Laws of Vietnam

THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF THE SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF VIETNAM

1. General objectives

To continue controlling inflation, stabilize the macro economy, maintain a reasonable and sustainable growth rate, proactively prevent economic decline and assure social security; to step up international economic cooperation and integration in a proactive and effective manner; to firmly preserve political stability, ensure defense, security and social order and safety; to create conditions for the successful implementation of the 2006-2010 socio-economic development plan.

2. Major targets

a/ Economic targets:

Total gross domestic product (GDP) will increase about 6.5%.

The added value of the agricultural, forestry and fishery sector will increase 2.8%, the industrial and construction sector 7.4%, and the service sector 7.3%.

Total export value will rise 13%.

Total development investment capital from the entire society will account for 39.5% of GDP.

The consumer price index will increase under 15%.

b/ Social targets:

The number of provinces reaching lower-secondary education universalization standards will increase to 55.

Newly enrolled university and college students will increase 11.4%; newly enrolled professional secondary school students, 15.6%; and newly enrolled collegial and intermediate-level vocational training school students, 18%.

The birth rate will decrease 0.2'.

Employment will be created for about 1.7 million laborers, including 90,000 overseas guest workers.

The poor household rate will drop to 12%.

The malnutrition rate among under-5 children will fall to below 19%.

The number of patient beds per 10,000 persons will be 26.85.

The area of urban dwelling houses per capita will be 12.2 m2.

c/ Environmental targets:

79% of rural population will have access to hygienic water.

85% of urban population will be supplied with clean water.

65% of seriously polluting establishments will be treated.

82% of solid waste will be collected.

65% of hazardous waste will be treated.

75% of medical waste will be treated.

65% of operating industrial parks and export processing zones will have systems treating wastewater up to environmental sanitation.

The forest coverage rate will be 39.8%.

II. MAJOR TASKS

The National Assembly basically approves the groups of tasks and solutions proposed by the Government, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuracy and the recommendations made by the National Assembly Standing Committee, the Committee for Economic Issues, the Nationalities Council and other Committees of the National Assembly in verification reports and issue-based oversight reports, while emphasizing the following major tasks:

1. To closely follow, and increase the quality of analyses of and forecasts about, the domestic and international situations, especially world economic and financial developments, proactively prepare plans to cope with and limit negative impacts of world crises on the country's financial and banking system and the economy as a whole.

To continue implementing a tightened monetary policy to curb inflation while flexibly administering interest and exchange rates, proactively control the increase in total payment instruments, outstanding credit debts and a proper credit structure in order to facilitate production and business development. To increase the liquidity of commercial banks and assure safety of the national financial system. To scrutinize legal documents concerning the financial, monetary and banking domains for appropriate amendment and supplementation. Credit institutions shall administer lending interest rates on the basis of the State Bank-prescribed prime interest rate in accordance with law and may grant loans at agreed interest rates to a number of highly effective production and business projects.

To closely control and increase the effectiveness of public spendings immediately from the approval of the 2009 investment plan, thoroughly practice thrift in spending; make public the list of key works and projects funded with the state budget and government bonds, channeling funds for transport, irrigation, power and social welfare works which need to be completed in 2009 and the first quarter of 2010. To issue specific plans on the issuance of government bonds and issue them according to the disbursement capability, ensuring the effective use of funds raised from government bonds.

2. To remove difficulties and problems for enterprises and facilitate their access to capital, especially for small- and medium-sized enterprises, export enterprises, craft village enterprises and enterprises producing daily-life consumer goods, in order to create jobs and increase incomes for laborers; to prioritize solutions to promoting agricultural production, aquatic and marine products, and creating conditions for farmers to have savings from agricultural production. To assign the Government to prepare specific plans to assist enterprises through financial and tax policies consistent with the WTO commitments. To study the setting up of funds to assist cash-trapped enterprises and address financial crises in necessary cases.

To mobilize all resources for production and business investment and development and improvement of product and goods quality and competitiveness. To continue improving the investment and business environment, ensuring equality, publicity, transparency and high competitiveness. To adopt policies to encourage investment in and application of science and technology to production and business to create added value for products and protect the environment.

To conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the operation of state enterprises, especially economic groups and state corporations, for reporting to the National Assembly at the 2009 year-end session; to complete the legal framework aiming to reorganize and enhance the management of the operation of economic groups and state corporations, especially their state-funded investments. To apply management policies and measures appropriate to the position and role of state enterprises in the country's socialist-oriented market economy.

3. To further implement the National Assembly's Resolution No. 36/2004/QH11 on capital construction investment using state capital, review, amend, supplement and complete legal provisions on construction, bidding, land and state budget; to timely promulgate guiding documents, ensuring uniformity, consistency, non-overlap and non-contradiction; to prescribe sufficiently harsh and strict handling measures.

To attach importance to and raise the planning quality, review and improve the master plan on socio-economic development and other plannings, aligning the capital construction investment planning with related plannings. To comprehensively review and evaluate the decentralization of investment management and organizational models of management of capital construction investment so as to make appropriate modifications; to promote inspection, examination and audit in order to prevent in time wrongdoing and violations. To raise investment effectiveness and the rate of state capital disbursement, especially for government bond capital. To end ineffective and thinned-out investments, losses and waste immediately at the stages of planning and decision on investment policy. In 2009 and before the end of 2010, to thoroughly handle capital construction debts incurred before 2008.

To combine state funds with capital of other sources for increasing investments in agriculture and rural areas under the Resolution of the 7th plenum of the Party Central Committee (Xth Congress) on agriculture, farmers and rural areas, promoting economic restructuring. To restructure sources of capital construction funds, increasing capital construction budget for poor provinces, mountainous areas and localities where it is difficult to attract capital of other sources for infrastructure investment.

To emphasize the examination and guidance on the attraction of foreign investment in line with sectoral and regional development plannings. To promulgate mechanisms and policies for mobilizing social resources for the development of auxiliary industries and processing industries associated with large foreign-invested projects.

4. To closely control import, particularly the import of non-essential consumer goods, to minimize trade deficit; to develop, expand and diversify export markets, attach importance to traditional and new potential markets, encourage export production and diversify exports, especially those of high added value, and restrict the export of several natural resources and minerals.

To attach importance to domestic markets, intensify control of prices, combat of trade fraud, speculation, smuggling and price increase for making illicit profits. To implement price policies on schedule according to a state-managed market mechanism associated with inflation control; at the same time, to provide direct and reasonable supports for the poor and low-income earners who are most affected by state-initiated price increases.

5. To timely and fully implement policies already adopted to support ethnic minority people, policy beneficiaries, poor households, nearly poor households and inhabitants in difficulty-hit and disaster- and epidemic-stricken areas, low-salaried persons and pensioners. To increase the effectiveness of the implementation of poverty reduction programs; to make transparent and simplify procedures so as to provide in time allowances for people; to promulgate and implement development assistance policies for 61 poorest districts. To promulgate and apply a new poverty line.

6. To raise education quality at all grades and levels, especially teaching programs and the quality of teachers at primary and tertiary levels; to conduct a comprehensive review of the upgrading of colleges into universities and the founding of new universities to ensure corresponding investment in the construction of their material foundations and preparation of their teaching staff. To implement support policies for schooling children of social policy beneficiaries and inhabitants in areas with difficult socio-economic conditions; to conduct an all-sided evaluation for the continued effective implementation of policies on concessional loans for vocational training school students. To conduct a final review of the implementation of the National Assembly's Resolution No. 40/2000/QH10 on renovation of the general education program for reporting to the National Assembly at the 2009 year-end session.

To assess the implementation of the Publication Law, detail its provisions towards increasing the responsibility of publishing houses and state management agencies in charge of publication and strictly handling the distribution of works with unhealthy contents running counter to the nation's fine customs and habits.

To develop mechanisms and policies to vigorously mobilize capital of all sources in society so as to increase the quality of treatment and services at public medical establishments; to examine the management and use of government bond funds invested in district-level hospitals; to invest in developing human resources in the health service to meet the requirement of raising the medical examination and treatment quality and professional ethics; to intensify the examination and control of medicine quality and prices.

7. To perfect mechanisms, strengthen the organizational apparatus, increase the examination, inspection and investigation in order to promptly discover, prevent and strictly handle violations of the laws on environmental protection, food safety and hygiene and hospital wastes, ensuring community health. To perfect the system of legal documents on environmental protection, amend and supplement the Penal Code with a view to stringently punishing environmental offenses, increasing the levels of administrative sanctions and damage compensation for remedying consequences, increasing their deterrent, educational and preventive nature.

8. To further accelerate administrative reform so as to make a new substantial step forward, focusing on administrative procedures and public-duty responsibilities and heightening of personal responsibility. To attach importance to macro direction and administration; to clearly and reasonably divide and decentralize responsibilities and powers, promote close coordination among ministries, branches and localities.

To create a marked improvement in the combat and prevention of red tape, corruption and wastefulness, first of all in land management, capital construction investment and state capital and asset management. To raise personal responsibilities of leading officials of all levels and branches from central to local levels in the combat and prevention of red tape, corruption and wastefulness and the practice of thrift.

To raise the quality of the settlement of citizen complaints and denunciations; to concentrate on thoroughly settling complicated and prolonged complaints. To intensify the examination and urging of the enforcement of effective decisions on settlement of complaints and denunciations.

9. To ensure the progress of judicial reform, increase material foundations and working equipment for, and raise the quality of, investigation, prosecution, trial and judgment enforcement. To continue the effective implementation of the national program against crimes; to resolutely fight and strictly handle law-breaking acts, especially new crimes and organized crimes.

10. To increase the quality of the building of all-people defense and people's security in a new situation; to build the people's armed forces comprehensively strong, attaching importance to their equipment and other assurance conditions. To correctly and timely evaluate and judge the situation so as to help proactively handle any circumstances, ensuring national security and social order and safety; to firmly protect the country's independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity.

To ensure traffic order and safety, reduce traffic accidents and casualties. To effectively solve traffic jams in big cities.

To increase the effectiveness of external relation work and public information; to closely combine defense, security, foreign relation, information and propaganda tasks with socio-economic development tasks.

The Government, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuracy shall, based on their respective functions, organize the implementation of the National Assembly's Resolution with high effectiveness.

The National Assembly Standing Committee, the Nationalities Council, the Committees of the National Assembly, National Assembly deputies' delegations and National Assembly deputies shall oversee the implementation of this Resolution.

The Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front, its member organizations and other social organizations shall oversee and mobilize people of all strata to properly implement the National Assembly's Resolution.

The National Assembly appeals compatriots and soldiers all over the country and overseas compatriots to heighten the spirit of patriotic emulation, solidarity, strive their best, seize opportunities and surmount difficulties and challenges to successfully implement the 2009 socio-economic development plan, creating a precondition for comprehensively accomplishing the 2006-2010 socio-economic development plan.

This Resolution was passed on November 6, 2008, by the XIIth National Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam at its 4th session.