Resolution No. 48/2017/QH14 dated November 10, 2017 of the National Assembly on the 2018 socio-economic development plan

RESOLUTION

On the 2018 socio-economic development plan[1]

THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

Pursuant to the Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam;

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

RESOLVES:

Article 1.General objectives

To continue to maintain macroeconomic stability, curb inflation and promote economic growth. To achieve a marked progress in implementing the three strategic breakthroughs and renew the growth model in association with restructuring the economy and raising growth quality, labor productivity and competitiveness. To boost the application of science and technology and effectively develop the science and technology market; to encourage innovation, creativity and startups and develop new-style enterprises and cooperatives. To improve people’s living standars, generate jobs, ensure social security and welfare; to preserve and bring into play cultural values and increase education, training and health care quality; to promote gender equality and exercise democracy and social progress. To effectively respond to climate change and proactively prevent and control natural disasters; to enhance natural resources management and environmental protection; to ensure food hygiene and safety. To further improve the legal system and raise the effectiveness and efficiency of law enforcement. To step up administrative and judicial reforms and prevention and combat of corruption and waste. To preserve national defense, firmly maintain national security and social order and safety; to take the initiative in international integration; to maintain a peaceful and stable environment for national development.

Article 2.Major targets

1. The gross domestic product (GDP) will grow at 6.5%-6.7%.

2. The total export value will increase by 7%-8%.

3. The ratio of trade deficit to total export value will be below 3%.

4. The average consumer price index will rise around 4%.

5. The total development investment capital of the entire society will account for around 33%-34% of GDP.

6. The rate of poor households by the multidimensional poverty index will decrease by 1%-1.3%, particularly the rate of poor districts will reduce by 4%.

7. The urban unemployment rate will be below 4%.

8. The rate of trained labor will reach 58%-60%, with 23%-23.5% of them possessing certificates of completion of 3-month or longer training courses.

9. The number of patient beds per 10,000 persons will reach 26 (exclusive of beds of commune health stations).

10. The health insurance coverage will reach 85.2%.

11. The rate of operating industrial parks and export processing zones that have centralized wastewater treatment systems up to environmental standards will be 88%.

12. The forest coverage will reach 41.6%.

Article 3.Major tasks and solutions

The National Assembly basically agrees with the tasks and solutions submitted by the Government, the Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuracy and recommended by National Assembly agencies in the verification reports and specialized oversight reports, and concurrently requests performance of the following major tasks and solutions:

1. To continue to maintain macroeconomic stability, ensure the economy’s major balances, especially the state budget, development investment capital, import-export, balance of payments, food and energy security, employment and jobs, and boost production and business and economic growth. To strive to reduce lending interest rates suitable to the macroeconomic situation, ensure liquidity, strictly control and improve credit quality and secure system safety, especially credit loans for real estate and securities markets. To effectively restructure credit institutions in combination with the settlement of non-performing loans; to focus on handling weak credit institutions according to the market principles without direct support from the state budget. To tighten finance-banking discipline; to make remarkable changes in handling land use levy debts, preventing tax loss, evasion or arrears, transfer pricing fraud and tax, charge and fee violations; to apply e-invoices; to strictly appraise projects to raise investment efficiency; to promote thrifty state budget spending and use of public property and vehicles; and promote allocation of administrative expenditure quotas, bidding and placement of orders for public services. To restructure the state budget by step by step increasing the proportions of domestic revenue and development investment expenditure, reducing the proportion of current expenditure, and ensuring expenditures on social security and welfare and national defense and security. To tighten the management of extrabudgetary funds and public debts under the National Assembly’s targets; to minimize the grant of government guarantee for new loans; to strictly control central and local budget deficits and debts; not to convert on-lent loans and government-guaranteed loans into state budget grants.

To intensify supervision and strictly and effectively control the operation of credit institutions and state enterprises, increase the effectiveness and responsibility of the state, independent and internal audit systems. To divest all state capital from enterprises that the State does not need to hold according to the market mechanism. To evaluate and review the operation of the State Capital Investment Corporation (SCIC). To establish a committee for managing state capital in enterprises.

2. To encourage the development of a large and strong private economic sector by providing support to startups, innovative enterprises and small- and medium-sized enterprises and taking appropriate measures to encourage business households to set up enterprises. To increase the selective attraction of foreign direct investment (FDI) through selecting effective projects and adopting measures to handle FDI enterprises that report losses and commit transfer pricing, causing state budget losses so as to meet the requirements of technology transfer, localization rate and environmental protection. To ensure equal business conditions for domestic and FDI enterprises. To boost the connection between domestic and FDI enterprises so as to contribute to promoting economic growth and job generation.

To improve and effectively implement relevant laws on public investment; to speed up the allocation and effective disbursement of public investment funds, especially for important infrastructure projects with strong spillover effects and development connectivity, national important projects and disaster-damaged infrastructure works in some localities. To mobilize more non-state resources for investment in infrastructure development. To implement the National Assembly Standing Committee’s Resolution No. 437/NQ-UBTVQH14 of October 21, 2017, on tasks and solutions to further improve, and speed up the implementation of, policies and laws on investment in and operation of transport facilities under build-operate-transfer (BOT) contracts. To review all toll plazas set up under BOT road projects to ensure publicity and transparency and legitimate interests of enterprises and citizens while strictly handling violations that cause social disorder and unsafety. To improve the system of laws and policies to strictly manage and bring into play investments in the form of public-private partnership (PPP) in general and under BOT and build-transfer (BT) contracts in particular. To study revisions to the legal framework on investment in the PPP form and report them to the National Assembly.

3. To focus on solving problems in and encourage land accumulation combined with agriculture restructuring and shifting the rural labor structure; to allot residential and production land to ethnic people. To develop appropriate policies to encourage and vigorously attract enterprises to invest in agriculture and rural areas. To promote the development of collective economy and regard enterprises as the core and driving force to develop commodity agriculture, and cooperatives and cooperative groups as a bridge connecting farmers and enterprises. To create mechanisms and policies to develop vegetables, fruits and flowers into key exports. To strongly renovate, make positive and substantial changes in reorganizing agricultural production, and promote development in value chains; to build a synchronous system from production to processing, reducing intermediaries to cut risks and costs for farmers; to study and implement types of insurance applied to plants, animals and aquatic resources. To boost the development of hi-tech and clean agriculture, intensive and refining processing industry and increase the added value and competitiveness of farm products. To strictly control and supervise the quality of varieties, agricultural supplies and farm produce, especially fertilizers and pesticides, toward a green and sustainable agriculture. To effectively develop marine-based economic activities, and provide assistance for salt makers, offshore fishermen and islanders in connection with national defense and security maintenance. To accelerate the building of a new countryside and sustainable poverty reduction, improve people’s living standards and income, protect the environment; to carry out the rural power grid scheme on schedule.

4. To speed up industrial restructuring, focusing on developing processing and manufacturing industries to serve agriculture; building materials industry, information technology, biology, environment, household appliances and electronics production; supporting industry associated with multinational groups’ value chains, and concentrating efforts on technology renewal, application of cutting-edge technology, and labor productivity increase; to prioritize the attraction of projects using high technologies and producing competitive and environment-friendly products.

To boost the development of agriculture and industry supporting services; high added-value services, including information and communications, finance, banking, logistics and tourism; to promote service export. To synchronously implement solutions to develop tourism into a spearhead industry, focusing on improving service quality and building a friendly, cultured and safe environment for tourists. To review and improve policies and laws to boost connection among regions and localities; to raise the effectiveness of regional coordination. To bring into full play the role of key economic regions and large economic hubs. To prepare conditions necessary for the formation of special administrative-economic units.

5. To boost consumption of home-made products and seek outlets for farm produce in order to protect domestic production. To focus on developing the retail market; to build value chain-based distribution networks for home-made products; to build brands for Vietnamese commodities. To intensify market management and surveillance; to promptly and strictly handle trade fraud, smuggling, counterfeit goods, and abuse of temporary import for re-export and transit for smuggling. To heighten the role and responsibility of ministries, sectors, local authorities and line associations in directing and planning production and market development and promoting consumption. To develop traditional markets along with stepping up trade promotion to expand markets and boost export.

6. To increase natural resources management, environmental protection, natural disaster prevention and mitigation and climate change adaptation. To tighten land management so as to avoid land abandonment or improper land use. To promote international cooperation and efficiently and sustainably exploit and utilize transnational water resources. To strictly abide by the natural forest closing policy and regulations on forest protection and development and biodiversity conservation. To put an end to wanton forest exploitation and destruction. To improve environmental quality and pollution treatment and, raise the effectiveness of garbage collection and disposal in residential areas. To increase forecasting and warning capacity and proactively prevent and mitigate natural disasters; to relocate people from flood- and landslide-prone areas. To strictly handle cases of illegal exploitation of natural resources, minerals, sand, gravel and stone.

To effectively implement social security policies and render timely help for residents in natural disaster-stricken areas to return to normal life and resume production; to actively invest in upgrading important works to ensure their safety. To synchronously apply solutions to preventing and controlling sea level rise, coastal and river erosion and preventing land subsidence and inundation in Ho Chi Minh City and Mekong river delta provinces; to restructure production, crops and occupations in an appropriate and effective manner in response to market demands in areas hit by climate change and saltwater intrusion. To study the inclusion of climate change issues into propaganda and teaching programs so as to raise people’s awareness and responsiveness.

7. To continue to fundamentally and comprehensively renovate education and training. To increase accreditation of education quality and grant autonomy to higher education and vocational education institutions. To improve the effectiveness of vocational training and stimulate cooperation between training institutions and research institutes and enterprises. To encourage innovation and creativity and step up the application of science and technology. To effectively develop science and labor markets. To implement solutions to restructuring rural labor in combination with sustainable poverty reduction.

To effectively implement resolutions of the sixth plenum of the 12^thParty Central Committee on protection, care for and improvement of people’s health and population work in the new situation. To work out solutions to implement the overall scheme on development of the physical strength and height of Vietnamese people in the 2011-2030 period. To consolidate and improve the quality of healthcare services, the effectiveness of grassroots healthcare, preventive medicine and primary healthcare, timely prevent epidemics, reduce overload for higher-level hospitals; to develop non-public health services. To reorganize administration of pharmaceuticals and effectively organize centralized bidding for medicines. To adjust prices of medical services according to the roadmap of all-people health insurance coverage; to prevent the abuse of the health insurance fund for self-seeking purposes; to intensify inspection and examination of medical examination and treatment activities and ensure safety in health establishments. To raise the rate of health insurance coverage toward universal health insurance, especially among pupils, students and under-six children. To implement solutions to expand unemployment and social insurance coverage; to raise the effectiveness of management of the social insurance fund, ensuring publicity, transparency and sustainability. To strictly handle employers who owe or evade paying social, unemployment or health insurance premiums. To forge ahead the enforcement of the gender equality law and achievement of the gender equality targets to guarantee and raise the quality of gender equality. To effectively implement the National Assembly’s Resolution No. 43/2017/QH14 on speeding up the implementation of policies and laws on food safety in the 2016-2020 period; to intensify the inspection of and strictly handle cases of making fake and low-quality products that badly affect consumers’ health and interests. To prevent abuse of liquor, beer and cigarrettes. To review, evaluate, and devise effective solutions for the community-based detoxification models.

To care for and improve the people’s life, continue reviewing and completing policies toward people with meritorious services; to take measures to complete housing support policies for people with meritorious services in 2018. To focus on solutions to sustainably reducing poverty and ensuring social security. To gradually solve the shortage of basic social services according to the results of annual multi-dimensional poverty approach. To timely, synchronously and effectively implement the approved specific policies and schemes for ethnic minority and mountainous people. To prioritize resources for development of difficulty-hit areas, ethnic minority areas and disaster-stricken areas. To efficiently mobilize social resources for developing housing for poor households and social housing.

To preserve and bring into play national cultural heritage and traditional values and develop new fine cultural values. To pay greater attention to investment in cultural and art development and  writers, artists and intellectuals. To better manage the organization of festivals and art performances. To prevent and fight school and domestic violence and children and women harassment. To effectively perform ethnic and religious work. To pay attention to and care for the elderly, people with disabilities, families, children and adolescents; to develop mass physical training and sports with focus on high-achievement sports.

8. To build an effective and efficient administrative system, step up the fight against corruption, waste and red tape. To tighten administrative discipline in law making and civil service and promote proactive coordination among branches and sectors. To further step up the administrative reform, especially simplifying administrative procedures to shorten time for carrying out procedures as well as costs for enterprises and people; to remove irrational barriers and investment and business conditions that obstruct activities of enterprises; to create a favorable environment for production and business development and protect investors’ legitimate interests.

To review and propose amendments and supplementations to legal documents to implement the resolutions of the fifth and sixth plenums of the 12^thParty Central Committee and resolutions of the National Assembly, particularly those on further renovating and streamlining the political system apparatus for effective and efficient operation, further renovating the organization and management system and raising the quality and efficiency of public non-business units’ activities; to step up the mobilization of social resources for public service and developing their market so as to ensure equality between public and non-public units.

To bring into play the people’s mastery and effectively implement the grassroots democracy regulations, and raise the sense of responsibility and the spirit of public service among cadres, civil servants and public employees. To raise the ethics, culture, professionalism and responsibility of cadres, civil servants and public employees. To boost the application of information technology, inter-connection, and building of an e-government and the national database system. To accelerate the settlement of citizens’ complaints, denunciations and petitions and promote reception of citizens. To promote the prevention and control of, detect and strict handle corruption cases, negative acts and violations of law; to speed up the settlement of serious cases of corruption, economic and position abuse crimes of great public concern; to severely punish organizations and individuals that cause losses and wastes and retrieve to the utmost misappropriated or lost property.

9. To raise the efficiency and effectiveness of state management of the press; to proactively provide information on socio-economic situation, the Party’s and State’s leadership, direction and administration and issues of public concern in a complete, timely and accurate manner. To fight against wrongful and hostile allegations, bad and toxic information. To ensure information security; to promptly settle information insecurity incidents. To mobilize people of all strata to implement the Party’s guidelines and State’s policies and laws; to increase the dissemination of and education about laws and the sense of law observance.

10. To firmly maintain national independence and sovereignty, ensure national defense and security and social order and safety; to effectively carry out foreign-relation activities and proactively integrate in the world. To take the initiative in assessing, analyzing and forecasting global and regional situations so as to adopt suitable policies, especially on border, island, non-traditional security, cybersecurity and rural security issues. To effectively implement the process of international economic integration and maintain socio-political stability in the context of Vietnam’s accession to new-generation free trade agreements and in line with the overall strategy on international economic integration, with a focus on effectively implementing free trade agreements (FTAs), commitments within the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) and the World Trade Organization (WTO), sustainable development goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. To build capacity for settling disputes over international trade and investment, protecting national interests and legitimate interests of Vietnamese enterprises and people.

Article 4.Organization of implementation

The Government, all-level local authorities, the Supreme People’s Court, the Supreme People’s Procuracy and the State Audit Office of Vietnam shall, according to their assigned functions and tasks, organize the effective implementation of this Resolution.

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

The Central Committee and member organizations of the Vietnam Fatherland Front, and lawfully established social organizations shall supervise and mobilize people of all strata to implement this Resolution.

The National Assembly calls upon compatriots and combatants throughout the country and overseas Vietnamese to uphold the spirit of patriotic emulation and solidarity, draw on internal resources, and seize opportunities and overcome difficulties and challenges for the successful implementation of the 2018 socio-economic development plan.-

This Resolution was adopted on November 10, 2017, by the XIV^thNational Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam at its 4^thsession.-

Chairwoman of the National Assembly
NGUYEN THI KIM NGAN