Roadmap drawn by National Assembly clear direction

June 21, 2010 | 17:37
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The country’s future socio-economic development pathway is looking clearer.This is due to important outputs gained from the 12th National Assembly Legislation’s seventh session which wrapped up last week.
Tran Dinh Dan, chairman of the National Assembly’s Office, said the one-month-long session, which reviewed the country’s socio-economic development since 2009 and looked at development orientations for this year’s remaining months, agreed that a stabilised macro-economy was vital for sustainable development.

Vietnam’s economic growth rate is targeted at around 6.5-7 per cent in 2010 and 7-7.5 per cent in 2011. In 2010, high inflation rate is set to be bridled at about 7 per cent, while social welfare and order will be further ensured and international cooperation enhanced. Some 1.6 million new labourers will be employed and 85,000 workers will be sent abroad to work.

The household poverty rate will be reduced to less than 10 per cent, and 83 and 84 per cent of rural and urban population will be able to access clean water.

“Vietnam has overcome many challenges, curbed the economic downturn, achieved good economic growth and ensured the macroeconomy stability and social welfare. This will lay a firm foundation for the country to implement its 2011-2015 Socio-Economic Development Plan and 2011-2020 Socio-Economic Development Strategy,” said Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.

The session also approved 10 laws and considered six others, which are for the next National Assembly’s sessions.

Dung said the laws would help Vietnam’s legal landscape be more agreeable to international practices, to enable the country’s economy integrate deeper into the world’s economy.

Of the approved laws, the laws on Non-Agricultural Land, Energy Conservation and Efficiency, and Food Safety was among the most scrutinised, because they have great impacts on people’s lives and the country’s development.
“For example, the Law on Non-Agricultural Land does not tax house owners. This is an important decision of the National Assembly, because the mass living standards remain difficult, while the country’s economic growth remains unstable,” said Nguyen Duy Huu, a National Assembly deputy from Dak Lak province.

Meanwhile, the Law on Energy Conservation and Efficiency provides “an important legal framework for the government implement its energy saving programmes, an issue high on most regional and international meetings,” said Nghiem Vu Khai, vice chairman of the National Assembly’s Science, Technology and Environment.

For the first time, the National Assembly has tabled two gigantic projects, which were said by deputies to greatly impact on the country’s socio-economic development.

Dan said that despite the public and deputies’ concerns over investment capital and technology for the $56 billion north-south express railway project, a resolution on the construction of this project was rubber stamped by the majority of the National Assembly. The project’s feasibility report will be made and tabled at National Assembly’s coming sessions.

Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung said building this project was “a must” because “it greatly reflected the government’s strategic determination to drive Vietnam to a status of a developed industrial country in 2050.”

Along with this project, a master plan to build Hanoi until 2030 and a vision to 2050, whose investment capital is estimated to be about $90 billion, was also scrutinised and became a controversial topic, which sparked big concerns over investment capital, urban and rural planning, and resettlements relating to this gigantic project.

The government expected that this project would continue to be considered and then approved during the next National Assembly’s sessions.

By Thanh Tung

vir.com.vn

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