Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade, Phan Thi Thang chaired the event which was attended by 200 delegates, including leaders from the People's Committees of provinces and cities, and representatives from the industry and trade sector in the Mekong Delta region.
At the conference, delegates focused on assessing the current situation and discussing solutions to develop potential strengths in the region, such as rice, seafood, fruits and vegetables.
According to Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade, Phan Thi Thang, the Mekong Delta is one of the largest and most fertile deltas in Southeast Asia and the world. It is the country's leading producer and exporter of food as well as the largest tropical fruit-growing region in Vietnam. It also has great potential for food production and processing. The delta is also the country's third-largest industrial region. Among localities in the region, Long An, Tien Giang, and Dong Thap provinces achieved billion-dollar export revenue in the first months of this year.
However, the economic scale of the region accounts for just over 12 percent of the national economic scale. Economic growth in some provinces in the region remains slow, and economic restructuring has not yet met expectations. Regional integration activities are still limited. Manufacturing clusters and interdisciplinary services have not been formed yet. In addition, inter-regional transport infrastructure and regional economic-technical infrastructure have not been developed simultaneously. The region also saw the low capacity to attract investment and slow improvement of the workforce quality.
At the conference, delegates focused on discussing solutions for cooperating in the development of trade promotion and export-import activities and potential strengths in the region, such as rice, seafood, fruits and vegetables, food processing, aquaculture, and animal feed production.
They emphasized the importance of building high-quality product brands, participating deeply in global distribution networks and value chains, and developing export markets for the region's strengths. Additionally, there was the enhancement of digital transformation in regional trade development, the development of logistics services associated with strengthening regional connectivity, and the establishment of logistics businesses to support the Mekong Delta's export-import activities.
The crucial solution for speeding up regional linkage in trade promotion and export-import activities with the goal of optimizing resources of localities in the region towards sustainable development, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade, Phan Thi Thang added.
