Dung was speaking at a conference on January 4 toreview results achieved by the ministry in 2018 and raise orientations for 2019.
Dung said that the market demand for socialhousing projects remained high while supply was limited, stressing that theministry needed breakthrough policies to boost social housing development.
The management on urban development, industrialand economic zones must also be enhanced to ensure the appropriateness to theurban housing development programme, Dung said.
In addition, the ministry should focus oncoordinating with relevant ministries and agencies to develop solutions fortreating ash released by thermo-power and fertiliser plants into buildingmaterials, Dung said, adding that it was important for environmentalprotection.
Minister of Construction Pham Hong Ha said thatthe huge volume of ash released from thermo-power and fertiliser production wasposing threats to the environment.
Ha said that in January, three ministries,including those of industry and trade, construction and natural resources andenvironment would meet to develop solutions to promote the use of ash inproducing building materials.
Ha also said the Ministry of Construction woulddevelop an action plan to implement the Government’s resolutions aboutsocio-economic development targets and improving the business environment andnational competitiveness.
According to Deputy Minister of Construction LeQuang Hung, the sector had a good year in 2018.
The ministry’s report pointed out that the productionvalue of the construction sector grew 9.2 per cent in 2018, meeting the targetset for the full year and contributing significantly to socio-economicdevelopment.
Hung said the ministry in 2018 also focused onadministrative reforms to create favourable conditions for constructionbusinesses with 41.3 per cent of administrative procedures eliminated and 47.3per cent simplified out of 215 business prerequisites.
The ministry also completed three law compilationprojects in 2018, including the Law on Architecture, the Law on UrbanDevelopment and Management and project of amending the laws on construction,housing, real estate business and urban planning.
He said Vietnam ranked 20th out of 190 economiesby the score of dealing with construction permits by the World Bank’s report onthe ease of doing business.
The real estate and building material markets hadseen stable development, Hung said.
The ministry’s report said that housing prices didnot see considerable fluctuations in 2018 compared to the previous year.
Real estate inventories totalled 22.8 trillion VND(981.6 million USD) as of December 20, a drop of 82.24 percent against the peakrecorded in the first quarter of 2013.
A total of 58 million sq.m of housing area wascompleted in 2018. Some 5,800 homes for low-income earners were completed witha total area of 290,000sq.m. Average housing area per person now reached 24sq.m.
The building material market met domestic demandwhile the focus was also placed on developing new, environmentally-friendlymaterials, the report said, adding that 55 out of 63 provinces and cities havealready developed plans to eliminate baked bricks and use unbaked bricks. As ofNovember, unbaked bricks were estimated at 8 billion units, accounted for 30per cent of the total brick output.
Hung said construction management was alsoenhanced nationwide with planning of 58 out of 63 provinces and cities approvedto ensure sustainable urban development. There were 828 urban areas throughoutthe country, statistics showed.
The ministry’s appraisal of constructioninvestment also helped cut costs by 2.6 percent, equivalent to 1.6 billion USD,according to the ministry’s report.-VNS/VNA