Directive No. 16/2001/CT-TTg on elaborating the plan for socio-economic development and drafting the state budget for 2002

DIRECTIVE

ON ELABORATING THE PLAN FOR SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND DRAFTING THE STATE BUDGET FOR 2002

In execution of the Resolution of the National Assembly on the tasks and the draft State budget for 2001, the Government has issued new policies and mechanisms aimed at making the full use of the internal forces and focusing guidance on removing hindrances in each concrete activity. As a result, in the first six months of 2001 the economy continued to maintain a fairly good growth rate, cultural and social activities have recorded many advances and the political situation and social security remained stable.

However, the socio-economic situation is still fraught with many difficulties and has evolved complicatedly and the tasks to be done in the last months of 2001 are extremely heavy. In order to fulfill the tasks of the 2001 plan, the Prime Minister requests the ministries, branches, localities and grassroots to focus on carrying out well the Resolutions of the National Assembly, the solutions to socio-economic development set out in resolutions of the regular Government meetings in 2001 and Resolution No. 05/2001/NQ -CP of May 24, 2001 of the Government on the addition of a number of solutions to the execution of the 2001 economic plan; at the same time to begin elaborating the 2002 plan with the following main requirements and contents:

I. CONTENTS AND MAIN TASKS OF THE 2002 PLAN

1. Guideline and main tasks of the 2002 plan

2002 is the second year to carry out the orientation and tasks of socio-economic development in the 2001-2005 five-year plan adopted by the IXth National Party Congress. The elaboration of the 2002 plan must be done simultaneously with the elaboration of the 2001-2005 five-year plan. The 2001-2005 five-year plan must be reflected and concretized in the contents of the 2002 plan of each ministry, branch, locality and Corporation 91.

In the elaboration of the 2002 plan, the Prime Minister requests the ministries, branches, localities and Corporations 91 to concentrate on the following main tasks:

a/ To strive to attain an economic growth rate not lower than 7.5%. To assure stable and sustainable development of the economy and create conditions to achieve a higher economic growth rate in the following years.

- To continue restructuring agricultural production and rural economy. To strive to get an increase of more than 4.8% in the value of agricultural production, forestry and fishery. To build areas of specialized farm products suited to the potentials and advantages of each region. To apply science and technology to production, especially agricultural production. To link agriculture to the processing industry, to link production to the consumer market. To continue studying and issuing policies of assistance to the production and consumption of a number of important agricultural products of high economic value which are competitive and have consumer market. To vigorously develop the crafts and infrastructure in the countryside in order to move agricultural labor to non-agricultural jobs. To improve the living standards of the rural population. To take the initiative in coping with adverse evolution of weather.

- To develop industry at a high tempo associated with the consumer market of the products. To strive to get an increase of more than 13% in the value of industrial production, to attach importance to intensive investment, renovation of equipment, and application of advanced technologies. To develop those industries which have competitive advantages, processing industries, export processing industries, hi-tech industries, especially information technology, telecommunications and electronic industries. To encourage all economic sectors to invest in developing industrial production of different scales and levels. To encourage the development of medium and small enterprises suited to advantages of each region or each locality. To carry out the equitization of State enterprises at the planned tempo and to create all favorable conditions for the equitized enterprises to embark on stable production.

To remove the encumbrances so that goods can be circulated smoothly on the domestic market, particularly in the countryside and mountain areas. To take measures to further raise the purchasing power of the population. To further diversify the forms of service. To strive to increase the value of services by more than 7.5%. To improve the quality of services, to develop tourism, to continue to build the infrastructure of tourism, to develop the post and telecommunications, transportation, financial, banking, audit, legal consultancy, scientific and technological services, etc.

b/ To heighten the effect of economic relations with foreign countries. To increase the trade promotion, to consolidate the traditional markets, at the same time to broaden and develop new markets, to raise the competitiveness of goods in order to rapidly increase the export turnover. To import only materials and equipment essential to production and business. To create favorable conditions to attract foreign direct investment, especially in exports-production industries, and the processing of farm produce, hi-tech industries, new materials, electronics, and into the industrial parks, export processing zones, and hi-tech parks. To attract and effectively use ODA capital.

c/ To continue restructuring the State budget in the direction of increasing budget allocation to development investment, strict economization along with raising the effect of the use of State capital and properties. To adopt a rational collection policy in order to assure the collection task while fostering the source of revenues. To continue consolidating and raising the quality of the banking system’s activities.

To work out policies to maximize the mobilization of domestic capital source, to quickly increase the capacity of disbursing and attracting foreign capital; to concentrate investment on projects with high socio-economic efficiency and impact on many economic branches and a high export rate. To assist in budgetary capital sources the regions still meeting with many difficulties, to allot a sizable portion to education, training, science, technology and environment, cultural and social activities.

d/ To continue renovating and developing education and training, to develop the job-training system. To step by step readjust the scale and structure of training suited to the needs of developing human resources in service of the industrialization and modernization task. To conduct the reform of the educational program at the general education level. To begin the universalization of basic secondary education, first of all in the eligible regions. To mobilize and use all resources for education and training. To promote scientific and technological activities, to adopt mechanisms to quickly apply scientific and technological advances to production. To increase the environmental protection.

e/ To effectively solve the urgent social problems, first of all the employment problem. To continue carrying out well the national target programs, especially the program of famine eradication and poverty alleviation, to build the infrastructure for the poor regions and poor communes; to gradually raise the living standards of different strata of the population. To adopt synchronous mechanisms and policies to ensure the development and raising the quality of the cultural, social, educational and healthcare activities. To promote the socialization in the fields of education, health, culture, physical training and sports in order to mobilize more social resources and develop these domains.

f/ To consolidate national defense and security, to combine national defense with economic development. To ensure order and discipline in economic and social activities.

g/ To promote the administrative reform, to restructure and renovate the managerial apparatus of the State in all branches and at all levels.

Apart from the above-mentioned tasks, it is necessary to continue perfecting the elaboration of the 5-year plan and submit it to the National Assembly for approval at the 10th session. The ministries, branches, localities and Corporations 91 must thoroughly understand Directive No. 26/2000/CT-TTg of December 13, 2000 of the Prime Minister on raising the quality of the elaboration of the 2001-2005 five-year socio-economic development plan in the ministries, branches and localities. The ministries, branches, localities and Corporations 91 shall have to base themselves on the socio-economic development strategy in the ten years of 2001-2010 and the orientation for the 2001-2005 five-year plan already adopted by the IXth Party Congress, to fully forecast their possibilities in tapping the potentials of the ministries, branches, localities and Corporations 91, to work out their objectives, tasks and main targets as well as measures to implement the plan.

2. State budget tasks

a/ The draft State budget revenues must ensure resources to carry out the important tasks of the country while implementing the policy of encouraging accumulation, creating conditions for the enterprise sector to develop, and creating the source of sustainable revenues in the spirit of the Resolution of the IXth Party Congress. The draft State budget must be determined on the basis of the analysis and forecast of the factors of economic growth, market, prices, and comprehensive estimates of the effects of policy readjustment, the collection regime (high-income tax on high income earners, collection of charges and fees...); to fully implement the regulations already issued concerning the encouragement of production and business, increase exports, broadening of the market; to carry out measures to improve the management of revenues, intensify the fight against under-collection, the fight against smuggling and trade fraud; to fulfill the commitments in the process of regional and world integration; the draft State budget must have a high degree of positiveness, firmness and feasibility; the drafting of the State budget in 2002 must aim to mobilize from 20% to 21% of GDP, of which tax and charge collection shall represent 18-19% of GDP. The draft revenues of the ministries and localities shall have to increase at least 10% over the figures achieved in 2001.

b/ The draft State budget expenditures shall concentrate on carrying out the task of socio-economic development, ensuring national security and defense; at the same time they must embody the principle of thriftiness, ensuring a rational ratio between regular expenditures and development investment expenditures. They also have to increase reserve for spending in order to actively cope with natural disasters such as floods and handle unexpected tasks.

- The capital from the State budget must be spent on concentrated investment in socio-economic infrastructures, with priority given to key projects of the State which have an important significance for the socio-economic development in the 2001-2005 period and the projects to be completed and put into operation in the year; capital must be set aside to prepare investment in the important projects and constructions to commence in the coming years. Enough reciprocal capital must be made ready for the foreign-invested projects and projects under Program 135 of the Government.

- Assistance to production and business must concentrate on these activities: producing key products, key branches; renovating technology, raising the quality of products, especially farm products for export; transforming and developing plant seeds and animal breeds, restructuring the crops and livestock; assisting the trade promotion activities, broadening and searching for market, supplying market information, promoting export; assisting the reform and restructure of the State enterprises; providing financial assistance in carrying out the task of development investment credit of the State, and assistance to post-investment interest rate.

- The State budget shall have to spend on the wage reform for the persons receiving wages from the State budget, and to provide allowances for those with meritorious services to the revolution and for the beneficiaries of social welfare policies covered by the State budget; to carry out the policy of pruning payroll staff at the administrative agencies and public-service units; to carry out the training and fostering of officials and public employees; to increase investment for the program of hunger eradication and poverty alleviation; to invest in socio-economic development in the mountain, deep-lying and remote areas which are still meeting with difficulties; to assure expenditures for education, training, science, technology and environment according to the Resolution of the IXth Party Congress; to ensure the accomplishment of the national defense and security task.

- With regard to the national target programs: They shall be carried out in compliance with Decision No. 71/2001/QD-TTg of May 4, 2001 of the Prime Minister on the national target programs in the 2001-2005 period.

- To implement the mechanism of revenues and expenditures contract with regard to the public-service units having revenues (including the additional wage resulting from the wage reform); the State budget shall make up for the disparity (if any) between expenditures and revenues of the units and shall keep this subsidy unchanged for three years; to broaden the mechanism of payroll and administrative expenditures contract for the administrative agencies at the central level and in localities.

c/ To balance the State budget on the basis of ensuring that tax and fee sources can cover the reasonable regular expenditures, repayment of due debts and accumulation for development investment. State budget deficit must be kept at a level suited to the possibilities of borrowing domestic loans and preferential foreign loans.

d/ On the draft local budgets:

As prescribed by the State Budget Law, the localities shall have to draft their budgets for 2002 on the principle of building the draft budgets in the stable period (2000-2002). The localities shall base themselves on the ratio of allocation of revenues and the additional allocations from the central budget to the local budgets (if any) made by the Prime Minister in 2001 and the draft revenues in 2002 in the localities to balance their local budgets and draft their expenditures in 2002, in which the supplementary allocations from the central budget to the local budgets are estimated to increase by 3% over the addition in 2001, including the target addition of a regular character and the addition to realize the wage increase in 2001. The draft expenditures of the budget in 2002 shall give priority to the building of the infrastructures, to the solidification of the irrigation canals and rural roads; to increase expenditures for the transformation and development of plant seeds and animal breeds, promotion of the restructuring of the crops and livestock, trade promotion, broadening of and search for export markets; to ensure expenditures for developing education and training, science, technology and environment, healthcare, culture...; to increase investment in the hunger eradication and poverty alleviation, job creation, the fight against social evils; to perform the reserve work for local budgets as prescribed by the State Budget Law and the current documents guiding such law.

- To continue carrying out the mechanism of drafting expenditures for a number of targets corresponding to the whole or part of the revenues from the agricultural land use tax, land rent, land use levy... as currently prescribed.

- To carry out the mechanism of investment in building the infrastructure of the border-gate economic zones from the revenues of the State budget on the territory of such border-gate economic zones as prescribed in Decision No. 53/2001/QD-TTg of April 19, 2001 of the Prime Minister on the policy toward the border-gate economic zones.

- In 2002, together with implementing the mechanism of bonus on surplus revenues under the State Budget Law, the bonus system shall continue on the surplus collection of the items as divided in 2001.

II. TEMPO OF PLAN ELABORATION AND ASSIGNMENT OF TASKS

1. On the tempo

Because the elaboration of the 2002 plan takes place along with the perfection of the 2001-2005 five-year plan, the ministries, branches and localities shall have to assure the following tempo:

a/ The ministries, branches and localities shall complete their five-year plans according to the guiding documents of the Ministry of Planning and Investment and send them to the Ministry of Planning and Investment before August 30, 2001 for integration and submission to the National Assembly in October 2001.

b/ Before July 2001, the Ministry of Planning and Investment and the Ministry of Finance shall provide guidance for the framework plan and the direction for budget allocation in 2002 to the ministries, branches and localities to serve as basis for the latter to elaborate their plans.

c/ Before September 2001, the ministries, branches, the People’s Committees of the provinces and centrally-run cities and Corporations 91 shall report their socio-economic development plans and State budget estimates in 2002 to the Ministry of Planning and Investment and the Ministry of Finance.

d/ The Ministry of Planning and Investment and the Ministry of Finance shall discuss the 2002 plan with a number of ministries, branches and localities in order to make an integrated report for submission to the leading agencies of the Party and State, while drafting the plan of assigning targets of the plan and budget for submission to the Standing Committee of the National Assembly.

2. On the assignment of tasks

a/ The Ministry of Planning and Investment shall coordinate with the Ministry of Finance in calculating and elaborating plans and major balances as basis to guide the ministries, branches and localities in the elaboration of their plans in 2002.

b/ The Ministry of Planning and Investment shall guide the elaboration and integration of the socio-economic development plan and discuss with the ministries, branches and localities on this plan; it shall also assume the prime responsibility and coordinate with the Ministry of Finance in drawing up the plan for development investment and allocation of investment for capital construction to the ministries and central agencies.

c/ The Ministry of Finance shall notify the guiding number on State budget draft revenues and expenditures in 2002 and guide the ministries, branches and localities in building the draft State budget; it shall assume the prime responsibility and coordinate with the Ministry of Planning and Investment in discussing with the provinces and cities on the draft State budget revenues and expenditures of the localities, discuss with the ministries and centrally-run branches on the projected assignment of targets for regular expenditures and integrate the State budget draft revenues and expenditures.

d/ The other ministries and branches shall coordinate with the Ministry of Planning and Investment and the Ministry of Finance in working out the task of socio-economic development and the draft budget in the domains under their charge. The ministries and agencies controlling the national programs shall coordinate with the Ministry of Planning and Investment and the Ministry of Finance in discussing with the related ministries, central agencies and localities on the tasks and the projected expenditures in 2002 for the implementation of the programs in the areas under their charge.

e/ The ministries and State agencies shall, depending on their functions, and on the basis of the calculation of their exploitable resources, build up their socio-economic targets and solutions, including specific mechanisms and policies, new regimes and new policies or suggestions for amendment and supplement to the current regimes and policies as basis for planning and drafting the budgets and shall notify the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the Ministry of Finance, and related ministries and agencies before drawing up their draft budgets.

f/ The People’s Committees of the provinces and centrally-run cities shall guide, organize and direct the provincial/municipal Planning and Investment Services, the Finance and Pricing Services to closely coordinate with the other services, departments and branches in elaborating their plans for socio-economic development and draft their State budgets and submit them to the People’s Councils for decision.

The Prime Minister requests 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 General Directors of Corporations 91 to organize the implementation of this Directive.