Nghi Son 1 power plant in Thanh Hoa.

According to the provincial Department of Finance, domestic collection was estimated at 16.67 trillion VND, fulfilling 97% of the target for the whole year. Of the total, collection from land use fee was over 7.77 trillion VND.

Meanwhile, collection from foreign-invested firms exceeded 3.25 trillion VND, and income from the non-State-owned sector topped 1.44 trillion VND.

At the same time, income from import and export activities in the first six months of this year hit over 9.65 trillion VND, equivalent to 88% of the plan.

Localities across the province also contributed over 10 trillion VND to Thanh Hoa’s State budget collection in the January-June period.

Vice Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee Nguyen Van Thi said that this year, the province will strive for at least 40 trillion VND in total State budget collection, higher than the goal assigned by the National Assembly and the provincial People’s Council.

To this end, Thanh Hoa will work harder to understand the operational situation of local firms, especially those producing major products of the locality with great contributions to the local economic growth and State budget collection, thus creating favourable conditions for them to strengthen production. The province will encourage businesses with stable markets to continue to increase their production, thus making up the reduction of other firms, Thi said.

In the first six months of this year, Thanh Hoa actively built specific solutions to boost economic development in line with its real situation, while applying tax and fee reduction and exemption policies to support tax payers and remove difficulties during production and business activities in a timely and effective manner, winning confidence from local businesses and residents, thus maintaining and increasing sources of income, he stated.

As a result, there were 349 new enterprises established in Thanh Hoa province in May, according to the provincial Department of Planning and Investment. The province is aiming for 3,000 new enterprises this year. The result could be attributed to efforts of the Department of Planning and Investment and local administrations to process procedures online thus shortening the time needed for the establishment of a new enterprise.

Alongside, Thanh Hoa will also continue to speed up administrative reform to create optimal conditions for business and production activities and assist import-export activities.

The province will strengthen the popularisation of new tax policies, while responding to questions in the field, and focusing on supporting local businesses in tax declaration, payment and refund, as well as using e-invoice.

Districts, township and cities in the province will pay greater attention to the collection of land use fees from organisations, said Thi.

In the first six months of this year, Thanh Hoa spent 20 trillion VND from its budget, equivalent to 61 percent of its estimate. Social welfare policies in the localities across the province have been implemented smoothly across the province.

The fifth-largest province nationwide geographically, Thanh Hoa has a coastline of 102km, which is favourable for tourism and the development of seaports, along with National Highway 1A, the Ho Chi Minh Highway, the North-South railway and Tho Xuan Airport. It also has favourable conditions for aquaculture, especially shrimp, crab and seaweed.

With deep-water seaports, cement factories and an airport, the Nghi Son Economic Zone is expected to open up a new development path for coastal localities and the entire province at large./.