Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has written an article about major contents of the draft socio-economic development strategy for the 2011-2020 period and the country’s key tasks in 2011.
I. National situation and international circumstance
1. In continuing to follow the Party’s renovation guidelines, we have, during the 2001-2010 period, created new driving force for the national development.
By expanding democracy in the economy through stipulating and enacting the Enterprise Law, promoting the development of privately-run economy, stepping up State-owned enterprise equitisation and foreign investment attraction, implementing administrative reforms with the focus on administrative procedures, participating deeply and broadly into regional and international integration process, and joining the World Trade Organisation, we have been able to tap our country’s inner strength and potential, make use of external resources and combine national strength with the power of our times.
During a decade of implementing the 2001-2010 strategy under effects from the regional crisis and adverse impacts from the global crisis, our country has weathered a great array of difficulties, challenges, as well as complex developments in the global economy to record immense and very important achievements. The draft 2011-2020 socio-economic development strategy gives an overview of the major results we have gained as well as problems and difficulties and draws lessons from reality.
2. We enter a new strategic phase in the context of rapid changes and unexpected fluctuations occurring in the word. The following is the prominent tendencies.
(1) The leaping development of science and technology; the formation of the knowledge-based economy, the use of energy-saving and environmentally-friendly technologies; the development of a green-economy. These will be seen as the major driving force to change the global economic and market structures and boost economic reforms and restructuring in each country as well as economic structure shifting among countries. Each country will accept the process naturally or in a proactive manner depending on its own internal capacity and policies.
(2) Deeper and broader globalisation and economic connectivity, thus pushing up the internationalisation of production and labour assignment and shaping a global production network and a global value chain. In that context, competition will increasingly be fiercer. Accordingly, developing an independent, self-reliant, and highly-competitive economy will become our country’s biggest economic challenge in the next decade.
(3) The growing role of newly-emerging economies, especially the robust development of India and China , will change the balance of economic and political power in the world. Holding a crucial geostrategic position, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has been making deeper and broader integration, thus facilitating each member country’s development and affirming its major role in regional architecture that is taking from. However, there are risks hidden in this region that may affect stability and development in our country as well as other countries in the region.
After crisis, the global economy’s recovery has been occurring slowly and full of contradictions; the public debt crisis is still spreading and threats of a monetary warfare yet being eliminated. In that circumstance, policy adjustment made by countries, especially powerful countries, will amplify risky level and uncertainty.
In parallel with that, environmental degradation and climate change, particularly sea level rise, to which our country is among a few that will be hardest affected, can become a big variable in our country’s development course.
With such ample challenges and opportunities, never has the international circumstance exerted such big influence on our country’s development. The question is what we must do and what position we will stand in this complicated movement.
The draft strategy has defined the viewpoints to serve as the basis for determining goals and outlining development orientations for the 2011-2020 period that suit the national circumstance and international context and ensure their unity with long-term goals set forth in the draft Platform.
II. New progress in development thought
1. Viewpoints on development
The viewpoint on sustainable development as presented in this draft strategy pursue a new internal perception which reflects the close link between fast development and sustainable development and considers sustainable development a requirement that run-through the Strategy. The viewpoint aims to handle the relations between economic development and socio-cultural development in the right way to achieve social progress and fairness and protect the environment. It emphasizes securing a fast growth rate, narrowing the development gap with other countries, and at the same time eliminating the way of thinking that focuses on growth rate rather than growth quality.
In the renovation course over the past 25 years, our Party begun with economic reform, making it the key in liberating all resources available in our country. This step is necessary and correct. However, when the economic renewal has recorded great achievements and economic relations made basic changes, it is essential to carry out economic and political renewals concurrently to promote a comprehensive renewal. This reflects our Party’s accurate awareness on moves to be taken and the dialectics of development of the renewal process. The draft strategy underlines that “renewal should be taken in a simultaneous and proper manner in both economic and political spheres towards the goal of building a Socialist Republic of Vietnam into a strong, democratic, just and civilised country with rich people. The implementation of this goal must be taken as the highest standard to evaluate the effectiveness of the renewal and development process”.
The focus of political renewal is to perfect the content and breath a new life into the Party’s leading methods, combine Party committees’ power and responsibilities in performing their leading role, broaden democracy in the Party and the entire society with the aim of bringing into full play the State agencies’ active role, the people’s great creative capability and the strength of the national great unity bloc in the national construction and defence.
We are living in the era of globalisation during which economic competition is taking place fiercely. Each country tries to seek ways to make the best use of its available comparative advantages and turn them into competitive advantages and at the same time creating new competitive ones. Though being very important available comparative advantages, natural resources and geo-economic location are, however, not the most decisive factors. Reality has proved that human resources are an internal dynamic factor which decides a nation’s long-term competitive advantage. This is especially right at a time when science and technology – human being’s intellectual product has made leaping developments as seen in our era. Moreover, economic development goals are eventually set for the people, thus a person can develop comprehensively, leads a life that is materially and spiritually rich, has intellectual ability and is able to utilize his/her creative ability, while aware of the inevitable so that he/she is able to master himself/herself as well as society and reach freedom. The draft strategy highlights the viewpoint of “maximising the human factor, considering the people the subject, the key resource and the target of development”. It also emphasises the need to enhance capacity and create mechanisms to enable the people to fully exercise their rights to mastery, especially to direct democracy, to bring into full play all forms of creativity and ensure a high consensus in society, thus creating a driving power for the country’s development.
The viewpoint of “strongly developing production forces with increasingly high scientific and technological levels while at the same time perfecting production relations in the socialist-oriented market economy” lays stress on a new, important requirement of production forces and production relations.
Production forces need to rely on growingly high scientific and technological level, which reflects the trend that science and technology has become a direct production force while production relations in the socialist-oriented market economy must ensure that “all economic sectors and all forms of enterprises develop in a fast and harmonious manner. The State economic sector’s potential, strength and efficiency are enhanced. The State economy holds the leading role and acts as an important material force to help the State regulate and orientate the national economy, thus contributing to stabilising the macro-economy. The collective economy is developed in diverse forms with cooperative playing the core.”
The State economy not only comprise State-owned enterprises but also other resources owned by the State, including the state budget, land, natural resources and national reserve. Through development policies and effective regulating and allocating mechanisms, these resources will be factors to activate and direct the implementation of structural policies and socio-economic development in general. Hence, the State economy’s leading role does not involve only materials resources but also in policy impacts and the State’s ability to use these resources effectively. This role is not only involve economic development either, but also socio-economic development in general. This requires us to study again and re-define the operation and management mechanisms of State enterprises.
Apart from defining the State economy’s leading role, the draft strategy stresses on the need “to create an equal environment for competition among all economic sectors, encourage the development of multi-ownership forms of production and business mainly joint stock businesses to make this economic form popular in the national economy, thus speeding up socialisation of production, business and ownership. Mechanisms and policies need to be perfected for the strong development of the private economy, turning it into one of the driving forces behind the national economy.”
Beginning with economic integration, countries are expanding their integration course to other fields as part of an objective process. In order to be active and proactive in our international integration and improve the effectiveness of the process, we need to “build an increasingly independent and self-reliant economy in the context of wider and deeper international integration”. It is very necessary to stress in the current circumstance. Only when the country’s economic potential and business forces are strong, then the national economy is robust and the country’s position in integration is heightened. The more effective our integration is, the more favourable conditions we can enjoy to build an independent and self-reliant economy.
2. The strategy’s goals and breakthrough points
The draft strategy outlines the general goals of “striving to turn our country basically into a modern industrialised country by 2020; with stable, democratic, rule-governed, and consensual politics-society; the people’s spiritual and material life is enhanced remarkably; independence, sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity are maintained; Vietnam’s position in the international arena continues to be heightened; and a firm premise will be created for the country to develop further in the next phase.”
Taking economic development as the core, the general goals and specific targets mentioned in the draft strategy constitute the unity of economy, social affairs, politics, defence and security. They combine mid-term tasks with long-term development requirements to become the “Party’s second platform” with the aim of deploying tasks set in the first phase of implementing the Platform.
To achieve these general goals and specific targets, we need to carry out simultaneously various solutions and make breakthroughs in areas with blocked points which are hindering development. Once these areas are cleared, premises will be created for us to liberate all potential and effectively exploit all resources for development. The draft strategy plans to make three breakthroughs as follow:
Firstly, to perfect the socialist-oriented market economy institution, focusing on forming an environment of equal competition and administrative reform. The good point of the market economy has is the rational distribution of resources in accordance with the market’s signals, thus increasing the economy’s common efficiency. The market economy can only be perfected when all factors and all kinds of markets are formed synchronously within an environment of equal competition. Competition is an inherent character of the market economy. Through competition, businesses are forced to seek ways to cut down production costs and increase productivity – which in the final analysis is the decisive factor for the triumph of a mode of production, a social regime. The market economy is always run by administrative institutions and procedures. Thus, in order to perfect the socialist-oriented market economy institution, it is necessary to accelerate administrative reform, creating favourable conditions to people and businesses. On the other hand, the market economy that we are building is a socialist-oriented market economy, in which economic development must be in harmony with socio-cultural development and the implementation of social progresses and justice in every step and every development policy. Therefore, the State should have proper policies and effectively use regulation tools in order to deal with problems caused by the market economy.
Secondly, to rapidly develop human resource, especially the high-quality one, focusing on reforming basically and comprehensively the national education system; and combine closely the development of human resource with the application of scientific and technological advances. Human beings are the subject producing all material and spiritual products. Humans create institutions, develop and apply sciences and technologies, and are the most important productive force. Hence, to basically and comprehensively renew the national education system in order to develop the human resource, especially high-quality one, must be seen as a strategic breakthrough. This is both an urgent demand and a long-term task. The need to combine closely the development of the human resource with the development and application of sciences and technologies is a new content, showing the target of the human resource development. Only the human resource that is able to develop and apply scientific and technological advances in production and management work can obtain a high productivity for a rapid and sustainable development.
Thirdly, to build a comprehensive infrastructure system and a number of modern projects, concentrating on large-scale urban infrastructure and transport systems. Infrastructure is a “link’ for productive factors to shift and a condition for the socio-cultural development in regions of the country. The weakness of the infrastructure system now is a big obstacle for socio-economic development, increasing costs, reducing competitiveness, preventing the converging and spreading effects from inner factors, as well as the use of our country’s geo-economic location in the global chains of supply, and threatening to expanding the gap in living conditions between regions in the country. In the next ten years, we should mobilise all resources to make this breakthrough.
3. Directions for development
Based on the above-mentioned points of view and overall targets, the draft strategy maps out 12 directions for development, forming a synchronous system of major solutions in all fields of economy, society, environment, national defence, security and external relations as a perfect whole of sustainable development; ensuring the combination of two strategic tasks of building socialism and defending the socialist republic. The following are the some new contents:
It can be said that restructuring the economy, shifting the development model, developing social fields in harmony with developing the economy and environmental protection are the most important ideas as well as the new points in the development thought.
The restructuring of the economy is not an issue to be considered only in the context of crisis. This process happens in progress or by leaps and bounds in correspondence with the development of sciences, technology and the shift of competitive advantages between countries. The content and pace of restructuring depends on the specific conditions in each country. For our country, the restructuring of the economy must be conducted synchronously in the fields as follows:
(1) To accelerate industrialisation and modernisation process, push up the economic restructuring, increase rapidly the proportion of industry and services in GDP. In the other hand, it is necessary to attach importance to the long-term strategic role of agriculture in stabilising the society, ensuring food security and improving farmers’ living conditions.
(2) To restructure production and services sectors, focusing on developing supporting industries and hi-quality services of big added value in order to produce competitive products capable of joining the global production network and value chains. At the same time, we must build a commodity agriculture using high technology in order to increase value added on an unit of land acreage; closely combine scientific-technological application with production, production and processing with distribution within a value chain, ensuring the harmony of interests among links of this value chain, and agricultural development with the building of new-styled areas.
(3) To restructure enterprises, continue renewing State-owned businesses, and strongly develop private ones. In parallel, each enterprise must conduct self-restructuring to adapt to the technological and market changes in order to increase productivity, quality and efficiency.
(4) To pay more attention to the domestic market. Businesses should develop the distribution network of domestic market in order to dominate this market, using it as the base to reach further to the world markets, expand export markets and effectively exploit the markets that join free trade agreements.
(5) To adjust investment mechanism and increase investment efficiency. The State concentrates investment on developing human resource and most essential socio-economic infrastructure projects, at the same time mobilising resources of economic sectors for development investment. To encourage investment in production of big value added products, supporting industries and those using clean technologies. To limit investment in mining industry and industries occupying large acreages of land or using a lot of energy, and to reject low-tech investment projects polluting the environment.
Implementing the contents of the above-mentioned restructuring requires the shifting from the growth model that depends on increasing investment capital, exploiting natural resources and low-quality human resource to the in-depth growth model that relies on applying new scientific and technological achievements and using skillful human resource and modern management skill. These factors are closely related to one another and have an integrated impact and a decisive role in raising the efficiency of capital utilisation, increase labour productivity and competitiveness. Science and technology are the decisive motive power and human beings play the central role who invent and use science and technology and execute management functions. Only can modern management skills bring into play the impacts of the two factors.
Changing the growth model is an objective requirement of the development process, particularly in the context of globalisation and fierce competitiveness but it is impossible to act under one’s wish. Premises and conditions must be created for the shifting process. These premises and conditions are strategic breakthroughs. Hence, the first years of the coming strategic period should focus on settling breakthroughs and logically combining wide-scale and in-depth growth towards the in-depth model.
Economic restructuring and changing the growth model require the efforts of all branches, authorities at all levels and the business community in which the State is responsible for paving the way and providing assistance while businesses are the subject and the major force of the process.
Socio-culture is a broad field with interactive associated contents and has a strong impact on economics, all fields of life, each person and the whole community. Culture forms a value system of a nation, creates an identity of a nation and is an important factor in the development thought. President Ho Chi Minh said “culture lights up the road for people”. The draft strategy aims for “the comprehensive development of socio-cultural fields in harmony with economic development, and the good handling of the relationship between economy and culture to turn culture into a real spiritual foundation for the society and a development driving force.” The draft strategy sets the requirement of basic and comprehensive reform of the national education to increase the human resource’s quality. This is a highlight in the draft strategy, aiming to overcoming shortcomings and weaknesses and creating new developments in socio-cultural fields.
Over the past years, the Party and State have always paid attention to ensuring social security and welfare for the people with documents with regulations on a number of concrete policies. The draft strategy outlines a system of uniform and comprehensive viewpoints and policies which will serve as a foundation for the development of an effective and sustainable social security and welfare system.
Manifesting a full awareness of the threat of environmental pollution, climate change and rising sea level to sustainable development, the draft strategy presents basic directions and concrete targets regarding environmental protection and improvement, emphasising the requirement of environmental protection in each branch and locality’s development strategy and scheme as well as in each project, promoting the society’s involvement in environmental protection and environmental services’ development. The draft strategy lays stress on the implementation of programmes to cope with climate change, particularly rising sea level, and accelerating international cooperation in this global issue.
4. Raising the effectiveness and efficiency of State management
To successfully implement the strategy with the above mentioned contents, unceasing efforts are required to perfect the mechanism of the Party leadership, the State management and people’s mastery. The draft strategy manifests more profound awareness of the relationship among three components of the mechanism in the context of our Party being the only one holding power and the existence of a socialist law-governed State. The Party plays the leading role while the people are the masters; the Party performs its leadership by the State and through the State. In this mechanism, the people entrust the State with implementing the management power with the basic function of creating an environment for development and serving development. It is a must to set the request of enhancing the Party leadership in the relationship with increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of the State management and bringing into play the people’s right to mastery. The draft strategy defines the State’s functions of management and facilitation of development, the relationship between the State and the market; puts forward solutions to renovate the Party’s leadership modes and raises the effectiveness and efficiency of State management; and emphasises the requirement of bringing into play the role of the Vietnam Fatherland Front, socio-political organisations and the people’s right to mastery in Party building and the State construction. Together with finalising institutions to exercise democracy and increase direct democracy, the draft highlights social critics’ role and the responsibility of explanation of State agencies at all levels. Social critics and the responsibility of explanation contribute to, perfecting policies and increasing management and leadership capability.
III. Creating a strong change in the first year of implementing the strategy
The 2011-2020 strategy’s viewpoints and orientations must be included in the 2011 socio-economic development plan. The Government has reported and the National Assembly has adopted a Resolution on the 2011 socio-economic development plan which comprehensively puts forward targets, tasks and big solutions. Following are key tasks of 2011.
1. Stabilising macro-economy and controlling inflation
We implement the 2011 socio-economic development plan in the context of a predicted slower growth of the world economy, higher commodity prices than 2010, the likely spread of the public debt crisis in the Euro zone, the devaluation of the US dollar – the major currency in international payment, and the rise in gold price which will change investment channels and cause big fluctuations in the international financial market.
In the country in 2010, the economy recovered and attained a relatively high growth rate (6.78 percent), exports increased sharply (25.5 percent), trade deficit represented only 17.3 percent of export revenues and deficits in balance of payments was reduced dramatically. However, the high inflation and interest rates and the fluctuations of the exchange rate have put pressure on macro economic stability, caused difficulties to business and production activities and threatened sustainable growth. In 2011, efforts need to be focus on reinforcing macroeconomic stability and controlling inflation which are considered a key task.
The gap between savings and investment must be narrowed, unnecessary projects cut to concentrate resources on projects that create new production and export capabilities and essential socio-economic infrastructural facilities, budget overspending and trade deficit must be cut and inflation curbed. Recent years’ reality has proved that macro policy must convey clear messages in order to create confidence for the market and make orientations for business and production activities. It is a must to closely follow the world and domestic economic movements, improve forecast capability, make active and sharp reactions, flexibly use monetary policies’ tools under the market principles, restrict the use of administrative measures when unnecessary, increase the interbank market’s efficiency in stabilising and regulating capital sources among credits organisations, and closely combine financial policy with monetary policy to stabilise the macro economy and control inflation. It is necessary to increase monitoring the activities of credits organisations, securities companies, investment funds so as to ensure honest business activities and abide by safety standards.
2. Strongly starting the economic restructuring process and changing the growth model
To focus on perfecting institutions and creating a healthy land market based on the principle that land is national asset and farmers’ main production material. The State and people who hand over the land use rights must be those who benefit from transferring land use rights. This is a basic principle to make land policies and market.
To accelerate the reform of State-owned enterprises (SOEs). Although the SOEs reform is a content of business restructuring, it is a condition to create an equal competitive environment for all economic sectors – a criteria of the market economy. The orientation and main content of the SOEs reform are to speed up the equitisation and renovation of State corporations and groups. State economic groups and corporations should focus on major fields of the national economy and change from operating in various fields to specialised fields so as to implement the restructuring policy. They should promote renovation and creativeness, raising the efficiency and creating long-term competitiveness to take part in the global production network and value chain. It is important to place State businesses in the competitive environment and stipulate quality criteria for business operation. The renovation of mechanisms and organisations should be conducted to raise the responsibility and the effectiveness, efficiency of State management and owners’ management for SOEs. Compulsory auditing mechanism must be implemented and auditing results should be made public.
In 2010, it is a must to strongly carry out the supporting industrial development programme, considering it as a key content of the restructuring of industrial production sectors. It is an urgent need to perfect the mechanism and policies for development and management of the supporting industry. A link must be created between manufacturing and assembling enterprises, local firms and foreign investors in selecting and developing supporting industry in product groups based on the market’s need and with state orientations, focusing on a number of engineering products, electric and electronic appliances and IT products. Foreign investors are encouraged to invest in development of supporting industry.
It is necessary to strongly develop high-value-added services which have widespread effects, such as tourism, distribution, transport, logistics and seaport services, in order to take advantage of the country’s geo-economic position in the global supply chain. Improvement of the management mechanism should be made to accelerate healthy development of financial services and real estate business. The national IT development programme should be implemented, with the aim of turning Vietnam into an IT power by 2020.
Efforts should be made to raise awareness on the important and strategic role of agriculture in the national industrialisation and modernisation process, and to implement the 7 th Party Central Committee Resolution on agriculture, farmers and rural areas. It is necessary to accelerate the implementation of the programme on building new-styled rural areas. The State increases investment and encourages enterprises to develop socio-economic infrastructure in rural areas, invests in biotechnology, processing industry to produce high-yield, high-quality and competitive products. Examinations should be stepped up on the compliance to food safety and hygiene standards from production, processing, circulation to consumption. More investment should be made in storage and preserving systems to prevent losses and ensure goods’ quality, regulation of supply-demand, price stability.
3. Creating favourable conditions for businesses to invest in production and business development and expand markets, focusing on the following tasks:
To perfect investment policies and mechanisms to mobilise resources for development investment and improvement of investment efficiency; expand forms of investment under the BOT, BT forms, quickly issuing regulations on public-private-partnership (PPP) cooperation for traffic system development, especially major projects. To speed up administrative procedure reform in investment, establishment of land use rights, customs procedure and taxation, helping reduce business expenditure for enterprises.
To improve businesses’ access to capital. The development bank’s operations should focus on supporting small- and medium-sized enterprises; increase this bank’s fundings for credit guarantee and project appraisal capacity. Priority should be given to credit resources for key products, while considering a system of allocating credit quota for business areas based on their contributions to GDP and export turnover.
To develop support services for business start-up. It is necessary to accelerate trade promotion, overseas market expansion to help sharply increase exports, while increase quality checks of imported commodities to protect consumers and encourage domestic production. More attention should be paid to the domestic markets, especially rural ones. The Campaign “Vietnamese use made-in-Vietnam product” should intensified.
4. Developing socio-cultural areas, focusing on urgent issues
To effective build and implement the 2011-2020 social security strategy, the sustainable poverty reduction programme and the job placement programme for the 2011-2015 period, with the aim of reducing the poverty rate by 2 percent in 2011 under the new criteria; developing insurance types and expanding social security network.
To complete policies on medical examination and treatment and hospital fees. To speed up construction of hospitals using the State budget, encourage economic sectors to invest in building hospitals; sending more doctors to district- and commune-level hospitals, ensuring compatibility between facilities, equipment and medical workers who use the equipment, improving quality of medical check and treatment at grassroots hospitals, to reduce the burden of provincial and central-level hospitals. State management on medicines, food hygienic safety is required to strengthen.
To take comprehensive measures to improve education quality; continue to implement approved education-training projects; focusing on both two contents in the quality of general education which are knowledge and morality. The teaching staff, teaching and learning conditions should be improved to expand scale of tertiary education and improve its quality; building a number of high-quality universities and colleges under cooperation programmes with foreign countries, international organisations. Vocational training must be strongly developed with quantity and structure suitable to market demand, focusing on vocational training for the supporting industry. Rapid development of the technology market is needed. Incentives must be issued for businesses to apply and renew technology in order to promote economic restructuring, and the shifting of growth model.
To continue pushing up the movement of “All people unite to build cultural life” focusing on establishing of cultured behaviour, abolishing superstitions, and making each person behave and live in a cultured manner.
To implement information dissemination activities to raise awareness on environmental protection among people and businesses. Checks, inspection and strict punishment of law violations must be intensified. It is necessary to implement the national target and action plan on climate change resilience, sea and river embankment upgrading programmes, flooding control solutions for major cities and effective response to natural disasters.
To highlight the responsibility of Party organisations and authorities at all levels, promoting the roles of the Fatherland Front, mass organisations, the people and media in the fight against corruption and waste. It is a must to effectively implement anti-crime and social evil programmes, ensuring traffic safety order.
5. Accelerating completion of management mechanism based on the principles of ensuring the people’s democratic right and promoting the synchronous formation of the market economy’s elements. It is a need to review decentralisation system to ensure that the central management on development planning is strengthened to fully tap comparative advantages in inter-region vision to save human resources and ensure economic scale while promoting the proactive, creative and responsible role of localities. Preparations for elections of the National Assembly, people’s councils and consolidation of the administrations at all levels for the new term must be done in accordance with the requirements of building a streamlined, more effective and efficient state administrative apparatus, focusing on serving people as the main function of administrations at all levels.
Together with the above-said tasks, we have to attach importance and well implement national defence, security, diplomacy tasks, creating a stable peaceful environment for socio-economic development, firm protection of national independence sovereignty and territorial integrity.
The Government and ministries, localities have to pay attention to preparation for the Tan Mao (the Year of the Cat) Lunar New Year festival, take synchronous measures to ensure commodities supply, control prices, maintain social order and security, and traffic safety, and care for the poor and welfare beneficiaries to ensure that all people enjoy a happy, healthy and economical Tet festival.
Over the past time, the entire Party, people and army actively gave opinions to draft documents to submit to the 11 th National Party Congress. We firmly believe that the Congress will set out a strategy to meet the country’s development requirement. The good implementation of the strategy, first of all fulfilling the 2011 tasks, is a practical work to translate the 11 th Congress Resolution into reality and carry out Uncle Ho’s statement teaching: “the Party needs to make good plans for economic and cultural development, in order to unceasingly improve the people’s life.”/.
I. National situation and international circumstance
1. In continuing to follow the Party’s renovation guidelines, we have, during the 2001-2010 period, created new driving force for the national development.
By expanding democracy in the economy through stipulating and enacting the Enterprise Law, promoting the development of privately-run economy, stepping up State-owned enterprise equitisation and foreign investment attraction, implementing administrative reforms with the focus on administrative procedures, participating deeply and broadly into regional and international integration process, and joining the World Trade Organisation, we have been able to tap our country’s inner strength and potential, make use of external resources and combine national strength with the power of our times.
During a decade of implementing the 2001-2010 strategy under effects from the regional crisis and adverse impacts from the global crisis, our country has weathered a great array of difficulties, challenges, as well as complex developments in the global economy to record immense and very important achievements. The draft 2011-2020 socio-economic development strategy gives an overview of the major results we have gained as well as problems and difficulties and draws lessons from reality.
2. We enter a new strategic phase in the context of rapid changes and unexpected fluctuations occurring in the word. The following is the prominent tendencies.
(1) The leaping development of science and technology; the formation of the knowledge-based economy, the use of energy-saving and environmentally-friendly technologies; the development of a green-economy. These will be seen as the major driving force to change the global economic and market structures and boost economic reforms and restructuring in each country as well as economic structure shifting among countries. Each country will accept the process naturally or in a proactive manner depending on its own internal capacity and policies.
(2) Deeper and broader globalisation and economic connectivity, thus pushing up the internationalisation of production and labour assignment and shaping a global production network and a global value chain. In that context, competition will increasingly be fiercer. Accordingly, developing an independent, self-reliant, and highly-competitive economy will become our country’s biggest economic challenge in the next decade.
(3) The growing role of newly-emerging economies, especially the robust development of India and China , will change the balance of economic and political power in the world. Holding a crucial geostrategic position, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has been making deeper and broader integration, thus facilitating each member country’s development and affirming its major role in regional architecture that is taking from. However, there are risks hidden in this region that may affect stability and development in our country as well as other countries in the region.
After crisis, the global economy’s recovery has been occurring slowly and full of contradictions; the public debt crisis is still spreading and threats of a monetary warfare yet being eliminated. In that circumstance, policy adjustment made by countries, especially powerful countries, will amplify risky level and uncertainty.
In parallel with that, environmental degradation and climate change, particularly sea level rise, to which our country is among a few that will be hardest affected, can become a big variable in our country’s development course.
With such ample challenges and opportunities, never has the international circumstance exerted such big influence on our country’s development. The question is what we must do and what position we will stand in this complicated movement.
The draft strategy has defined the viewpoints to serve as the basis for determining goals and outlining development orientations for the 2011-2020 period that suit the national circumstance and international context and ensure their unity with long-term goals set forth in the draft Platform.
II. New progress in development thought
1. Viewpoints on development
The viewpoint on sustainable development as presented in this draft strategy pursue a new internal perception which reflects the close link between fast development and sustainable development and considers sustainable development a requirement that run-through the Strategy. The viewpoint aims to handle the relations between economic development and socio-cultural development in the right way to achieve social progress and fairness and protect the environment. It emphasizes securing a fast growth rate, narrowing the development gap with other countries, and at the same time eliminating the way of thinking that focuses on growth rate rather than growth quality.
In the renovation course over the past 25 years, our Party begun with economic reform, making it the key in liberating all resources available in our country. This step is necessary and correct. However, when the economic renewal has recorded great achievements and economic relations made basic changes, it is essential to carry out economic and political renewals concurrently to promote a comprehensive renewal. This reflects our Party’s accurate awareness on moves to be taken and the dialectics of development of the renewal process. The draft strategy underlines that “renewal should be taken in a simultaneous and proper manner in both economic and political spheres towards the goal of building a Socialist Republic of Vietnam into a strong, democratic, just and civilised country with rich people. The implementation of this goal must be taken as the highest standard to evaluate the effectiveness of the renewal and development process”.
The focus of political renewal is to perfect the content and breath a new life into the Party’s leading methods, combine Party committees’ power and responsibilities in performing their leading role, broaden democracy in the Party and the entire society with the aim of bringing into full play the State agencies’ active role, the people’s great creative capability and the strength of the national great unity bloc in the national construction and defence.
We are living in the era of globalisation during which economic competition is taking place fiercely. Each country tries to seek ways to make the best use of its available comparative advantages and turn them into competitive advantages and at the same time creating new competitive ones. Though being very important available comparative advantages, natural resources and geo-economic location are, however, not the most decisive factors. Reality has proved that human resources are an internal dynamic factor which decides a nation’s long-term competitive advantage. This is especially right at a time when science and technology – human being’s intellectual product has made leaping developments as seen in our era. Moreover, economic development goals are eventually set for the people, thus a person can develop comprehensively, leads a life that is materially and spiritually rich, has intellectual ability and is able to utilize his/her creative ability, while aware of the inevitable so that he/she is able to master himself/herself as well as society and reach freedom. The draft strategy highlights the viewpoint of “maximising the human factor, considering the people the subject, the key resource and the target of development”. It also emphasises the need to enhance capacity and create mechanisms to enable the people to fully exercise their rights to mastery, especially to direct democracy, to bring into full play all forms of creativity and ensure a high consensus in society, thus creating a driving power for the country’s development.
The viewpoint of “strongly developing production forces with increasingly high scientific and technological levels while at the same time perfecting production relations in the socialist-oriented market economy” lays stress on a new, important requirement of production forces and production relations.
Production forces need to rely on growingly high scientific and technological level, which reflects the trend that science and technology has become a direct production force while production relations in the socialist-oriented market economy must ensure that “all economic sectors and all forms of enterprises develop in a fast and harmonious manner. The State economic sector’s potential, strength and efficiency are enhanced. The State economy holds the leading role and acts as an important material force to help the State regulate and orientate the national economy, thus contributing to stabilising the macro-economy. The collective economy is developed in diverse forms with cooperative playing the core.”
The State economy not only comprise State-owned enterprises but also other resources owned by the State, including the state budget, land, natural resources and national reserve. Through development policies and effective regulating and allocating mechanisms, these resources will be factors to activate and direct the implementation of structural policies and socio-economic development in general. Hence, the State economy’s leading role does not involve only materials resources but also in policy impacts and the State’s ability to use these resources effectively. This role is not only involve economic development either, but also socio-economic development in general. This requires us to study again and re-define the operation and management mechanisms of State enterprises.
Apart from defining the State economy’s leading role, the draft strategy stresses on the need “to create an equal environment for competition among all economic sectors, encourage the development of multi-ownership forms of production and business mainly joint stock businesses to make this economic form popular in the national economy, thus speeding up socialisation of production, business and ownership. Mechanisms and policies need to be perfected for the strong development of the private economy, turning it into one of the driving forces behind the national economy.”
Beginning with economic integration, countries are expanding their integration course to other fields as part of an objective process. In order to be active and proactive in our international integration and improve the effectiveness of the process, we need to “build an increasingly independent and self-reliant economy in the context of wider and deeper international integration”. It is very necessary to stress in the current circumstance. Only when the country’s economic potential and business forces are strong, then the national economy is robust and the country’s position in integration is heightened. The more effective our integration is, the more favourable conditions we can enjoy to build an independent and self-reliant economy.
2. The strategy’s goals and breakthrough points
The draft strategy outlines the general goals of “striving to turn our country basically into a modern industrialised country by 2020; with stable, democratic, rule-governed, and consensual politics-society; the people’s spiritual and material life is enhanced remarkably; independence, sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity are maintained; Vietnam’s position in the international arena continues to be heightened; and a firm premise will be created for the country to develop further in the next phase.”
Taking economic development as the core, the general goals and specific targets mentioned in the draft strategy constitute the unity of economy, social affairs, politics, defence and security. They combine mid-term tasks with long-term development requirements to become the “Party’s second platform” with the aim of deploying tasks set in the first phase of implementing the Platform.
To achieve these general goals and specific targets, we need to carry out simultaneously various solutions and make breakthroughs in areas with blocked points which are hindering development. Once these areas are cleared, premises will be created for us to liberate all potential and effectively exploit all resources for development. The draft strategy plans to make three breakthroughs as follow:
Firstly, to perfect the socialist-oriented market economy institution, focusing on forming an environment of equal competition and administrative reform. The good point of the market economy has is the rational distribution of resources in accordance with the market’s signals, thus increasing the economy’s common efficiency. The market economy can only be perfected when all factors and all kinds of markets are formed synchronously within an environment of equal competition. Competition is an inherent character of the market economy. Through competition, businesses are forced to seek ways to cut down production costs and increase productivity – which in the final analysis is the decisive factor for the triumph of a mode of production, a social regime. The market economy is always run by administrative institutions and procedures. Thus, in order to perfect the socialist-oriented market economy institution, it is necessary to accelerate administrative reform, creating favourable conditions to people and businesses. On the other hand, the market economy that we are building is a socialist-oriented market economy, in which economic development must be in harmony with socio-cultural development and the implementation of social progresses and justice in every step and every development policy. Therefore, the State should have proper policies and effectively use regulation tools in order to deal with problems caused by the market economy.
Secondly, to rapidly develop human resource, especially the high-quality one, focusing on reforming basically and comprehensively the national education system; and combine closely the development of human resource with the application of scientific and technological advances. Human beings are the subject producing all material and spiritual products. Humans create institutions, develop and apply sciences and technologies, and are the most important productive force. Hence, to basically and comprehensively renew the national education system in order to develop the human resource, especially high-quality one, must be seen as a strategic breakthrough. This is both an urgent demand and a long-term task. The need to combine closely the development of the human resource with the development and application of sciences and technologies is a new content, showing the target of the human resource development. Only the human resource that is able to develop and apply scientific and technological advances in production and management work can obtain a high productivity for a rapid and sustainable development.
Thirdly, to build a comprehensive infrastructure system and a number of modern projects, concentrating on large-scale urban infrastructure and transport systems. Infrastructure is a “link’ for productive factors to shift and a condition for the socio-cultural development in regions of the country. The weakness of the infrastructure system now is a big obstacle for socio-economic development, increasing costs, reducing competitiveness, preventing the converging and spreading effects from inner factors, as well as the use of our country’s geo-economic location in the global chains of supply, and threatening to expanding the gap in living conditions between regions in the country. In the next ten years, we should mobilise all resources to make this breakthrough.
3. Directions for development
Based on the above-mentioned points of view and overall targets, the draft strategy maps out 12 directions for development, forming a synchronous system of major solutions in all fields of economy, society, environment, national defence, security and external relations as a perfect whole of sustainable development; ensuring the combination of two strategic tasks of building socialism and defending the socialist republic. The following are the some new contents:
It can be said that restructuring the economy, shifting the development model, developing social fields in harmony with developing the economy and environmental protection are the most important ideas as well as the new points in the development thought.
The restructuring of the economy is not an issue to be considered only in the context of crisis. This process happens in progress or by leaps and bounds in correspondence with the development of sciences, technology and the shift of competitive advantages between countries. The content and pace of restructuring depends on the specific conditions in each country. For our country, the restructuring of the economy must be conducted synchronously in the fields as follows:
(1) To accelerate industrialisation and modernisation process, push up the economic restructuring, increase rapidly the proportion of industry and services in GDP. In the other hand, it is necessary to attach importance to the long-term strategic role of agriculture in stabilising the society, ensuring food security and improving farmers’ living conditions.
(2) To restructure production and services sectors, focusing on developing supporting industries and hi-quality services of big added value in order to produce competitive products capable of joining the global production network and value chains. At the same time, we must build a commodity agriculture using high technology in order to increase value added on an unit of land acreage; closely combine scientific-technological application with production, production and processing with distribution within a value chain, ensuring the harmony of interests among links of this value chain, and agricultural development with the building of new-styled areas.
(3) To restructure enterprises, continue renewing State-owned businesses, and strongly develop private ones. In parallel, each enterprise must conduct self-restructuring to adapt to the technological and market changes in order to increase productivity, quality and efficiency.
(4) To pay more attention to the domestic market. Businesses should develop the distribution network of domestic market in order to dominate this market, using it as the base to reach further to the world markets, expand export markets and effectively exploit the markets that join free trade agreements.
(5) To adjust investment mechanism and increase investment efficiency. The State concentrates investment on developing human resource and most essential socio-economic infrastructure projects, at the same time mobilising resources of economic sectors for development investment. To encourage investment in production of big value added products, supporting industries and those using clean technologies. To limit investment in mining industry and industries occupying large acreages of land or using a lot of energy, and to reject low-tech investment projects polluting the environment.
Implementing the contents of the above-mentioned restructuring requires the shifting from the growth model that depends on increasing investment capital, exploiting natural resources and low-quality human resource to the in-depth growth model that relies on applying new scientific and technological achievements and using skillful human resource and modern management skill. These factors are closely related to one another and have an integrated impact and a decisive role in raising the efficiency of capital utilisation, increase labour productivity and competitiveness. Science and technology are the decisive motive power and human beings play the central role who invent and use science and technology and execute management functions. Only can modern management skills bring into play the impacts of the two factors.
Changing the growth model is an objective requirement of the development process, particularly in the context of globalisation and fierce competitiveness but it is impossible to act under one’s wish. Premises and conditions must be created for the shifting process. These premises and conditions are strategic breakthroughs. Hence, the first years of the coming strategic period should focus on settling breakthroughs and logically combining wide-scale and in-depth growth towards the in-depth model.
Economic restructuring and changing the growth model require the efforts of all branches, authorities at all levels and the business community in which the State is responsible for paving the way and providing assistance while businesses are the subject and the major force of the process.
Socio-culture is a broad field with interactive associated contents and has a strong impact on economics, all fields of life, each person and the whole community. Culture forms a value system of a nation, creates an identity of a nation and is an important factor in the development thought. President Ho Chi Minh said “culture lights up the road for people”. The draft strategy aims for “the comprehensive development of socio-cultural fields in harmony with economic development, and the good handling of the relationship between economy and culture to turn culture into a real spiritual foundation for the society and a development driving force.” The draft strategy sets the requirement of basic and comprehensive reform of the national education to increase the human resource’s quality. This is a highlight in the draft strategy, aiming to overcoming shortcomings and weaknesses and creating new developments in socio-cultural fields.
Over the past years, the Party and State have always paid attention to ensuring social security and welfare for the people with documents with regulations on a number of concrete policies. The draft strategy outlines a system of uniform and comprehensive viewpoints and policies which will serve as a foundation for the development of an effective and sustainable social security and welfare system.
Manifesting a full awareness of the threat of environmental pollution, climate change and rising sea level to sustainable development, the draft strategy presents basic directions and concrete targets regarding environmental protection and improvement, emphasising the requirement of environmental protection in each branch and locality’s development strategy and scheme as well as in each project, promoting the society’s involvement in environmental protection and environmental services’ development. The draft strategy lays stress on the implementation of programmes to cope with climate change, particularly rising sea level, and accelerating international cooperation in this global issue.
4. Raising the effectiveness and efficiency of State management
To successfully implement the strategy with the above mentioned contents, unceasing efforts are required to perfect the mechanism of the Party leadership, the State management and people’s mastery. The draft strategy manifests more profound awareness of the relationship among three components of the mechanism in the context of our Party being the only one holding power and the existence of a socialist law-governed State. The Party plays the leading role while the people are the masters; the Party performs its leadership by the State and through the State. In this mechanism, the people entrust the State with implementing the management power with the basic function of creating an environment for development and serving development. It is a must to set the request of enhancing the Party leadership in the relationship with increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of the State management and bringing into play the people’s right to mastery. The draft strategy defines the State’s functions of management and facilitation of development, the relationship between the State and the market; puts forward solutions to renovate the Party’s leadership modes and raises the effectiveness and efficiency of State management; and emphasises the requirement of bringing into play the role of the Vietnam Fatherland Front, socio-political organisations and the people’s right to mastery in Party building and the State construction. Together with finalising institutions to exercise democracy and increase direct democracy, the draft highlights social critics’ role and the responsibility of explanation of State agencies at all levels. Social critics and the responsibility of explanation contribute to, perfecting policies and increasing management and leadership capability.
III. Creating a strong change in the first year of implementing the strategy
The 2011-2020 strategy’s viewpoints and orientations must be included in the 2011 socio-economic development plan. The Government has reported and the National Assembly has adopted a Resolution on the 2011 socio-economic development plan which comprehensively puts forward targets, tasks and big solutions. Following are key tasks of 2011.
1. Stabilising macro-economy and controlling inflation
We implement the 2011 socio-economic development plan in the context of a predicted slower growth of the world economy, higher commodity prices than 2010, the likely spread of the public debt crisis in the Euro zone, the devaluation of the US dollar – the major currency in international payment, and the rise in gold price which will change investment channels and cause big fluctuations in the international financial market.
In the country in 2010, the economy recovered and attained a relatively high growth rate (6.78 percent), exports increased sharply (25.5 percent), trade deficit represented only 17.3 percent of export revenues and deficits in balance of payments was reduced dramatically. However, the high inflation and interest rates and the fluctuations of the exchange rate have put pressure on macro economic stability, caused difficulties to business and production activities and threatened sustainable growth. In 2011, efforts need to be focus on reinforcing macroeconomic stability and controlling inflation which are considered a key task.
The gap between savings and investment must be narrowed, unnecessary projects cut to concentrate resources on projects that create new production and export capabilities and essential socio-economic infrastructural facilities, budget overspending and trade deficit must be cut and inflation curbed. Recent years’ reality has proved that macro policy must convey clear messages in order to create confidence for the market and make orientations for business and production activities. It is a must to closely follow the world and domestic economic movements, improve forecast capability, make active and sharp reactions, flexibly use monetary policies’ tools under the market principles, restrict the use of administrative measures when unnecessary, increase the interbank market’s efficiency in stabilising and regulating capital sources among credits organisations, and closely combine financial policy with monetary policy to stabilise the macro economy and control inflation. It is necessary to increase monitoring the activities of credits organisations, securities companies, investment funds so as to ensure honest business activities and abide by safety standards.
2. Strongly starting the economic restructuring process and changing the growth model
To focus on perfecting institutions and creating a healthy land market based on the principle that land is national asset and farmers’ main production material. The State and people who hand over the land use rights must be those who benefit from transferring land use rights. This is a basic principle to make land policies and market.
To accelerate the reform of State-owned enterprises (SOEs). Although the SOEs reform is a content of business restructuring, it is a condition to create an equal competitive environment for all economic sectors – a criteria of the market economy. The orientation and main content of the SOEs reform are to speed up the equitisation and renovation of State corporations and groups. State economic groups and corporations should focus on major fields of the national economy and change from operating in various fields to specialised fields so as to implement the restructuring policy. They should promote renovation and creativeness, raising the efficiency and creating long-term competitiveness to take part in the global production network and value chain. It is important to place State businesses in the competitive environment and stipulate quality criteria for business operation. The renovation of mechanisms and organisations should be conducted to raise the responsibility and the effectiveness, efficiency of State management and owners’ management for SOEs. Compulsory auditing mechanism must be implemented and auditing results should be made public.
In 2010, it is a must to strongly carry out the supporting industrial development programme, considering it as a key content of the restructuring of industrial production sectors. It is an urgent need to perfect the mechanism and policies for development and management of the supporting industry. A link must be created between manufacturing and assembling enterprises, local firms and foreign investors in selecting and developing supporting industry in product groups based on the market’s need and with state orientations, focusing on a number of engineering products, electric and electronic appliances and IT products. Foreign investors are encouraged to invest in development of supporting industry.
It is necessary to strongly develop high-value-added services which have widespread effects, such as tourism, distribution, transport, logistics and seaport services, in order to take advantage of the country’s geo-economic position in the global supply chain. Improvement of the management mechanism should be made to accelerate healthy development of financial services and real estate business. The national IT development programme should be implemented, with the aim of turning Vietnam into an IT power by 2020.
Efforts should be made to raise awareness on the important and strategic role of agriculture in the national industrialisation and modernisation process, and to implement the 7 th Party Central Committee Resolution on agriculture, farmers and rural areas. It is necessary to accelerate the implementation of the programme on building new-styled rural areas. The State increases investment and encourages enterprises to develop socio-economic infrastructure in rural areas, invests in biotechnology, processing industry to produce high-yield, high-quality and competitive products. Examinations should be stepped up on the compliance to food safety and hygiene standards from production, processing, circulation to consumption. More investment should be made in storage and preserving systems to prevent losses and ensure goods’ quality, regulation of supply-demand, price stability.
3. Creating favourable conditions for businesses to invest in production and business development and expand markets, focusing on the following tasks:
To perfect investment policies and mechanisms to mobilise resources for development investment and improvement of investment efficiency; expand forms of investment under the BOT, BT forms, quickly issuing regulations on public-private-partnership (PPP) cooperation for traffic system development, especially major projects. To speed up administrative procedure reform in investment, establishment of land use rights, customs procedure and taxation, helping reduce business expenditure for enterprises.
To improve businesses’ access to capital. The development bank’s operations should focus on supporting small- and medium-sized enterprises; increase this bank’s fundings for credit guarantee and project appraisal capacity. Priority should be given to credit resources for key products, while considering a system of allocating credit quota for business areas based on their contributions to GDP and export turnover.
To develop support services for business start-up. It is necessary to accelerate trade promotion, overseas market expansion to help sharply increase exports, while increase quality checks of imported commodities to protect consumers and encourage domestic production. More attention should be paid to the domestic markets, especially rural ones. The Campaign “Vietnamese use made-in-Vietnam product” should intensified.
4. Developing socio-cultural areas, focusing on urgent issues
To effective build and implement the 2011-2020 social security strategy, the sustainable poverty reduction programme and the job placement programme for the 2011-2015 period, with the aim of reducing the poverty rate by 2 percent in 2011 under the new criteria; developing insurance types and expanding social security network.
To complete policies on medical examination and treatment and hospital fees. To speed up construction of hospitals using the State budget, encourage economic sectors to invest in building hospitals; sending more doctors to district- and commune-level hospitals, ensuring compatibility between facilities, equipment and medical workers who use the equipment, improving quality of medical check and treatment at grassroots hospitals, to reduce the burden of provincial and central-level hospitals. State management on medicines, food hygienic safety is required to strengthen.
To take comprehensive measures to improve education quality; continue to implement approved education-training projects; focusing on both two contents in the quality of general education which are knowledge and morality. The teaching staff, teaching and learning conditions should be improved to expand scale of tertiary education and improve its quality; building a number of high-quality universities and colleges under cooperation programmes with foreign countries, international organisations. Vocational training must be strongly developed with quantity and structure suitable to market demand, focusing on vocational training for the supporting industry. Rapid development of the technology market is needed. Incentives must be issued for businesses to apply and renew technology in order to promote economic restructuring, and the shifting of growth model.
To continue pushing up the movement of “All people unite to build cultural life” focusing on establishing of cultured behaviour, abolishing superstitions, and making each person behave and live in a cultured manner.
To implement information dissemination activities to raise awareness on environmental protection among people and businesses. Checks, inspection and strict punishment of law violations must be intensified. It is necessary to implement the national target and action plan on climate change resilience, sea and river embankment upgrading programmes, flooding control solutions for major cities and effective response to natural disasters.
To highlight the responsibility of Party organisations and authorities at all levels, promoting the roles of the Fatherland Front, mass organisations, the people and media in the fight against corruption and waste. It is a must to effectively implement anti-crime and social evil programmes, ensuring traffic safety order.
5. Accelerating completion of management mechanism based on the principles of ensuring the people’s democratic right and promoting the synchronous formation of the market economy’s elements. It is a need to review decentralisation system to ensure that the central management on development planning is strengthened to fully tap comparative advantages in inter-region vision to save human resources and ensure economic scale while promoting the proactive, creative and responsible role of localities. Preparations for elections of the National Assembly, people’s councils and consolidation of the administrations at all levels for the new term must be done in accordance with the requirements of building a streamlined, more effective and efficient state administrative apparatus, focusing on serving people as the main function of administrations at all levels.
Together with the above-said tasks, we have to attach importance and well implement national defence, security, diplomacy tasks, creating a stable peaceful environment for socio-economic development, firm protection of national independence sovereignty and territorial integrity.
The Government and ministries, localities have to pay attention to preparation for the Tan Mao (the Year of the Cat) Lunar New Year festival, take synchronous measures to ensure commodities supply, control prices, maintain social order and security, and traffic safety, and care for the poor and welfare beneficiaries to ensure that all people enjoy a happy, healthy and economical Tet festival.
Over the past time, the entire Party, people and army actively gave opinions to draft documents to submit to the 11 th National Party Congress. We firmly believe that the Congress will set out a strategy to meet the country’s development requirement. The good implementation of the strategy, first of all fulfilling the 2011 tasks, is a practical work to translate the 11 th Congress Resolution into reality and carry out Uncle Ho’s statement teaching: “the Party needs to make good plans for economic and cultural development, in order to unceasingly improve the people’s life.”/.
