Attending the meeting were Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan, Secretary of Dak Lak Provincial Party Committee Nguyen Dinh Trung and leaders of the Central Highlands provinces.

At the working session, the delegation listened to reports from representatives of the leaders of the Central Highlands localities on the implementation of the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress, the socio-economic development strategy for the period 2021-2030, and the Resolution of the Provincial Party Congress for the 2020-2025 term in the provinces and the Central Highlands region.

Reports confirm that the Central Highlands has many advantages in economic development such as: Tourism associated with national cultural identity, agriculture, agricultural and forestry processing industry, renewable energy, development of mining and bauxite processing industry... However, regional development still has limitations such as: Specific economic, social and environmental indicators of the region have achieved modest results compared to the whole country.

Economic development has not been a breakthrough, key economic sectors have not made clear contributions; growth in agriculture and forestry has not been truly sustainable; industrial and construction development is still low; the information system is not yet synchronized, human resources have not been mobilized and used effectively, the quality of human resources is not high, the life and income of people in the region still have many difficulties and are slow to improve...

Based on the existing difficulties and problems, leaders of the Central Highlands provinces believe that, with its special strategic position, the Central Highlands needs a special mechanism for the region to promote its strengths and escape from the low-lying areas of the country.

The Central Highlands is identified as a special region, so the need for a special mechanism is a notable content raised at the working session.

At the conference, Mr. Pham Ngoc Nghi, Chairman of Dak Lak Provincial People's Committee, proposed, "The Central Highlands really needs to have specific mechanisms and policies for the region; prioritize policies on resources, investment in socio-economic infrastructure, especially inter-regional transport infrastructure, investment in the construction of key projects of high strategic significance. It is recommended that the Central Government pay attention to having specific mechanisms and policies to prioritize attracting strategic investors, investing in potential and strong areas of the region. Have specific support policies for artisans in the region to encourage and motivate them to continue contributing to the work of preserving and promoting national cultural heritage. Continue to pay attention and have appropriate policies to solve the problem of land shortage and lack of jobs for ethnic minorities in the Central Highlands."

Speaking at the meeting, Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Le Minh Hoan said that localities need to have a new perspective and seek new development space for the Central Highlands. According to Minister Le Minh Hoan, the Central Highlands is a vibrant space. Enterprises from everywhere are coming to the Central Highlands to invest.

Minister Le Minh Hoan said, “The Central Highlands has many national products, so localities need to be proud. The traditional occupation of the people for thousands of years is living with the forest, collecting medicinal herbs, developing medicinal herbs under the forest canopy is not only for livelihood, the Central Highlands provinces should think about developing the medicinal herb industry under the forest canopy, from there developing tourism, health care services. The economic space of the Central Highlands is still very large, integrating multiple layers of value on one area such as combining agriculture and tourism, agriculture with energy…”

Minister Le Minh Hoan said that localities need to activate culture to do business and create capital sources. "The Central Highlands still has a lot of cultural values, but we do not know how to activate them. Single-sector thinking is making it difficult for localities. If we want to connect regions, we must connect sectors, and provinces must sit together. Research to establish a Central Highlands business council and a special mechanism to attract investment," the Minister emphasized.

Concluding the working session, he affirmed that the opinions at the conference were very important for the Socio-Economic Subcommittee (the 14th National Party Congress) to have a basis for developing a report on the implementation of the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress.

The Deputy Prime Minister also commended the efforts of the Central Highlands provinces in carrying out the tasks of socio-economic development, caring for people's lives and ensuring national defense and security.

“The Central Highlands is still poor but very sensitive, and it is very difficult to attract non-state resources. Therefore, the Central Government will have a special mechanism to develop the Central Highlands. The Central Highlands still has a lot of space and potential, but the mechanism does not exist or does not exist yet. Therefore, there needs to be a special mechanism for the Central Highlands to develop sustainably, in which stability is the top criterion,” the Deputy Prime Minister emphasized.

Deputy Prime Minister Tran Luu Quang acknowledged the 7 groups of issues that the conference focused on and requested that localities in the Central Highlands continue to provide written opinions, especially proposals for specific policies, to the Ministry of Planning and Investment for synthesis and reporting to the Central Government.