Vietnam - Party tackles economic woes

The Party Central Committee last week ended its sixth plenum in Hanoi by pledging to tackle and achieve a range of economic restructuring targets to ensure sustainable growth next year.

The 15-day plenum, in which the committee discussed and reached a high unanimity on many important guidelines and policies in the fields of socio-economics, education-training, science-technology, and Party building, was held at a time when Vietnam is trying to get its economy back on track.

Speaking at the closing ceremony, Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong said the meeting agreed that despite numerous difficulties and challenges, the country’s socio-economic situation in the first nine months of the year saw certain changes. However, the pressure of inflation and macro instabilities remains great.

In the coming time, the world economy in particular and the international situation in general are forecast to see unpredictable developments. Therefore, in the remaining months of 2012 and the next year, it is necessary to continue strengthening efforts to stabilise and make the macro economy healthy, pay special attention to stability, healthiness and safety of the finance-banking system, boost thrift practice, and fight corruption and waste in investment and public spending.

The investment and business environment must be improved, bad debts solved, difficulties eased for businesses, domestic investment encouraged while foreign investment attraction boosted and investment in agricultural and tourism development prioritised.

The meeting emphasised the need to speed up the implementation of the three strategic breakthroughs in combination with renovating the growth model and restructuring the economy, ensure socio-political stability, and create stronger foundations for development in the following years.

The restructuring of public investment, state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and especially the system of commercial banks must be placed in a panorama and closely combined with the restructuring of the economy, investment and the financial market in general.

On the restructuring and renovation of the SOEs as well as the improvement of their efficiency, the committee continued to affirm their core role and important achievements, and at the same time pointed out their weak points.

It urged for the continued grasping and serious implementation of the Resolution of the 11th National Party Congress as well as the resolutions and conclusions of the committee on this issue in line with the context of the socialist-oriented market economy and the country’s deeper international integration.

Resolute adjustments must be made so that the SOEs can have appropriate structures and take the lead in the scientific and technological renovation and application and maintaining the socialist orientation of the economy.

It is necessary to put an early end to non-core investment and complete the withdrawal of the state capital at businesses where the state holds less than a 50 percent stake as well as urgently complete the SOEs management mechanism. The SOEs must be reorganised in the model of joint stock and limited liability companies in accordance with the Enterprise Law.

The country should apply an advanced administration system suitable to the market economy and implement a close, open and transparent audit, inspection and supervision system on the basis of expanding the groups of companies eligible to list on the stock market.

Businesses’ functions of regulating the macro economy and ensuring social security must be renovated and replaced by the mechanism of orders placed by the state, in accordance with the market mechanism. Major state economic corporations and groups must be restructured in the model of parent-subsidiary companies and audited annually.

The pilot stage of forming state economic groups should be ended and the transformation of economic groups into corporations considered.

Regarding the land issues, the committee agreed to issue a Resolution to lead and direct the amending and supplementing the 2003 Land Law, meeting the requirement of the new situation, further effectively mobilising and using land resources for socio-economic development.

Shortcomings, weaknesses and negative phenomena in the field of land must be solved, especially speculations, wastefulness, corruption, disputes and lawsuits must be solved, thus ensuring the harmonious interests of the State, land users and investors, contributing to the socio-political stability.

As for education and training, the committee gave opinions on a project to basically and comprehensively reform education and training, so as to meet the demand of industrialisation and modernisation in the context of the socialist-oriented market economy and global integration.

Trong underlined that the committee asks for the renewal of perception and way of thinking, goals of training, organisational system, forms of education and training, contents and methods of teaching and studying, operation and management mechanisms. A contingent of teachers, managerial officials, facilities and resources must be built to ensure the renewal of the whole education system.

The committee also affirmed that science and technology development is the top national policy and an important driving force in the industrialisation and modernisation. Human resources in science and technology are an invaluable asset of the country. Intellectuals in science and technology are an extremely important resource for developing the knowledge-based economy.

Investment in human resources for science and technology and offers of incentives to the talents are for sustainable development.

The Party and State are responsible for working out special policies for developing and bringing into full play creativeness of science and technology staff, making science and technology a key driving force and a direct production force, helping Vietnam become a modern industrialised country by 2020 and a socialist-oriented modern industrialised nation by the middle of the 21st century.

vir.com.vn

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