At the meeting, representative of the Department of Culture - Sport and Tourism briefly presented preparation and formulation of the Quang Binh tourism development master plan by 2020 and vision up to 2025 and announced decision to approve the master plan.

Under the master plan, the total investment capital for projects which are given priority to tourism development is estimated around US$538.00 million, of which US$292.00 million for the period of 2011-2020 and US$249.00 million for the period of 2020-2025.

The projects focuses on investment in upgrading technical infrastructures for tourism; building tourism areas; developing community-based tourism; popularizing and promoting tourism and conservation, and embellishing historical and cultural relics.

The master plan aims at increasing the number of visitors to Quang Binh by 11-12% per year, income from tourism strives to reach over VND2,000 billion; growth rate reaches over 20% per year and so on.

Speaking at the meeting, Vice-chairman Tran Van Tuan stressed the importance of tourism to socio-economic development of the province.

Quang Binh specified that tourism is a general economic sector; development of tourism must be sustainable and equitable between economic interests and cultural-social, security and national defence targets, Mr Tuan affirmed.

In the coming time, related agencies and localities should pay attention to selecting investors; exploring tourism products and promoting sustainable tourism development, contributing to bringing Quang Binh become a key economic sector and create basis for other economic sectors to develop.

Reported by Hong Luu