With only two months left in 2025, the province’s GRDP growth rate remains low. In the first 10 months of the year, the province’s GRDP (at constant prices) increased by only 6.76%. This result ranks Điện Biên 7th out of 9 provinces in the Northern Midlands and Mountains region, and 30th out of 34 provinces and cities nationwide. It is 2.23 percentage points lower than the growth scenario, creating great pressure on the task of achieving the full-year GRDP growth target of over 10.5%.

The primary reasons are that the province’s economy is still small, its structure is shifting slowly, and labor productivity is not high. Some sectors and fields expected to be “growth engines” have not yet realized their full potential. The agriculture-forestry-fishery sector has been affected by natural disasters and pests, while the industry-construction sector has faced difficulties due to the slow progress of many key projects and unsatisfactory public investment disbursement. As of the end of the third quarter of 2025, the public investment disbursement rate had only reached 45.27% of the plan.

Meanwhile, the service-trade sector, despite showing signs of recovery, still has a weak rebound. The number of tourists has improved, but guest spending is not high, limiting its contribution to GRDP. The tourism and service infrastructure system is still under investment and lacks synchronization; tourism products lack diversity and have not created a strong brand. Businesses in the trade and service sectors continue to face difficulties with capital, logistics costs, and consumer markets, making this sector’s contribution to overall growth unclear.

Furthermore, the issuance of policies to support the development of tourism products has been slow. No new tourism products have been formed, especially in sports, entertainment, and adventure tourism. The attraction of non-state budget investment capital has not seen much improvement or breakthrough, lacking large projects, and most non-state investment projects are progressing slower than their committed schedules. The 2024 PAPI index ranked 50th out of 63, a drop of 16 places, indicating that public administration quality remains limited.

To achieve the full-year GRDP target of over 7.5% (per Government Resolution No.226/NQ-CP dated August 5, 2025) and over 10.5% (the province’s target), the provincial People’s Committee issued Plan No.4462/KH-UBND on August 23, 2025, on implementing economic growth targets for the remaining quarters of the year. It determined that the growth rate for the fourth quarter must reach 14.13% (equivalent to a GRDP of over VND 5,442 billion). This is a very heavy task. The growth pressure is mainly concentrated in the industry-construction and service sectors, as there is little room left for production expansion in the agricultural sector. Growth in the final months depends heavily on the progress of public investment disbursement, a breakthrough in goods consumption, tourism, and domestic purchasing power. Without flexible management and close coordination between sectors and localities, the risk of failing to meet the growth target is real.

Faced with this situation, at the regular meeting in September, the provincial People’s Committee discussed many key solutions. It outlined 8 general tasks and 3 detailed task groups in the spirit of the “6 clears”: clear person, clear task, clear timeline, clear responsibility, clear product, and clear authority. Specifically, the focus is on completing the 2025 targets; flexibly managing finance, budget, and public investment; and resolving difficulties in land and investment procedures to accelerate capital disbursement. Key projects considered “locomotives” must have their progress pushed, and capital must be decisively reallocated from slow or unfeasible projects. At the same time, the province is proactively promoting and attracting high-impact projects in urban development, tourism, energy, and technology, and is working with large corporations such as Vingroup and FPT to advance investment commitments.

In the agricultural sector, the province assigned the new planting of 5,700ha of macadamia and coffee, and the expansion of production-consumption linkage models in the key areas of Tuần Giáo and Mường Ảng. According to the Director of the Department of Agriculture and Environment, Lê Xuân Cảnh, specialized units are coordinating closely with localities to review land funds, provide technical guidance, select appropriate varieties for each sub-region, and mobilize people to restructure crops and link with businesses for product consumption. By the end of the third quarter, the entire province had newly planted over 3,300ha of coffee and 2,000ha of macadamia, helping the agro-forestry sector grow by over 103% compared to the same period last year, creating new momentum for the economy.

Industry and construction continue to be the key sector for driving growth. The province has set a goal of disbursing 100% of public investment capital in 2025 and completing key projects. The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) for the first 9 months of 2025 is estimated to have increased by 9.10% over the same period last year. The service and tourism sector is also identified as a crucial spearhead. In the first 9 months, total retail sales of goods and consumer service revenue were estimated at over VND 21,200 billion, an increase of over 11% year-on-year. Điện Biên tourism welcomed about 1.07 million visitors, with revenue of nearly VND 1,952 billion. Transport and logistics grew stably, with nearly 7.8 million tons of goods transported, up over 18%, helping to maintain the flow of goods and effectively serve production and people’s lives.

Although the growth pressure in the final months of the year is immense, with the determination of the entire political system and the consensus of businesses and the people, it is believed that Điện Biên is striving not only to hit the GRDP growth target of over 10.5% but also to create solid momentum for the new development period of 2026 - 2030, affirming its position as a dynamic, comprehensively developing province in the northern midlands and mountainous region.