Laws of Vietnam

THE PRIME MINISTER

Pursuant to the December 25, 2001 Law on Organization of the Government;

At the proposal of the People's Committee of Ba Ria-Vung Tau province in Reports No. 42/TTr-UBND of January 5, 2006, and No. 3175/TTr-UBND of June 12, 2006; proceeding from the opinions of the Ministry of Planning and Investment in Official Letter No. 6849/BKH-TD&GSDT of September 15, 2006, on the approval of the master plan on socio-economic development of Ba Ria-Vung Tau province in the 2006-2015 period, with orientations towards 2020,

DECIDES:

Article 1.- To approve the master plan on socio-economic development of Ba Ria-Vung Tau province in the 2006-2015 period, with orientations towards 2020, with the following major contents:

1. Development viewpoints:

a/ To continue building the socialist-oriented market economy, encourage and create equal conditions for various economic sectors to develop, create environment for attracting investors in the province, the country and overseas to invest in Ba Ria-Vung Tau province;

b/ To actively integrate into the international and regional economies; strongly develop lines and domains with potentials and competitive edges;

c/ To associate economic growth with the achievement of social justice and progress, improving the material and spiritual life of people; to attach importance to the development of rural areas toward civilization, modernity, gradually narrowing the gap in enjoyment of basic social services and the income gap between rural areas, islands and urban cities;

d/ To step up the cause of education and training of human resources, considering human resources a decisive factor for socio-economic development;

e/ To synchronously coordinate production development with infrastructure development in various regions;

f/ To achieve sustainable economic development on the basis of protecting, regenerating and enriching marine, forest, land and water resources, protecting the environment, particularly ecological and marine environment;

g/ To closely coordinate economic development with the maintenance of defense and security, the building of the all-people defense and the people's security posture.

2. Development objectives:

a/ General objectives: To build Ba Ria-Vung Tau into an industrial province strong in marine economy with a system of national and international commercial ports and an industrial, service, tourist and fisheries center of the region and the whole country; to markedly raise the people's living standards; to firmly maintain defense and security.

b/ Specific objectives:

- The average GDP growth rate reaches 11.32%/year (or 17.49% if petroleum is excluded) in the 2006- 2010 period; 11.8% (or 16.58% if petroleum is excluded) in the 2011-2015 period; 11.13% (or 13.35% if petroleum is excluded) in the 2016-2020 period;

- To create vigorous improvement in economic structure in the direction of boosting the fast development of services, particularly tourist services, port and trade services; to develop modern technologies for higher productivity and better goods quality; to strongly restructure each economic sector to raise its efficiency, proceeding to develop the knowledge- based economy. The economic structure by 2010: industry and construction represent 79.34%; services: 18.74%; agriculture, forestry, fishery: 1.92% (which will be 58.04%; 38.07% and 3.89%, respectively, if petroleum is excluded). By 2020, the economic structure will be: industry and construction represent 61.55%; services increase to around 36.8%; agriculture, forestry and fishery: 1.65% (which will be 53.23%; 44.77% and 2%, respectively, if petroleum is excluded);

- The average per-capita GDP will reach around USD 11,460 by 2010, up by 3.15 times over 2000; and around USD 27,000 by 2020, up by 2.36 times over 2010;

- To strongly develop external economy, striving to boost export to achieve USD 5.8 billion by 2010 (or USD 523 million if petroleum is excluded). The average export growth rate (excluding petroleum) reaches 12%/year in the 2006- 2010 period and 9-10%/year in the 2011-2020 period; the export turnover reach USD 1 billion (excluding petroleum) by 2020;

- To mobilize around USD 6.4 billion of development investment capital (at the 1994 prices) in the 2006-2010 period; and around USD 31.3 billion in the 2011-2020 period;

- To create a substantial and comprehensive improvement in the education and training sector; attach importance to vocational training suitable to the province's socio-economic development demand; to raise the percentage of trained labor to over 50% by 2010 and over 80% by 2020; create jobs for laborers;

- By 2010, the natural population growth rate approximates 1%, the population will be around 1.026 million people, of which the urban population represents 57.3%. By 2020, the population will be stable at around 1.18 million people, of which the urban population represents 69.06%;

- To develop culture-information, conservation and renovation activities to bring into play the value of cultural and historical relics of the nation; build up cultural institutions according to planning; diversify physical training and sport activities and raise their quality; to raise the quality of health care and protection services for people; by 2010, the number of hospital beds reaches 25 per 10,000 inhabitants, then increases to 28 by 2015 and 30 by 2020. To well socialize cultural, medical and educational activities;

- To develop rural infrastructures in order to form a developed, civilized and modern countryside close to urban life. By 2010, 98% of the households will be supplied with electricity and 98% of the households with clean water; by 2020, 100% of the rural households will be supplied with electricity and 100% with clean water;

- To narrow the gap between regions, between population strata in the enjoyment of basic social services. By 2010, there will be basically no more poor households under the province's criteria (1.5 times higher than the national criteria) and continue to raise the people's living standards in the subsequent periods;

- To maintain defense, security, social order and safety, to ensure traffic safety and order, efficiently implement the four-decrease program (decreases in crimes, traffic accidents, drug-related evils, prostitution), minimize social vices; preserve the ecological environment and maintain sustainable development.

3. Development of lines and domains:

a/ Industrial development:

To develop key industries, based on the promotion of the province's potentials and strengths: To continue boosting petroleum exploration in order to increase the exploited volume, develop service industries in support of petroleum and industries using gas as raw materials or fuel; shipbuilding industry, port service industry in service of sea shipping. To step up marine product processing in service of export and domestic consumption, and pay attention to the development of industry producing construction materials from local raw materials.

- To concentrate investment on the completion of infrastructures of 9 industrial parks already set up in order to bring into play their efficiency. To additionally set up Kim Dinh industrial park of 100 ha and the hi-tech park of the province in Ba Ria provincial town. When the industrial parks are filled up by over 60%, investment shall be made to develop the industrial parks of Long Huong (400 ha) and Long Son (500-600 ha), the Ben Dinh petroleum port and service zone (100 ha);

- In each district, township or town, investment is to be made to develop a number of industrial and handicraft complexes to create conditions for development of small- or medium-sized enterprises, development of industries in service of agriculture, fisheries and rural economy, creation of jobs for local laborers;

- To develop and distribute industrial parks and industrial complexes on the basis of rational use of natural resources and labor and assurance of environmental requirements.

- To mobilize investment capital sources from various economic sectors at home and abroad for the development of infrastructures inside the fences of industrial parks and complexes; at the same time, the budget capital sources must be balanced to ensure the synchronized development of technical infrastructures outside the fences and the synchronized development of social infrastructures.

b/ Development of services:

- To develop services at high rates and with high quality, ensuring their comprehensive and sustainable development;

- To concentrate investment on tourist development with the following key tourist forms: forest-sea-island eco-tourism, historical and revolutionary relics-visiting tourism and convalescence tourism. To develop typical tourist products in Vung Tau, Con Dao in order to promote the local potentials and strengths and create conditions for fast and sustainable development;

- To develop trade in the direction of forming trade centers in cities and trade complexes in rural areas, the marketplace system. To organize forms of modern trade services suitable to local conditions. To tap advantages of agricultural and aquatic products for boosting export; at the same time, to develop hi-technique industrial parks, aiming to expand the export goods from the processing industry, increasing the export turnover. The export growth rate (exclusive of petroleum) will reach 12%/year in the 2006-2010 period and 9-10% in the 2011-2020 period; the export value (exclusive of petroleum) will reach USD 523 million by 2010 and over USD 1 billion by 2020;

- To bring into play advantages of the seaport system, developing petroleum services, maritime services, services of water transport, including inland water and sea transport. To develop international maritime services of various types at Thi Vai, Vung Tau and Con Dao port areas. To strive to reduce service charges and raise the competitiveness of sea transport services.

- To develop credit activities in association with service of economic restructuring with a view to achieving the socio-economic development objectives of the province. To set up and well manage the operation of such funds as the Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises Credit Guarantee Fund, the Risk Investment Fund, the Social Relief Fund. To develop business, financial brokerage, insurance activities, forming financial companies. To develop the systems of modern infrastructures up to international standards for the formation of a financial center in Vung Tau city after 2010.

c/ Development of agriculture, forestry, fishery:

- To build a commodity agriculture for sustainable development in association with building the rural areas with comprehensive economic-cultural-social development. To build the agriculture toward urban ecology, focusing on the building of a number of hi-tech agricultural zones, the application of bio-technologies, aiming to increase the output value and income per land area unit. To industrialize and modernize the rural areas, associating agricultural development with processing industry;

- To step up the restructuring of the agricultural sector in the direction of developing perennial industrial trees in service of export, developing vegetable and fruit production and husbandry;

- To continue investing in the construction of comprehensive irrigation systems, particularly completing Ray river reservoir; solidifying 100% of the canal systems, ensuring irrigation, drainage, salt-water prevention and flood control;

- To form concentrated and specialized agricultural production areas;

- To develop concentrated husbandry in the direction of industrialization and modernization, constantly sizing up the cattle herds and poultry flocks with high quality;

- To partly convert forestry land into non-agricultural land for creation of land fund for development of industrial parks, ports, tourist services and a number of urban centers and population quarters. The conversion of forestry land for other purposes shall be made on the basis of the land use planning and forestry development planning. For forestry land converted for the purpose of tourist development, only investment in form of eco-tourism is permitted, ensuring to promote the potentials, strengths and not to alter the forest nature; at the same time, to continue to improve forests for tourist development;

- To develop fisheries in the direction of efficient offshore fishing, attaching importance to the exploitation of marine products of high economic value, the post-exploitation preservation of marine products in order to increase their value; to protect marine product resources, banning all exploitation measures of extinction nature. To adjust the fishing structure to suit the characteristics of fishing grounds, fishing seasons. To develop aquaculture suitable to the characteristics and conditions of the existing water surface. To form aquaculture zones in association with the protection of submerged forests, agricultural production, irrigation, ecological environment protection. To encourage the development of high-capacity ships, limiting then proceeding to ban the building of ships of capacity below 90 CV, step by step replacing ship shell with those made of new and durable materials, saving wood.

d/ To develop healthcare, education and training, culture and information, physical training and sports:

- To invest in material foundations and equipment for grassroots healthcare network in order to realize the technical decentralization; by 2010, the district hospitals will reach grade-III hospital standards and 100% of the health stations reach the national health standards. After 2010, they shall be further upgraded to reach higher standards. To build high-quality hospitals and medical centers;

- To develop pre-school education, maintain the fruits of primary education and lower secondary education universalization and reach the standards of upper secondary education universalization in the province by 2010. To increase the rate of trained labor to 50% by 2010 and over 80% by 2020. To step up the socialization for development of education and training institutions;

- To build and modernize professional education and vocational training establishments in the locality. To plan land ground for the construction of a regional high-quality vocational training center in the province. To step up the socialization and mobilize capital sources for development of professional education and vocational training establishments in the province; to effect activities of training association with universities, intermediate professional and vocational training schools at home and abroad in order to organize training courses right in the province with a view to tapping the existing material foundations for the development of education and training. To raise the rate of trained labor to 50% by 2010 and over 80% by 2020;

- To develop culture and information, harmonizing the performance of information and propaganda tasks with the satisfaction of cultural enjoyment demands of people. To well implement the movement "the entire population unites in building a cultured life," building cultural infrastructures and grassroots institutions under planning. To develop culture-information activities, preserve and promote cultural values. To consolidate material foundation systems. To develop mass movements for physical training and sports; to maintain strengths in key sports of the province such as teakwondo, beach volleyball.

e/ Science and technology:

- To plan the development of direct production science and technologies (enterprise and production establishment science and technology), focusing on planning the construction of technical infrastructures of direct production science and technologies. To draw up key programs and projects, solutions, specific steps, assisting functional branches and relevant localities to follow the roadmap for science and technology to quickly develop into direct production forces;

- To build and soon commission provincial technological parks (also called the industrial "generation and nurture" parks, technological nurseries, enterprise nurseries, hi-tech agricultural zone, hi-tech parks'), which become the mainstay of the technical foundation system of direct production science and technologies;

- To formulate mechanisms and policies to encourage scientific and technological development, including mechanisms and policies to encourage the development of technological parks, technological products, to renew technologies and apply scientific and technological advances. Particularly, to encourage with priority enterprises to develop direct production science and technologies.

f/ Defense and security: Socio- economic development must be associated with the maintenance of defense and security in each locality, particularly sea areas and islands. To build up the all-people defense and people's security posture, ensuring the political stability and social safety in the localities. To build strong mobilization reserve forces and firm defense areas. To build and consolidate population areas on islands, develop islands where life can exist, contributing to firmly maintaining the national sovereignty over sea and islands.

4. Development of infrastructure systems: To concentrate investment on development of infrastructures in advance:

- To develop port system under the planning on port clusters in seaport group No. 5 and seaport group No. 8. To dredge canals, improve channels and build systems of seaports and inland water ports for development of sea and river transportation;

- To invest in important roads; build Vung Tau-Ho Chi Minh City expressway; to upgrade and expand national highway 51. To build the complete system of provincial roads. To continue building, upgrading and asphalting rural roads; to upgrade and build urban thoroughfares, particularly giving priority to investment in the traffic system in Phu My new urban center;

- In the 2006-2010 period, to further upgrade Co Ong airport for 150-seat aircraft. In the 2011-2020 period, to build Vung Tau airport and aviation service center in Go Gang;

- To study the construction of Bien Hoa-Vung Tau railway linking with industrial parks and ports so that the construction thereof can start in the 2011-2020 period;

- To raise the capacity and modernize the information and communications systems.

- To further expand the existing water plants while building a number of water supply systems. To expand urban water supply systems. To build new water supply systems in communes, upgrade the already constructed water supply systems;

- To concentrate investment on urban water drainage systems, building separate sewage systems for gathering rainwater and wastewater and building wastewater treatment stations of national standards. Separate treatment stations should be built in industrial parks according to their respective particularities. Industrial wastewater and hospital wastewater must be treated up to Standard B before being discharged into the common water drainage systems (underground sewage, canals, rivers,');

- To additionally build power transmission lines of 110 KV or 35 KV; power distribution grids of 15 KV and build source stations to meet electricity demand.

5. Environmental management towards sustainable development:

- To build daily-life waste and industrial waste treatment plants, wastewater treatment stations. To select clean technologies, detailing the regulations on import of technologies, equipment;

- To relocate marine product-processing factories in urban centers or population quarters to planned areas;

- To intensify inspection and supervision of waste sources of industrial production and tourist establishments;

- To divide environmental zones for appropriate measures;

- To supervise the discharge of wastewater, waste, oil and grease from vessels in sea areas of Ba Ria-Vung Tau province; to supervise activities at petroleum drilling platforms in the continental shelf, which may cause environmental impacts.

6. Organization of common spatial territory of the province:

To organize the central urban cluster and surrounding urban spots. The development space of radial form in Vung Tau-Ba Ria central urban cluster spreads from Southwest to Northeast along the direction of key national highways of 51, 55 and 56 running through the province. To develop coastal regions in form of eco-tourism intermingled with tourist urban spots. To develop district towns, townships of administrative services, agricultural or forestry production in form of pilot urban centers:

a/ Vung Tau city: is the biggest urban center reaching grade-II city standards, functioning as a tourist, petroleum service, financial, banking and port service center; in the 2010-2020, a new urban center will be developed in Long Son;

b/ Phu My new urban center: To reach the grade-IV city standards by 2010 and grade-III city standards by 2015. This is an industrial and port city;

c/ Ba Ria provincial capital: is the administrative center of the province; and at the same time the biggest trade exchange and commercial center in the province. It will be upgraded from current grade IV to grade III by 2010;

d/ To develop two district towns in Long Dien: Long Dien is the district center and Long Hai new district town functioning as a tourist township;

e/ To develop two district towns in Dat Do: Dat Do is the district center and Phuoc Hai is the tourist town;

f/ At Chau Duc, in addition to Ngai Giao which is the district center, Kim Long district town will be developed;

g/ At Xuyen Moc, in addition to Phuoc Buu which is currently the district center, the district towns of Hoa Binh, Binh Chau and Ho Tram will be developed;

h/ Particularly Con Dao will be developed into an economic-tourist- high quality service zone; in the period to 2010, the district towns of Con Son, Ben Dam and Co Ong will take shape with a population size of around 14,000 each. By 2020, a modern city will take shape in Con Dao and the whole island will be a big urban center.

7. Orientations for important investment programs, projects:

a/ To complete the infrastructures of an industrial province with the development on a par with the county's tops and the region;

b/ To continue investing in upgrading the existing road system up to international standards;

c/ To invest in upgrading the urban technical infrastructures up to the civilization and modernity standards, giving special priority to investment in the construction of infrastructures of Phu My new urban center;

d/ To basically complete the rural communication networks in the direction of formulating civilized and modern population quarters;

e/ To invest in the formation of systems of seaports and airports with stable sizes, creating conditions for development of transport services for the whole southern key economic region;

f/ To invest in the development of post and telecommunication systems with modern technologies and level on a par with the region;

g/ To call for and promote investment in development of some key projects in the service sector, especially tourist service;

h/ To formulate and materialize the investment program on coastal tourist development;

i/ To formulate investment projects on tourist development of the eastern and southeastern areas of the province in the direction of combining the development of biological conservation zones and tourist activities with agricultural and forestry development, environmental protection and sanitation;

j/ To invest in formulation of trade, financial and credit service centers with the application of modern technologies;

k/ To call for and promote big investment projects in the industrial sector;

l/ To continue investing in the completion of infrastructures of industrial parks already set up; to call for investment in the development of a number of new industrial parks and stabilize the network of industrial parks in the periods after 2010;

m/ To call for and promote investment in projects on development of petroleum exploitation and processing industry, transport service industry, particularly transport within determined industrial parks;

n/ To formulate investment programs for development of technical infrastructures and key projects in social development domains:

+ To formulate and realize investment programs on modernization of education and training institutions; scientific and technological research. To mobilize internal resources for socialization of education and training activities;

+ To formulate and realize investment programs on modernization of socio-cultural institutions;

+ To formulate and realize investment programs on modernization of medical and healthcare establishments.

8. A number of policies and general solutions to implementation of the master plan:

a/ To mobilize USD 6.4 billion of development investment capital in the 2006-2010 period and USD 31.3 billion in the 2011-2020 period (at the 1994 prices);

b/ To raise the human resource quality, which is the objective and also the motive of the province's socio-economic development, and materialize the strategy on human development; to focus on policies for comprehensive settlement of relations in all three aspects: human education and training, employment and job creation;

c/ To attach importance to scientific and technological development together with investment capital and human resource solutions, formulating groups of basic solutions to the mobilization and efficient use of resources for the implementation of the province's socio-economic planning;

d/ To implement macro-administration solutions while formulating comprehensive policies: policy on focal and pivotal development, policy on market, policy on development of multi-sector economy;

e/ To formulate appropriate mechanisms and policies with a view to solving such social problems as dwelling houses and jobs for relocated people whose land is recovered for execution of important projects or programs; policies on preferences for the poor;

f/ To encourage various economic sectors to make development investment, giving preferences to the application of scientific and technological advances to raising the growth quality and restructuring the economy towards industrialization and modernization;

g/ To enhance the implementation administration and organization in order to step by step put the master plan into life, with the following contents: disseminating and mobilizing people to implement it; concretizing its contents into agendas, working programs of the grassroots Party Committees and administrations; regularly updating its contents; concretizing the master plan on socio-economic development of the province into line development plannings, urban and rural construction plannings, overall plannings on socio-economic development of districts, provincial towns and city; into five-year and annual plans. To enhance the inspection and supervision of the implementation of the planning. Once approved, the master plan must be a document of legal nature, serving as a basis for development activities in the province; the Party organizations, the People's Councils, the People's Committees at all levels, mass organizations and all people shall inspect and supervise the implementation of the plan.

Article 2.- The approved master plan serves as a "framework" document with major development objectives and orientations, mechanisms, policies and implementation solutions; serves as a basis for the formulation, submission for approval and implementation of specialized plannings (construction planning, land use planning and plan and other specialized plannings), and investment projects in the province according to regulations.

Article 3.- To assign the People's Committee of Ba Ria -Vung Tau province to direct, based on the province's socio-economic development objectives, tasks and orientations stated in the approved planning, and coordinate with relevant ministries and branches in directing, the formulation, submission for approval and implementation according to regulations of the following:

- The report on strategic assessment of environmental impacts.

- The planning on development of the systems of urban centers and population spots, the general construction planning, the land use planning and plan, the planning on development of lines, domains and major products in order to ensure the comprehensive and synchronized development.

- To study the formulation, promulgation of, or submit to competent state bodies (for matters going beyond its competence) for promulgation, a number of mechanisms and policies suitable to the province's requirements in each period with a view to attracting and mobilizing resources for implementation of the plannings.

Article 4.- Relevant ministries and branches shall, within the scope of their respective functions, tasks and powers, assist the People's Committee of Ba Ria - Vung Tau province in studying the formulation of the above-said plannings; studying the formulation and submission to competent state bodies for promulgation of a number of mechanisms and policies suitable to the province's socio-economic development requirements in each period with a view to mobilizing and efficiently using resources, encouraging and attracting investment' in order to well attain the objectives, fulfill the tasks and materialize the orientations of socio-economic development stated in the planning report. To accelerate investment in and implementation of works or projects of regional scale and important for the province's development, in which the investment has been already decided. To study and consider the adjustment and supplementation of branch development plannings, plans on investment in works or relevant projects with expected investment as stated in the planning report.

Article 5.- This Decision takes effect 15 days after its publication in "CONG BAO."

Article 6.- The president of the People's Committee of Ba Ria -Vung Tau province, ministers, heads of ministerial-level agencies, heads of government-attached agencies, and presidents of provincial/municipal People's Committees shall implement this Decision.