Resolution No. 142/2016/QH13 dated April 12, 2016 of the National Assembly of Vietnam on the 2016-2020 five-year socio-economic development plan

RESOLUTION

On the 2016-2020 five-year socio-economic development plan[1]

THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY OF THE SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF VIETNAM

Pursuant to the Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam;

Considering the reports of the Government, the Supreme People’s Court, the Supreme People’s Procuracy, National Assembly agencies and concerned agencies, and opinions of National Assembly deputies;

RESOLVES:

I. Results of implementation of the 2011-2015 FIVE-YEAR socio-economic development plan

During the five years from 2011 to 2015, besides opportunities and advantages, the world’s and region’s complicated developments have had negative impacts on the country. The entire political system, businesses and people have endeavored to overcome numerous difficulties and challenges and spared no effort to implement the National Assembly’s Resolution with important outcomes. The economy’s scale and potential have been raised; the macro-economy has basically been stabilized while inflation has been curbed. The economic growth has been maintained at a reasonable rate and gradually recovered since 2013. Initial positive results have been yielded thanks to the direction given to restructuring the economy in association with renewing the growth model and realizing three strategic breakthroughs. Developments have been seen in the fields of education and training, science and technology, culture, society, health and environmental protection. The universalization of preschool education for 5-year children has been basically completed. Social security has been maintained and people’s living conditions increasingly improved. Socio-political stability and national defense and security have been consolidated. The country has shown resolve and persistence in its struggle to protect the national independence, sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity. External relations and international integration activities have become intensive, extensive and effective. Therefore, the country’s prestige has been enhanced in the international arena. The socialist democracy and strengths of the great national unity has been further promoted.

Nevertheless, there remain 10 socio-economic targets not yet achieved. Some targets and criteria for turning the country into a modernity-oriented industrial country by 2020 have not been reached. Limitations and weaknesses in the fields of education and training, application of science and technology, culture, society, health and job creation have slowly been addressed. Limitations have also been seen in response to climate change, natural resource management and environmental protection. A segment of people, especially those in deep-lying, remote and mountainous areas, still face difficulties in their lives. The organizational apparatus remains cumbersome while operational mechanisms and administrative procedures in several fields are troublesome. The capacity, quality, awareness and discipline of a segment of cadres, civil servants and public employees remain poor. Crimes have been reported with complicated developments and social order and safety have caused public concerns. Corruption prevention and control fail to meet the set requirements while waste and losses still occur. The inspection, examination, and settlement of complaints and denunciations remain ineffective.

II. THE 2016-2020 FIVE-YEAR SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PLAN

1. General objectives

To ensure the macro-economic stability and strive for an economic growth rate higher than that during the previous 5 years. To step up the implementation of strategic breakthroughs, restructure the economy in combination with renewal of the growth model, and raise productivity, efficiency and competitiveness. To develop culture, ensure social democracy, progress and equality and social security, increase social welfare and improve the people’s living conditions. To proactively respond to climate change, effectively manage natural resources and protect the environment. To strengthen national defense and security, resolutely and persistently struggle to firmly protect national independence, sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity, and maintain political security and social order and safety. To raise the effectiveness of external activities and take the initiative in international integration. To maintain peace and stability, and create a favorable environment and conditions for national construction and defense. To elevate the country’s position in the international arena. To strive to early turn the country into a modernity-oriented industrial country.

2. Major targets

2.1. Economic targets:

The gross domestic product (GDP) will be 6.5-7% per year on average during the 5 years.

The average per-capita GDP will reach USD 3,200-3,500 by 2020.

Industry and services will account for around 85% of GDP by 2020.

The total investment capital of the entire society will be 32-34% of GDP on average during the 5 years.

State budget overspending will drop to below 4% of GDP by 2020.

The total factor productivity (TFP) will account for 30-35% of growth rate.

The social labor productivity will grow around 5% per year on average.

Energy consumption per average GDP will decrease by 1-1.5% per year.

The urbanization rate will reach 38-40% by 2020.

2.2. Social targets:

By 2020, agricultural labor will make up around 40% of the total social workforce.

The rate of trained labor will reach 65-70% by 2020, 25% of whom will possess degress or certificates.

The urban unemployment rate will drop to below 4% by 2020.

By 2020, there will be 9-10 medial doctors and over 26.5 patient beds per 10,000 people.

By 2020, the rate of health insurance coverage will reach over 80% of the population.

The rate of poor households will decrease by 1-1.5% per year on average.

2.3. Environmental targets:

By 2020, 95% of urban residents and 90% of rural residents will have access to clean and hygienic water.

85% of hazardous wastes will be treated by 2020.

95-100% of hospital wastes will be treated by 2020.

The rate of forest coverage will reach 42% by 2020.

III. MAJOR TASKS AND SOLUTIONS

1. To develop the socialist-orientated market economy, maintain macro-economic stability, and create environment and driving force for socio-economic development

To continue concretizing and implementing the 2013 Constitution, with a focus placed on improving market economy institutions to be synchronous and modern for international integration. To assess and build a roadmap for fully observing the rules of a market economy and international economic integration, ensuring fair competition, equality and transparency in every field and sector. To ensure effective coordination of monetary and fiscal policies and other policies in order to ensure the macro-economy stability and major balances of the economy. To implement flexible monetary policies, stabilize the value of Vietnamese currency, and strive to keep inflation below 4% during the first years of the plan period and 3% by 2020. To flexibly administer interest rates based on inflation developments, administer exchange rates based on market signals, and increase state foreign-exchange reserves. To strictly implement the Law on the State Budget, the Law on Charges and Fees and tax laws. To strictly manage state budget revenues and expenditures, ensuring correct and full collection, preventing losses and reducing tax arrears. To restructure state budget revenues and expenditures and increase the proportion of expenditures for development investment. To closely control, restructure and effectively utilize public debts and ensure the limits of public debts, government debts and national debts under the National Assembly’s Resolution. To enhance the management and efficient use of loans while gradually reducing government-guaranteed loans or loans for on-lending. To strictly control municipal loans and investment funds of state budget origin.

To convert annual public investment plans into 5-year medium-term ones for increasing the efficiency of investment. To allocate appropriate financial resources of the State for attracting and increasing investment from the non-state sectors. State budget funds will be invested in the fields without the participation of other economic sectors. To re-allocate state investment capital in association with appropriate decentralization between central and local levels and, at the same time, increase measures to handle outstanding capital construction debts and collect advanced capital amounts.

To ensure and enhance the stability of major balances, striving for trade balance surplus. To build a roadmap for gradually reducing imbalance in trade relations with a number of countries, thus firmly stabilizing the macro-economy and facilitating the attraction of foreign direct investment in environment-friendly hi-tech projects. To raise the quality of products and make more products of national trademarks. To take appropriate remedies to protect domestic production and consumers’ rights and interests. To fully abide by the market mechanism for goods prices and step by step for public services as appropriate.

2. To further step up restructuring the economy in association with renewing the growth model, and increase the economy’s productivity, efficiency and competitiveness

To continue improving the investment environment to help the country reach the indices of top 4 ASEAN countries. To effectively and substantially restructure state enterprises according to the set objectives and within a specific time limit while strictly implementing the Law on Management and Use of State Capital Invested in Production and Business at Enterprises. To study the formation of a body for management of state capital and property at enterprises as suitable to the new situation. To facilitate the development of private enterprises. To improve laws and policies to help private enterprises have equal access to resources, especially capital, land and natural resources. To develop startups with the State’s support. To boost socialization of ownership forms and production and business activities and promote the development of joint-stock enterprises of different forms. To assist the development of small- and medium-sized enterprises, household economy and cooperative economy.

To continue restructuring the financial market to ensure a reasonable structure among the monetary market, capital market and insurance market. To pay attention to the rapid development of the capital market and insurance market and development of a sound securities market in combination with restructuring monetary market activities to suit the new development stage. To raise the effectiveness of operation of all types of insurance and widely implement insurance for agricultural production. To continue restructuring credit institutions in combination with reducing non-performing loans to ensure safety of the banking system, and conduct banking administration according to international standards and practices.

To establish a management mechanism for association or cooperation models for regional development. To pay attention to key economic zones. To select a number of areas with specific advantages in order to build special economic zones under a special, effective and efficient mechanism with spillover effects to restructuring agricultural production, labor and the whole economy. To develop economic corridors and rings for effective connection with regional countries. To reasonably arrange economic zones and industrial parks in association with restructuring the regional economy. To strongly develop the marine economy in combination with firm protection of national sovereignty and improvement of the lives of people in marine and island areas.

To step by step formulate a system of urban centers with synchronous, modern and environment-friendly infrastructure, especially major cities. To increase the quality of, and properly manage, urban planning, ensuring sustainable development. To encourage the development of houses for low-income earners and industrial-park workers.

To develop a number of basic industrial sectors to meet the demand for essential production materials of the economy. To concentrate efforts on developing supporting industries, increase links between multinational groups and domestic enterprises, and form supporting industrial parks according to industrial clusters.

To focus on agricultural restructuring, raise the effectiveness of agricultural production, and build a new countryside while improving farmers’ lives. To remarkably improve the competitiveness of agricultural products and commodities, adopt appropriate policies to accumulate land, develop large-sized production zones in diversified forms suitable to each region’s conditions. To further reorganize production, rapidly develop the model of value chain-based management and production for each type of plants, animals or products. To make products while paying attention to the processing industry and outlets. To review and improve mechanisms, policies and criteria on new countryside building to suit conditions of each region, maintain and sustainably develop communes reaching national standards on new countryside. By 2020, to strive for the target that around 50% of communes will reach new countryside standards and there will be no commune satisfying below 5 criteria. To encourage the development of household economy and farm economy by strongly developing new-style cooperatives and attracting enterprises’ investment in agricultural and industrial production and service provision in rural areas. To provide vocational training in diversified and appropriate forms, thus promoting economic growth, creating jobs, increasing incomes and restructuring the economy and rural labor. To transfer laborers to economic sectors with high added value which see remarkable changes in 2016 and 2017.

3. To further step up the implementation of strategic breakthroughs on building synchronous infrastructure with modern works

To raise the quality of socio-economic infrastructure construction master plans, ensuring their effectiveness and systematization, especially for transport, electricity, water, irrigation, information, communications, education, health and environment networks. To continue building roads, expressways and the north-south railway, and upgrade existing railways and inland waterways and coastal roads. To further allocate funding sources for investment in transport infrastructure in difficulty-hit areas. To settle traffic jams in Hanoi capital and Ho Chi Minh City. To review and appropriately arrange toll plazas in order to ease burden on people and enterprises. To ensure the times of commencement and completion of the first phase of the Long Thanh international airport project according to the National Assembly’s Resolution No. 94/2015/QH13 of June 25, 2015.

4. To raise the quality of human resources and increase scientific and technological potential

To continue renewing training program frameworks and reduce training curricula for different levels of general education. To draw on independent and creative thinking and self-study capacity at higher education institutions. To renew the contents and forms of tests and exams and evaluation of education and training results. To rationally develop and step by step ensure the equality between public and non-public education institutions. Attention will be paid to not only training high-quality human resources but also improving the quality of vocational training in order to provide sufficient skilled workers meeting economic development and integration requirements, while taking full advantage of a period of golden population structure and increasing the people’s access to job opportunities. To improve mechanisms and policies for increasing labor productivity. To adopt special mechanisms and policies to select and employ talented people.

To increase scientific and technological potential, build the national innovation system, and promote creativity of every individual, enterprise or organization. To study and issue breakthrough mechanisms so as to promote scientific research and technical innovation and application of new sciences and technologies to production so as to increase labor productivity and product value. To exercise democracy, respect and promote freedom and creativity of scientists in research, counseling and criticism. To encourage and create favorable conditions for enterprises of all economic sectors to engage in research and development activities and apply sciences and technologies. To improve institutions for valuating intellectual assets, increasingly protect intellectual property rights, and strictly handle infringements. To support the import of source technologies and high technologies and strictly control the import of technologies. To implement the mechanism of goods ordering, bidding and package fund allocation based on output results and ensure publicity and transparency of expenses and research outcomes. To enhance the operation efficiency of scientific and technological development funds, and encourage the formation of venture investment funds. To build a number of institutes for research and application of modern sciences and technologies, and develop innovation centers and technology incubators.

5. To sustainably develop culture, society and health on the basis of close and harmonious combination of economic and cultural development with exercising social progress and equality and improving people’s lives

To further improve policies toward, and improve the living standards of, people with meritorious service to the country. To take policies and solutions in a coordinated manner to achieve the target of sustainable poverty reduction and prevent the relapse into poverty. Particularly, to strive to reduce the rate of poor districts and extreme difficulty-hit communes by 4% per year according to the national poverty threshold during 2016-2020. To properly implement policies on employment and unemployment insurance. To support production development, job generation, apprenticeship, and sending of guest workers. To strictly control foreign workers in Vietnam.

To reform policies on wages and remunerations on the market principles and suitable to the increased labor productivity. To adjust the basic wage level and minimum wage level according to an appropriate roadmap, ensuring the minimum living standards of employees. To build a system of human resource management standards and a system of labor productivity evaluation criteria.

To increase social insurance participants, increase the efficiency of the social insurance system, reform the financial mechanism, and ensure sustainable development of the social insurance fund. To strive for the target that about 50% the workforce will participate in social insurance by 2020. To further improve policies, encourage the participation of the community in, and increase the efficiency of, social support activities. To provide people with fundamental social services, such as education, health care, housing, clean water and information.

To improve the quality of medical examination and treatment and ethics of medical workers in health establishments at all levels. To pay attention to initial health care, develop preventive medicine systems, and actively prevent diseases so as to avoid the occurrence of dangerous epidemics. To widely apply the models of satellite hospitals and family doctors. To further develop non-public health establishments, and form on a pilot basis health establishments in the form of public-private partnership and the model for management of hospitals like public-utility enterprises. To formulate a mechanism to encourage the development and use of domestic materia medica and improve the quality of medical examination and treatment by traditional medicine. To create conditions for developing the pharmacy industry and increasingly manage the quality of curative medicines, and improve the efficiency of drug bidding. To attach importance to population and family planning, take care of and protect the health of mothers and children, improve gender imbalance at birth, and ensure the replacement fertility rate and population sustainable development. Together with improving the living standards of people, to strive for an average life expectancy of 74-75 years by 2020. To accelerate the process of universal health insurance coverage. To renew financial mechanisms, and adjust medical service charges according to roadmap, ensuring correct and full collection of charges as well as publicity and transparency, while providing appropriate support to social policy beneficiaries and poor people. To closely control, strictly handle, and effectively prevent counterfeit goods, smuggled goods and inferior-quality and unclear-origin goods affecting production and life of people and businesses.

To encourage innovation freedom in culture and literature-art activities together with enhancing the citizens’ responsibility and social responsibility of artists and cultural activists. To properly protect copyright. To preserve and promote heritages and fine cultural values of Vietnamese ethnic groups. To properly and fully implement policies on ethnicity and religion and guarantee the freedom of belief and religion.

To develop an effective and healthy press and publication system, meeting the requirements of national construction and protection and  people’s increasing demand for enjoyment. To develop universal physical training and sports and high-achievement and professional sports. To pay attention to family work, take care of and promote the role of the elderly. To effectively implement policies to promote gender equality and women’s advancement. To step up socialization of cultural and social activities.

6. To actively respond to climate change, prevent and control natural disasters, and enhance natural resources management and environmental protection

To enhance natural resources and mineral management and environmental protection. To conduct public and transparent bidding in accordance with law for exploitation of natural resources and minerals. To formulate schemes and effectively prevent and control natural disasters and respond to climate change in every field, with priority given to ODA and state budget funds for investment in infrastructure in important areas to prevent and control damage to people’s life and property. To disseminate to people plans on response and adaptation at each level to the impacts of climate change. To inspect and strictly handle acts causing environmental pollution, particularly in rural areas, craft villages, local industrial clusters and river basins.

To protect water sources, build infrastructure systems for economical and effective use of water resources, ensure supply of sufficient water for production and consumption of businesses and people. To assign the Government to submit to the National Assembly Standing Committee for decision, and support for people in adapting to ecosystem change, firstly in 2016, the investment in some projects so as to prevent drought, seawater intrusion and sea level rise in the provinces of the Southern Central Vietnam, Central Highlands and Mekong River Delta. To persistently struggle to protect national interests in management and sustainable use of water sources in the Mekong River.

To consolidate the organizational apparatuses, forces and operational mechanisms with synchronous solutions for protection and development of forests, particularly coastal protection forests, watershed forests and special-use forests; to conserve nature and biodiversity. To adopt policies to encourage production and economical and efficient use of new energies, renewable energies and environmental-friendly energies.

7. To focus on corruption prevention and combat, thrift practice and waste combat

To consolidate the organizational apparatus for corruption prevention and combat. To strictly implement the Anti-Corruption Law, especially the provisions on honest, accurate and full declaration of property and income by cadres, civil servants and public employees and responsibilities of agencies in charge of controlling such declaration . To evaluate the control of income flows through bank accounts, on the basis of evaluating and completing strict and substantial control mechanisms. To establish an effective mechanism to supervise and control power; to clearly define responsibilities of heads of agencies, organizations and units. To promote the supervisory role of popularly elected bodies, the Vietnam Fatherland Front and mass organizations. To bring into play the role and responsibility of communication agencies in corruption prevention and combat, thrift practice and waster combat. To formulate an effective mechanism to protect denouncers and whistleblowers of corruption and waste cases. To improve the effect and efficiency of examination, inspection, audit, investigation, prosecution and trial activities, and strictly and lawfully handle acts of corruption and waste.

8. To improve the effect and efficiency of state management and guarantee the freedom and democracy of people in socio-economic development

To complete the reform of administrative procedures in association with improving the quality of policies and laws to be specific, clear, transparent and accessible without causing troubles to people and businesses. To make public and transparent administrative procedures in each sector and field. To redress limitations and shortcomings in implementation organization and observance of law. To strengthen the application of information technology in operation of state agencies, provide public services and realize an e-government. To supervise law enforcement, assess the quality of cadres and civil servants, and resolutely dismiss persons who obstruct, seek profits from, and cause difficulties to, businesses and people. To renew the recruitment, layoff, dismissal, promotion and appointment of cadres and civil servants, ensuring lawfulness, democracy, justice, publicity and transparency. To consolidate the organizational apparatus with streamlined and effective payrolls. To assess the results and effectiveness of the identification of working positions for reporting to the National Assembly at the end of 2016. To clearly define the scope, competence and responsibility for economic and social state management by authorities at all levels. To focus on providing public services, ensuring social security and safety, improving social welfare and people’s living standards. To complete the functions, tasks, appropriate organizational structures and special mechanisms for authorities of urban centers, islands and special administrative-economic units. To build and renew local governments to be streamlined and effective. To increase the operation efficiency of the judiciary in order to avoid wrongful punishment, extorting confession by force and corporal punishment in investigation, prosecution and trial activities, thereby guaranteeing human rights and citizens’ rights.

To enhance management capacity and accountability of administrations of all levels, combine the supervisory and criticism roles of the Vietnam Fatherland Front and socio-political organizations in formulation and implementation of policies.

To improve the decentralization mechanism, ensuring unified and smooth leadership, management and administration from central to grassroots level. To plan a unified economic development space in the whole country and in each region on the principle of strictly combining sector-based management with territory-based management. To improve the investment and budget decentralization mechanism, ensuring unified management of development master plans and resource balancing.

9. To strengthen national defense and security, ensure national independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, and maintain socio-political stability and peaceful environment for national development

 To resolutely and persistently fight to firmly safeguard national independence, sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity. To build the revolutionary People’s Army and People’s Public Security that are regular, well-trained and gradually modernized, prioritizing modernization of a number of armed services, service branches and forces with a reasonable quantity, high combat readiness and good fulfillment of their tasks. To raise the operation efficiency of law enforcement forces at sea. To attach importance to building militia and self-defense and reserve forces; to develop the defense and security industry.

To properly associate defense and security task with socio-economic development task. To build a peaceful, friendly, cooperative and developed border region. To strengthen the posture of all-people defense and people’s security, particularly in sea and island areas. To proactively protect sovereignty, sovereign rights, national interests and interests of people at sea. To enhance the operation efficiency of economic-defense zones.

To take in a coordinated manner solutions to maintain security and social order and safety. To increasingly prevent and fight crimes and social evils and degradation of social morality. To improve cyberinformation security and safety; to ensure social order and safety and reduce traffic accidents.

10. To enhance the operation efficiency of external activities, proactively enter into international integration, and create peaceful environment and favorable conditions for national development

To make partnerships intensive, practical and effective. To improve the operation efficiency of multilateral external activities. To closely coordinate with members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and United Nations’ organizations in order to protect national sovereignty and territorial integrity. To persistently promote the settlement of disputes at sea by peaceful means on the basis of international law and code of conduct of the region.

To effectively realize international commitments and proactively and actively negotiate and conclude new-generation free trade agreements, make full use of favorable opportunities, while minimizing negative impacts to expand markets and take advantage of outside resources for development. To carry out law-prescribed procedures to submit to the National Assembly for ratification, and formulate detailed action programs for implementation, of new agreements and a scheme for implementation of 17 objectives and 169 targets as prescribed in the United Nations’ Document entitled “Transforming Our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”. To help businesses renew technologies and apply advanced countries’ standards on environment and food hygiene and safety to Vietnamese exports, raise awareness and capacity of applying international provisions on geographical indications, rules of origin, copyright, trademark, etc. To properly give early warnings on trade remedies of partner countries.

To enhance external information and international integration activities, create consensus in the country and take advantage of international friends’ support in the cause of national construction and protection. To create favorable conditions for overseas Vietnamese to engage in national construction and protection. To properly protect citizens residing in foreign countries.

IV. ORGANIZATION OF IMPLEMENTATION

The Government, the Supreme People’s Court, the Supreme People’s Procuracy and the State Audit Office of Vietnam shall, within the ambit of their assigned functions, formulate detailed plans for each year of their term, effectively organize the implementation of the National Assembly’s Resolution, and report on the results of mid-term implementation of the Resolution to the National Assembly at the end of 2018.

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

The Vietnam’s Fatherland Front and its member organizations, and social organizations established under law shall supervise and mobilize people of all strata to implement the National Assembly’s Resolution.

The National Assembly calls on people and soldiers nationwide and overseas Vietnamese to raise the spirit of emulation and patriotism, express solidarity, promote internal resources, take advantage of favorable opportunities, and overcome difficulties and challenges in order to best implement the 2016-2020 five-year socio-economic development plan .

The Resolution was adopted on April 12, 2016, by the XIII^th National Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam at its 11^th session.-

Chairwoman of the National Assembly
NGUYEN THI KIM NGAN