BAC GIANG

Bac Giang is proud to be a province with a long history, rich culture and full of revolutionary traditions. Bac Giang used to be the living place of the ancient Vietnamese about ten thousands years ago. Tracing back to the history of the country, Bac Giang would be considered as the fence of the country, and one of the four essential frontier passages of our country, that is famous for glorious feats of arms which have been recorded in the history against foreign invaders of our nation.
Since the re-establishment (on January 1, 1997) of its party, authority and the people of Bac Giang have started the building of their province with great enthusiasm. Bac Giang people have inherited and brought into play the union and revolutionary traditions of our country to overcome difficulties and bring about positive changes in socio-economic areas. Economically, there have been many positive changes. The annual growth of the provincial GDP during the years 1997- 2000 was 6.9 percent, in which agriculture increased by 7.2 percent, heavy industry by 3.8 percent, service by 6.3 percent. The provincial GDP in the 2001-2004 period expanded 8.3% a year, of which the agricultural, forestry and fisheries sector as a share of GDP rose 5.05%, the industrial sector was up 19.79%, and the service sector bounced 7.09%.Social infrastructure has been improved and investment has been prioritised in accordance with the local development. People’s income has increased considerably, the ratio of hunger and poverty households has been reduced from 23.9 percent in 1997 to 9.87 percent in 2000 (according to the old definition) and to nearly 10% in 2004 (according to current criteria)Culture, education and some other social areas have also been improved greatly with a great variety of activities and achievements. Political and social security within the locality has been maintained. With those achievements Bac Giang seems to be fully prepared for the new 21st century.At the beginning of the 2001 - 2005 period, Bac Giang has decided that they should bring into full play their potential, their advantages to attract as much external forces as possible to develop their socio-economy. In the new stage, Bac Giang will have some advantages, for instance, transportation is much more convenient nowadays including railway, road way, and also river route, all seem to be in fairly good conditions, which helps facilitate their connection with Hanoi, Hai Phong, and Quang Ninh.
The province;s potential of land and human resources is very abundant. Material facilities, technical basis and infrastructure have all been improved. The economic restructuring has gained much progress, economic sectors both private and public seem to have a fairly promising future. Changes in the State owned enterprises via enterprises; renovation, equitisation have strengthened State economic sector.
However, besides those mentioned advantages, Bac Giang also has to confront with many challenges, namely, industry density is still low as this province is a mountainous area with purely agricultural economy. Their development and accumulation for investment is very limited. The economic and employment structure has changed fairly slowly. International relation as well as attraction of external investment has not been very successful.Given the current situation and requirements for the new development stage, provincial Party Resolution 15 (2001) has identified as their priority to invest into socio-economic areas, namely:
1. To develop agriculture and rural areas so as to achieve industrialization and modernization goals.
2. To promote investment for industry, small scale industry and services so as to speed up the economic restructuring.
3. To mobilize different sources of capital for physical development, socio-economic infrastructure so as to ensure social development.
4. To encourage international economic development, to create priority policy so as to promote economic sectors (both domestic and international) to invest into the province and to establish business relationship and have experience exchanges with the province.
5. To speed up education and training, and technology development so as to produce fruitful personnel resources, highly qualified and efficient for the provincial development.
6. To promote the development of ethnic people as well as their socio-economy so as to attain bigger progress and assurance of minority people;s development.
7. To enhance the administrative renovation so as to improve the efficiency and quality of State management at various levels.
Resolution of the XV Party Congress has also initiated 6 programmes specifying the above mentioned essential tasks, at the same time assigned responsibility to different managerial levels, branches so as to make sure that local people and provincial counter-parts fully aware of Bac Giang approach to development. We acknowledge that the up coming tasks are difficult and require considerable internal forces as well as assistance from the outside.
Bac Giang Party secretary
Nguyen Quoc Cuong

Natural condition and Social
Location: some 50km to the north of Ha Noi Capital, 100km to the south of Huu Nghi (Friendship) International Border-gate, and more than 100km to the east of Hai Phong Port. Bac Giang Province borders Lang Son Province in the north and north-east, Ha Noi Capital and Thai Nguyen Province in the west and north-west, and Bac Ninh, Hai Duong and Quang Ninh provinces in the south and south-east.
Total area: 3,816.7sq.km
v Terrain: midlands (representing 10.5 percent) and highlands (making up 89.5 percent).
v Climate: Bac Giang lies in the tropical monsoon zone of the Northeast. Its weather is determined by four distinctive seasons: cold winter; hot, humid summer; and mild spring and autumn. Average annual temperature is 22-230C, and humidity ranges from 73% to 74%.
v Population & labor: The province’s population in 2005 was roughly 1.58 million, including 980,000 people of working age, accounting of 62% of the population, and 830,000 people engaged in economic activities. Of the working-age population, 8.86% work in the industrial and construction sector, 14.57% get involved in the service sector, and the remainder takes part in the agricultural, forestry and fishery sector.
v Ethnicities: Bac Giang is home to 27 ethnicities, of which ethnic minorities account for 123.9%.
v Infrastructure: The transport system is evenly distributed and convenient, including road, railway and riverway. The road network is comprised of National Highway 1A, provincial roads, district’s and communal roads with a combined length of 4,008 km. Of these, the National Highway includes five routes, with a total length of 277.5 km. The provincial road encompasses 18 routes (387.5 km in length). The district’s roads have 54 routes (469.5 km in length). The inter-communal roads are 2,874 km long. Road density is 0.3 km per sq. km in plains, midlands and mountainous areas. However, the roads’ quality is generally low, with many routes not being upgraded and unasphalted, especially routes in mountainous areas, midlands and district’s and communal routes.
There are three large rivers in the province, namely Thuong River, Cau River, and Luc Nam River, with a combined length of 347 km (187 km currently under operation), creating a convenient riverway network. Annually, the river system provides a plentiful source of surface water with a reserve of hundred millions of cubic meters in service of living and production. Additionally, the province has three port systems, including central ports, specialized ports and local ports with a combined handling capacity of around 200 to 300 thousand tons.
Moreover, there are three rail routes (87 km in length) across Bac Giang, namely the routes of Ha Noi - Dong Dang (Lang Son Province), Ha Noi - Kep (Bac Giang Province) - Ha Long (Quang Ninh Province), Ha Noi - Kep - Luu Xa.
The provincial power source comes from the transmission line of 110 kV with a length of 220 km: Pha Lai (Hai Duong) - Bac Giang - Dong Anh (Hanoi), the intermediary station of Dinh Tram and the Bac Giang station (220 km-long transmission line), ensuring supplies of power for Bac Giang City, districts and industrial parks.
Overall, the province’s water system meets demand for fresh water in the city of Bac Giang. Particularly, 60 per cent of the population in the district’s towns and rural areas are accessible to fresh water.
v Land resource: Bac Giang’s natural land covers an area of 382,000 hectares, of which 77 per cent are in use. Also, the province has above 20,000 hectares of idle hilly and mountainous land, which is a great potential for businesses and investors to enter into a joint venture or partnership in afforestration, agricultural and forestry processing, and industrial development in the province.
v Economic structure: The economic growth of Bac Giang hit a five-year high of 9.3% in 2005. There is a positive transformation of the province’s economic structure. In particular, the share of agriculture, forestry and fishery fell to 43.5% in 2005 from 45% in 2004. In contrast, the proportion of industry and construction rose from 20.5% in 2004 to 22% in 2005. Services made up of 34.5% of the provincial GDP.
v Population’s life: GDP per capita averages VND 4.8 million a year. The rate of poor households is 30.67% under new standards. Farmers’ income in rural areas is estimated at over VND 26 million per hectare under cultivation. Electricity, communication, healthcare and education are in place in almost 229 communes, wards and townships.

Retrieved from http://www.bacgiangtrade.gov.vn