Decision No. 115/2001/QD-TTg dated August 01, 2001 of the Prime Minister ratifying the overall planning for development of Vietnam’s construction materials industry till 2010

DECISION

RATIFYING THE OVERALL PLANNING FOR DEVELOPMENT OF VIETNAM’S CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS INDUSTRY TILL 2010

THE PRIME MINISTER

Pursuant to the Law on Organization of the Government of September 30, 1992;

At the proposals of the Construction Ministry in Reports No. 05/TTr-BXD of January 11, 2000 and No. 2346/BXD-VLXD of December 20, 2000;

At the proposal of the Ministry of Planning and Investment in Official Dispatch No. 512-BKH/CN of January 31, 2001 and proceeding from opinions of the concerned ministries,

DECIDES:

Article 1.-To ratify the overall planning of Vietnam’s construction materials industry till 2010, with the following principal contents:

1. Objectives:

To develop the production of construction materials in order to fully meet the domestic and export demands.

2. Viewpoints on the overall planning for development of Vietnam’s construction materials industry till 2010:

Regarding technology: To quickly absorb the world’s advanced technologies and equipment and combine them with the domestically manufactured technologies and equipment in order to build up as soon as possible a modern technological foundation, which shall be automated at a higher and higher level, ensure the Vietnamese and international environmental standards and be capable of turning out products up to the international standards and highly competitive on the regional and world markets.

Regarding scale and capacity: To choose suitable production scales, combine large, medium and small scales, thereby maximizing the capabilities of the existing construction materials production establishments, and synchronize their equipment in order to get the best of local advantages on raw materials and materials, market and manpower, especially for mountainous and Central Highland provinces.

Regarding the mobilization of investment capital source: To diversify investment forms and economic sectors joining the investment in order to mobilize investment capital at home and abroad.

Regarding investment management: To manage and make investment in development of the construction materials industry according to the planning, with investment modes and forms suitable to local characteristics, economic fields and project types.

To harmoniously and synchronously combine the production and consumption with other economic sectors, such as: communications and transport, supply of technical supplies, infrastructure construction, ... in order to support the development demand of the domestic construction materials industry. And at the same time, to fully tap the capabilities of relevant branches, such as: mechanical engineering; metallurgy; informatics; automation, to as to research into the designing and manufacture of technological equipment and spare parts for the construction materials industry as import substitutes.

The development of construction materials industry must ensure the economic efficiency, rational use of natural resources at home, protection of ecological environment, historical-cultural relics, natural scenery, security and national defense.

3. Orientating the planning objectives (see Appendices I, II and III):

The construction materials industry shall have to continue investing in the development of a number of basic materials, such as: cement, building materials, roofing materials, walling and flooring materials, building stone, porcelain sanitary ware, construction glass, construction sand, refractory materials, lime, paints, etc., and at the same time to attach importance to the research into and development of new materials in service of the construction industry and society’s demand. Orientations set for a number of particular materials shall be as follows:

a/ Cement:

To continue implementing the Prime Minister’s Decision No. 970/1997/QD-TTg of November 14, 1997 ratifying the planning for development of cement industry till 2010. In the course of materializing a number of the branch’s general targets, the Prime Minister shall issue specific decisions to readjust them to suit the situation.

From the year 2003 onward, the cement joint-ventures with foreign countries shall have to export cement according to the percentages already committed in joint venture contracts and stipulated in investment licenses. From the year 2004 onward, the target of cement export volume (excluding those turned out by joint ventures with foreign parties) shall reach one million tons/year or more.

b/ Building materials:

To reorganize the production of and trading in hand-made building materials in localities, in order to minimize the use of cultivable land and construction of manual brick kilns not under the planning, which cause environmental pollution in suburban areas, cities, provincial towns and district townships. To step by step develop non-baked bricks in regions where heating materials are not available, then proceed to do away with the production of clay bricks baked by manual kilns in suburban areas before 2005 and other regions before 2010.

To continue improving technologies and stabilizing the production of the existing brick tunnel kilns.

To invest in the building of several more small-sized tunnel-kiln brick production chains with an output of 7-10 million bricks/year and furnished with domestically manufactured equipment.

c/ Roofing materials:

To develop and stabilize the production of metal and non-metal roofing materials. To pay attention to the investment in development of non-baked roofing tiles in regions where high-quality clay is not available, such as the northern mountainous region, the Central Highlands and the southern Central Vietnam.

The construction materials industry must devise plans for research into and use of materials as substitutes for asbestos in production of roofing sheets. To tightly control the existing establishments producing asbestos roofing sheets according to the environmental and health standards, not to increase their output and not to make new investment in establishments producing asbestos roofing sheets. From 2004 onward, not to use asbestos materials in the roofing sheet production.

d/ Walling and flooring tiles:

To develop a wide variety of flooring tile categories, with special attention paid to large-size categories, walling tile categories suitable to Vietnamese climate and exportable products. The export target set for the period from 2005 onward is at least 20% of the annual production output.

To invest in the technological renewal in order to elevate the mechanization and automation level in the existing production chains.

To research into and produce enamel and color materials for walling and flooring tiles and porcelain sanitaryware as import substitutes. To develop industry of exploiting and processing raw materials for production of walling and flooring tiles and porcelain sanitaryware.

e/ Porcelain sanitaryware:

To match the output and quality of auxiliary parts with those of porcelain sanitary ware, meeting the domestic and export demands. The export target set for the period from 2005 onward is at least 20% of the annual production output.

To invest in building more establishments which produce high-quality porcelain sanitaryware to meet domestic demand and raise their exportability.

f/ Construction glass:

To deploy investment in establishments which produce high-quality glass to meet the domestic and export demands.

The export target set for the period from 2005 onward is at least 30% of annual production output, including investment projects of joint venture with foreign countries.

To deploy the research into and production of other construction glass products: mineral fiber and glass fiber, composite materials.

g/ Refractory materials:

To make intensive investment in a number of existing production establishments to raise their capacity and quality of their products capable of substituting for imports.

To invest in some more production chains to attain a gross annual output of 115,500 tons of refractory bricks by 2010.

h/ Construction stone:

To continue expanding the existing construction stone exploiting establishments and building new ones to meet the domestic construction demands. Particularly, the stone demand of the Mekong river delta region must be satisfied. Construction stone producing establishments must ensure the economical use of natural resources, protection of environment and tourist sceneries, historical and cultural relics and step-by-step modernization of construction stone-manufacturing industry.

i/ Construction sand:

To restructure the State-run and non-State sand exploiting establishments on the basis of rational exploitation regionalization, with a view to protecting natural resources, water conservancy works and rivers’ flows.

To organize concentrated sand storing areas and devise plans for supply of sand or sand substitutes in Central Highlands, the northwestern and northeastern regions.

j/ Other construction materials categories:

The construction materials industry must conduct the research into and investment in new kinds of construction materials, such as: artificial boards of various kinds; composite materials; glass materials; water-proof and mold-proof paints of various kinds; construction materials made of light, impermeable, saline-resistant and durable aggregate; PC50 and PC60 cement; concrete additives; materials for treating weak ground base, such as: absorbent sponge, geo-technical fabrics and nets, additives for earth cohesion and other special-type materials.

(The lists of construction materials of various categories to be developed, total output value thereof, demands for raw materials and fuels, labor and investment capital of the construction materials industry are specified in Appendices I, II and III enclosed herewith).

Article 2.-Implementation measures:

1. The Construction Ministry shall coordinate with the concerned ministries and localities in working out the development planning for each category of construction materials till 2010 according to regions and territories in conformity with the overall planning.

It shall study the policy of supporting units engaged in the manufacture of equipment, spare parts, supplies and raw materials for Vietnam’s construction materials industry, particularly cement, walling and flooring tiles and porcelain sanitaryware industries for the immediate future.

2. The Trade Ministry shall coordinate with the concerned ministries in studying and proposing non-tariff measures for protection of domestic production after Vietnam fulfills its commitment with the AFTA, and tightly control the import of asbestos materials for roofing sheet production, then proceed to stop the import of asbestos materials for roofing sheet production by 2004.

3. The Industry Ministry shall conduct survey, exploration and assessment of reserves of raw materials for production of construction materials with high reliability in timely service of the elaboration of long-term plan and annual investment and construction projects.

The Industry Ministry shall assume the prime responsibility and coordinate with the Construction Ministry and the concerned ministries as well as branches in working out plans for organization of research, designing and manufacture of equipment, spare parts and supplies to be supplied to the construction materials industry.

4. The Ministry of Communications and Transport shall coordinate with the Construction Ministry in working out plans for investment in infrastructure for the construction materials industry, such as: specialized and non-specialized transport means, loading and unloading means, riverport and seaport system, railroads and land roads for transport of supplies and raw materials for production and sale of products.

5. The Ministry of Education and Training shall coordinate with the Construction Ministry in working out programs for training of skilled workers and engineers to meet the development demand of the construction materials industry in three forms of new training, upper-level training and retraining.

6. The Ministry of Planning and Investment shall coordinate with the concerned ministries and branches in studying support policies and seeking investment capital sources for projects of the construction materials industry.

7. The Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment shall coordinate with the Construction Ministry in working out plans for stepping up scientific, technical and technological activities in the field of construction materials, aiming to absorb the world’s and regional technological and technical advances, raise the research and consultancy capability in the construction management, administration and supervision, technology transfer and market expansion. It shall also promulgate regulations on technology, technical standards and environment for management of the branch’s development.

The Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment shall coordinate with the Health Ministry and the concerned ministries and branches in inspecting the establishments producing roofing sheets as well as the quality of roofing sheet products using asbestos materials, and allow the continued production and circulation of such products only when they are up to the environmental and health standards.

Article 3.-The Construction Ministry shall base itself on the objectives, viewpoints and targets of this planning to monitor and direct the implementation thereof. It shall organize the periodical assessment of the planning implementation and propose readjustment of the planning to make it suitable to the specific economic and social conditions of the whole country.

Article 4.-This Decision takes effect 15 days after its signing.

Article 5.-The ministers, the heads of the ministerial-level agencies, the heads of the agencies attached to the Government, the presidents of the People’s Committees of the provinces and centrally-run cities, the managing boards of the State corporations and the heads of the concerned agencies shall have to implement this Decision.

APPENDIX I

PRODUCTION CAPACITY OF THE CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS INDUSTRY
(Issued together with the Prime Minister’s Decision No. 115/2001/QD-TTg of August 1, 2001)

APPENDIX II

THE GROSS OUTPUT VALUE OF VIETNAM’S CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS INDUSTRY
(Issued together with the Prime Minister’s Decision No. 115/2001/QD-TTg of August 1, 2001)

APPENDIX III

THE CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS INDUSTRY’S DEMANDS FOR TECHNICAL
SUPPLIES, LABOR AND INVESTMENT CAPITAL
(Issued together with the Prime Minister’s Decision No. 115/2001/QD-TTg of August 1, 2001)