented gifts worth over 7 billion VND (302,500 USD) to more than 23,500 revolution contributors.
About 26,000 Tet gift packages with the total value of over 7.5 billion VND have also reached poor and near-poor families, persons with disabilities, underprivileged children and other disadvantaged groups.
Social and charitable organisations in the province have also worked to raise donations to support disadvantaged and disaster-hit families, he noted.
The official said businesses in Vinh Long have built plans on Tet bonuses and gifts for their workers. In particular, firms based in local industrial parks are set to give bonuses worth more than 220 billion VND and Tet gifts worth over 9 billion VND to their employees. They also plan to dole out some 8.5 billion VND to cover the transportation costs for workers to travel back to their hometowns for Tet.
Speaking highly of the socio-economic development in Vinh Long, PM Phuc applauded the province’s attention to ensuring a merry Tet for workers and disadvantaged people.
The Government leader asked provincial authorities and the Vietnam General Confederation of Labour to mobilise resources for building social infrastructure facilities like kindergartens, canteens and housing for labourers in industrial parks. He also requested business owners to pay more heed to their employees’ material and spiritual lives.
On this occasion, the PM handed over 100 houses for the poor in Vinh Long province./.