Resolution No. 12/1997/QH10 on Tasks for 1998

RESOLUTION
On the 1998 tasks

 _____________________________

OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF VIET NAM

BASED ON ARTICLE 84 OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF VIETNAM IN 1992;

After examining the Government's report and relevant agencies' reports on the implementation of the 1997 tasks; directions and tasks for 1998 and the opinions of National Assembly deputies;

RESOLUTION:

The National Assembly agrees with the assessment of the situation in 1997, the directions and tasks for 1998 as set out in the Government's and relevant agencies' reports, while emphasizing the following points:

I- ASSESSMENT OF THE SITUATION IN 1997

In 1997, the national economy continued to develop and achieved a relatively high growth rate, the trade deficit decreased, prices were stable, many important agricultural and industrial products increased compared to before; some social policies were implemented effectively; national defense and security were consolidated; efforts to protect the law were made; foreign relations were further expanded, and the country's international standing was raised.

However, the national economy still faces many difficulties and challenges: low investment efficiency, outdated technology, poor product quality, low competitiveness, large budget deficit, the pace of industrial, commercial, and service sector growth and exports slowed down, social purchasing power increased slowly. Anti-corruption, anti-smuggling, anti-commercial fraud, anti-waste, and thrift practices achieved low results. The situation of law violations and crimes remains serious.

Additionally, Typhoon No. 5 caused severe losses in terms of both lives and property, and the financial and monetary crisis in neighboring countries had a significant impact on our country.

II- KEY INDICATORS FOR 1998

Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to increase by about 9%;

Agricultural production value to increase by 4.6% to 4.8%;

Rice production over 31 million tons;

Industrial production value to increase by 13.5%;

Export growth of 25-26%, trade deficit not exceeding 20% of export value;

Inflation rate below 7%;

Mobilize approximately 20% of GDP into the state budget, including taxes and fees at around 19% of GDP; budget deficit level at 3.5% to 4% of GDP;

Population growth rate not exceeding 1.8%.

III- MAIN TASKS AND SOLUTIONS

1- Economy:

a) Regarding agriculture:

Continue implementing the program for developing agriculture and rural economy, creating new changes in production structure.

Continue amending and supplementing mechanisms and policies for agriculture, farmers, and rural areas: Prioritize investment in developing processing industries, traditional trades to enhance the quality, value, and competitiveness of agricultural, forestry, fishery, and seafood products, increase income, and create more jobs for farmers. Organize well the consumption and have reasonable pricing policies for buying agricultural products, selling agricultural supplies, and setting the price of rice for land tax. Gradually establish agricultural insurance funds, agricultural product subsidy funds, and export support funds. Assign the electricity industry to develop regulations for directly managing rural power grids, reasonably adjust electricity prices, temporarily announce ceiling prices applicable to rural areas; together with relevant ministries formulate plans to submit to the Government for deciding on investments in rural power infrastructure according to the spirit of "state and people working together."

Promote agricultural, forestry, fishery extension work, especially the establishment of new cooperative service models in these fields. Quickly introduce advanced biotechnology achievements into wide-scale production, considering this as an important measure to improve economic and social efficiency and adjust the agricultural production structure, reallocate labor in rural areas.

Focus on overcoming the aftermath of Typhoon No. 5, quickly stabilize production and living conditions of the people, urgently restore aquaculture and fishing activities.

Implement the land limit policy as stipulated in the Land Law. Take specific and practical measures to address the issue of farmers without farmland. Land use for industrial development, urbanization, and infrastructure must ensure that farmers do not lose their jobs or sources of livelihood.

Build and develop cooperative economies, implement economic linkages between state-owned enterprises and farmers. Take measures to narrow the wealth gap, particularly between urban and rural areas.

Establish and implement regulations ensuring the people's right to self-management in all aspects so that they know, discuss, act, and supervise; maintain political stability, social order, and safety in rural areas.

b) Regarding industry:

Reform production structure, improve technological level, and enhance the competitiveness of industrial product goods. Continue developing industrial sectors with great potential. Encourage export production, while actively producing for domestic demand requirements, gradually replacing imported goods. Continue perfecting macro-management mechanisms and policies for the industrial sector to improve production and business efficiency.

Consolidate and enhance the effectiveness of state-owned enterprises. Classify and reorganize state-owned enterprises, adopt effective policies and solutions to promote partial corporatization, raising additional capital for technological and equipment renewal, expanding production scale, diversifying industries, increasing employment, and driving enterprises to operate efficiently. Summarize, evaluate, find reasons for the losses of many state-owned enterprises to take appropriate measures. State-owned enterprises suffering prolonged losses and unable to pay debts should be promptly reviewed, handled, dissolved, or declared bankrupt according to the law. Ensure the rights and employment of workers when reorganizing state-owned enterprises.

Encourage the development of various forms of private enterprises. Pay attention to developing local industries and mountainous region industries according to planning and plans.

c) Regarding commerce

Measures shall be taken to maintain and expand existing markets and seek new markets in order to rapidly increase export turnover and reduce the trade deficit. Along with expanding exports, state management must be strengthened to prevent unfair competition among exporting units. Strict control over imported goods through tax policies, credit policies, and non-tariff measures shall be implemented to minimize the importation of non-essential items and those that can be produced domestically while meeting requirements. Domestic market development should focus on rural areas, remote regions, and far-flung areas. State commerce must effectively organize the sale of essential materials and consumer goods and purchase products for farmers. Encouragement shall be given to the consumption of domestically produced goods.

Market research shall be conducted, and strategies, planning, and plans for developing high-quality agricultural and industrial products with competitive strength shall be established to enhance internal capacity to proactively integrate into regional and global trading organizations.

d) On investment development:

Continue to adjust mechanisms and policies in the direction of mobilizing domestic resources to the highest extent possible, along with attracting external resources for development. Domestic resources must increasingly play a decisive role in ensuring high and sustainable economic growth and increasing the proportion of domestically produced industrial products. Efforts shall be made to secure foreign investment capital, while strengthening the management of its use and the activities of enterprises, especially those with foreign investment; measures shall be taken to guide foreign investors to comply with Vietnamese laws.

Amend and supplement certain provisions in the Law on Incentives for Domestic Investment and the Law on Foreign Investment in Vietnam to align with reality and create favorable conditions for investors to operate more smoothly.

Address the issue of scattered investments by concentrating investments in projects capable of generating high socio-economic benefits. Priority investment areas include urgent infrastructure facilities; agricultural, forestry, and fisheries production; processing industries for agricultural, aquatic, and marine products; mechanical, electronic, and export-oriented manufacturing industries; and regions with slow economic development and significant difficulties.

Reform the management mechanism and implementation of national programs to achieve high effectiveness.

Effectively implement the National Assembly's resolutions on important national projects.

đ) On finance and monetary policy:

Implement well the National Assembly's resolution on the state budget for 1998, while continuing to effectively implement the State Budget Law. Improve the revenue collection mechanism, nurture revenue sources, generate new revenues, collect revenues accurately and fully, combat tax evasion and smuggling to increase revenue. Strive to increase financial reserves. Take thorough measures to cut expenses, particularly regular expenses from the beginning of the year; resolutely oppose wasteful spending, postpone or reduce non-urgent expenditures; refrain from purchasing expensive equipment and devices for government agencies, social organizations, and economic organizations.

Adopt appropriate measures to mobilize social capital, especially medium and long-term capital, for lending to develop the economy and society. Ensure the value of deposits and reasonable interests for depositors, reduce unreasonable and negative costs in banking operations to lower loan interest rates for producers and traders. Adjust macroeconomic policies appropriately, stabilize currency. Develop specific, timely, and proactive measures to prevent and address the negative impacts of regional and global financial and monetary crises.

The Government and relevant sectors shall urgently prepare to implement the Law on the State Bank of Vietnam and the Law on Credit Organizations.

2- Culture - Education:

Continue to implement the Resolution of the Second Plenum of the Central Committee of the Party on education and training. Ensure conditions and progress towards universal primary education and literacy eradication; universal secondary education in areas with suitable conditions. Pay attention to the development of education in ethnic minority areas, revolutionary bases, remote, and far-flung regions. Create conditions for children from poor families to attend school. Consolidate vocational schools, develop a training system to meet human resource needs. Focus on investing in teacher training and addressing the shortage of general education teachers. Address malpractices in examinations, certification, and additional teaching and learning. Effectively curb drug use among students. Rectify the collection and use of tuition fees and scholarships. Urgently prepare the draft Education Law for National Assembly approval.

Promote grassroots cultural movements, widely implement campaigns to build civilized lifestyles and cultural families. Invest in cultural, artistic, and information activities. Strengthen state management over cultural, press, and publishing activities. Protect and promote the distinctiveness of the national culture, absorb the finest elements of world culture. Combat harmful cultural products and superstitious beliefs.

Enhance ideological education for young people, creating opportunities for them to study, train, and contribute. Strengthen management combined with mobilizing the whole society to implement the goals of the national program for children.

Vigorously develop mass physical education and sports, focusing on training and nurturing talented athletes and building key sports centers.

Draw lessons and effectively implement the policy of socializing cultural, educational, and sports activities.

3- Social Issues

Effectively implement the national program on employment and poverty reduction, paying particular attention to 1,300 poor communes.

Intensify the movement of repaying kindness and fulfilling obligations, fully implementing policies and benefits for those who have rendered meritorious service. Continue to implement the examination and awarding of honors to those who have rendered meritorious service.

Enhance the effectiveness of primary health care and national health programs; work to protect mothers, children, reduce malnutrition rates among children, and care for the elderly. Minimize social diseases to the lowest possible level. Strengthen efforts to prevent and control HIV/AIDS. Study policies for those affected by Agent Orange contamination.

Pilot new hospital fee collection methods. Review the implementation of health insurance policies and ensure fairness in medical services for policy beneficiaries and the poor. Reorganize the healthcare system to improve the efficiency of the healthcare network, with a focus on building commune and ward-level medical facilities. Properly address existing policies and benefits for healthcare staff.

Continue to effectively implement the Law on People's Health Protection. Strengthen supervision of the implementation of the Ordinance on Private Practice of Medicine and Pharmacy.

Strengthen measures to prevent and combat social evils. Severely punish those involved in producing, storing, transporting, trading, and using narcotics, trafficking women and children. Reduce the phenomenon of children wandering the streets to earn a living.

Promote achievements in population and family planning work, closely guide to reduce population growth rates.

4- Science, technology, environment

Continue to reform the organization and operational mechanisms of science and technology in accordance with the spirit of the Second Plenary Session of the Central Committee of the Party; link scientific and technological activities with economic and social development. Implement new mechanisms in selecting scientific research personnel and leading agencies to enhance research quality, results, and funding efficiency; gradually rationalize scientific research organizations by linking research with education and training, and linking research, application, and deployment of technology with production and business.

Promptly develop the science and technology strategy until 2020 and the Law on Science and Technology to create a legal environment and conditions to promote scientific research and technology application in production and daily life.

Strictly implement technical appraisal work for imported technologies to ensure technology quality, resolutely prevent the importation of outdated technologies, aiming to produce competitive products in domestic and international markets. Focus on food processing technology, seafood processing technology, consumer goods production technology, especially export-oriented production.

Develop scientific and technological services, software services.

Improve the environmental monitoring system and weather and hydrology forecasting system both in terms of management organization and investment in equipment. Strengthen inspection of environmental protection law enforcement, particularly focusing on large cities, concentrated industrial zones, and production facilities with significant pollution. Resolutely handle serious violations causing severe environmental damage. Vigorously educate and widely publicize environmental protection among the people.

5- Mountainous Areas and Ethnic Minority Regions

Continue to effectively implement poverty reduction programs in mountainous areas and ethnic minority regions, paying attention to areas with many difficulties. Implement preferential policies and support investments to enable these regions to develop rapidly, especially revolutionary bases, remote and isolated areas.

Land and forest allocation for mountainous ethnic groups must ensure that workers can plant, encircle, protect, and develop forests to sustain themselves through forestry work combined with agriculture. Specific plans and measures must be developed to address socio-economic issues when "closing the forest." Encourage the development of farmstead economies.

There should be planning, plans, and policies to relocate people from areas with limited arable land and difficult living conditions to places with more land and better living conditions. Limit spontaneous migration. Measures should be taken to stabilize production and living conditions for those who have spontaneously migrated so they can settle long-term in their new homeland; at the same time, continue to consolidate and improve the effectiveness of settlement programs.

Develop infrastructure to facilitate economic restructuring in mountainous areas, prioritizing transportation, water conservancy, electricity, solving drinking water problems, and constructing communal centers. Pay attention to developing culture, education, radio, television, and literacy campaigns. Implement preferential policies for training and utilizing ethnic minority cadres. Consolidate boarding schools for ethnic minorities, enroll students according to target groups, and provide quality training to create local cadre sources.

6- Enforcement of Laws

Strengthen propaganda, dissemination, and education on laws to raise awareness and respect for the law, establish discipline, and combat all violations of the law within state agencies, economic organizations, social organizations, military units, and throughout society.

Leverage the positive role of the masses combined with the vigorous professional activities of investigative, prosecution, judicial, and enforcement agencies to promptly and justly handle all criminal acts, ensuring the right person, right crime, and adherence to the law. Timely and properly resolve civil, economic, labor disputes, etc. Ensure that court judgments and decisions with legal force are strictly enforced. All cases of wrongful conviction or error during investigation, prosecution, trial, and enforcement must be promptly corrected and remedied; victims must be compensated according to the law.

Build and improve the quality of the investigative, prosecutorial, judicial, and enforcement officer corps in terms of quantity, meeting standards for capability, qualifications, integrity, and ethics to enhance the quality and effectiveness of judicial bodies. Leverage the core role of this cadre in the struggle against all law violations and crimes. Increase material resources and necessary equipment for law enforcement agencies to create favorable conditions for them to fulfill their tasks.

Promote the supervisory role of the National Assembly, People's Councils at all levels, the Vietnam Fatherland Front and its member organizations over the activities of agencies responsible for law enforcement.

7- Practice thrift, combat waste, corruption, smuggling, and commercial fraud.

The Government directs ministries, sectors, and localities to review and draw lessons from the implementation of the National Assembly's Resolution on combating corruption, smuggling, waste, and practicing thrift in recent times, and to take specific and practical measures in the future. The Government will soon promulgate regulations on the use of public means and assets, and on commemorative events and festivals. Review issued documents, amend provisions that lead to corruption, waste, and commercial fraud. Implement financial transparency at all levels, sectors, agencies, and units.

Law enforcement agencies must promptly investigate, prosecute, and adjudicate cases of corruption, smuggling, and commercial fraud. Resolve serious cases that have been discovered.

Highlight the role of the Vietnam Fatherland Front, mass organizations, and the media, and mobilize all social strata to practice thrift, oppose ostentatious and wasteful behavior, actively participate in inspection, supervision, detection, and struggle against corruption and smuggling in their respective localities and units.

The Standing Committee of the National Assembly will soon promulgate Ordinances on Combating Corruption and Practicing Thrift and Combatting Waste, while closely monitoring to ensure these ordinances are strictly implemented.

National Assembly agencies, Delegations of National Assembly members, National Assembly deputies, People's Councils, and People's Council deputies at all levels must strengthen close supervision of the struggle against corruption, smuggling, and commercial fraud, and the practice of thrift and combatting waste.

8- National defense and security

Leverage the comprehensive strength of the entire people and the entire political system, enhance the country's defensive strength, raise vigilance, proactively prevent and effectively respond to complex situations, protect national independence, security, sovereignty, and territorial integrity, maintain peace and political stability for national development.

Continue to consolidate the people's national defense and security, with the people's national defense posture closely integrated with the people's security posture, delving deeper. Vigorously promote national defense education for all citizens and develop mass movements for protecting national security.

Continue to improve organizational structure and enhance the overall quality of the people's armed forces, building a strong force politically, ideologically, organizationally, and progressively modernized, ensuring readiness for combat.

Strengthen the effectiveness of state management over national defense and security.

9- Foreign relations

Consistently implement the independent foreign policy, openness, diversification, and multilateralization of international relations, developing friendly and cooperative relations with all countries. Vigorously strengthen relations with neighboring countries and ASEAN member states, continuously consolidate relations with traditional friends..., striving for peace, independence, and development. Enhance Vietnam's position on the international stage. Consolidate a peaceful environment and strive for more favorable international conditions for the construction and defense of the country, for the cause of industrialization and modernization, and contribute to the common struggle of the world's people for peace, national independence, democracy, and social progress.

Accelerate the process of integration in line with domestic reform requirements, keeping pace with and linking to international integration to serve the country's development goals, maintaining independence and autonomy.

Resolve issues existing between our country and related countries through peaceful negotiations. Closely combine diplomatic activities with national defense and security to firmly safeguard national independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity.

Strengthen external information work, combat the machinations and actions of hostile forces attempting to distort and undermine our country. Establish mechanisms and implement unified diplomatic activities well.

10- Administrative Reform

Accelerate administrative reform, build a democratic, clean, and strong administrative system operating according to the Constitution and laws. Focus on administrative procedure reform towards being closer to the people and grassroots level; eliminate bureaucratic and cumbersome procedures, creating convenience for the people. Soon promulgate regulations on promoting the people's ownership at the grassroots level. Promote the consolidation and building of a strong cadre and civil servant team, especially those in law enforcement agencies. It is necessary to review and evaluate the current cadre team, organize training and capacity building to improve the quality of this team.

Soon promulgate the Ordinance on Cadres and Civil Servants; Service Regulations. Clearly define the rights and obligations of cadres, civil servants, and officials, and the system and standards for equipping them with material infrastructure and working tools at all levels according to the principles of transparency, rationality, and thrift.

Study and promulgate reasonable policies for grassroots-level cadres.

IV- IMPLEMENTATION

To successfully fulfill the tasks for 1998, the National Assembly requests the Government to focus more on macro guidance and management; summarize and evaluate major issues arising during the implementation of the 1997 tasks; timely adjust and supplement necessary targets and measures during the implementation of the 1998 tasks, particularly closely monitor the financial and monetary crisis developments in the region and globally, report to the Standing Committee of the National Assembly for prompt handling and report to the National Assembly at the nearest session; simultaneously direct relevant sectors and levels to enhance coordination, delve deeply into grassroots levels, and promptly resolve production and livelihood issues.

The Government, the Supreme People's Court, and the Supreme People's Procuracy must strengthen inspection, supervision, and prosecution to ensure that laws and the National Assembly's Resolutions are strictly followed and implemented.

Concentrate on promptly addressing complaints, petitions, opinions, and recommendations of the people in accordance with the provisions of the law.

The Standing Committee of the National Assembly, the National Ethnic Council, the Committees of the National Assembly, the Delegations of National Assembly members, and National Assembly deputies shall strengthen their interactions with voters, closely monitor the situation and aspirations of the people, and regularly supervise the implementation of tasks for the year 1998.

The Vietnam Fatherland Front and its member organizations shall enhance their role in uniting and mobilizing all strata of the population, encouraging the entire people to successfully implement this Resolution.

The National Assembly calls upon compatriots and soldiers throughout the country, overseas Vietnamese, to heighten their love for the nation, their spirit of thrift and construction, to fully utilize their talents and creativity, contributing to the successful completion of tasks for the year 1998, creating conditions for fulfilling the five-year plan from 1996 to 2000, and preparing the country for the 21st century.

This Resolution was adopted by the National Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, tenth session, second meeting, on December 12, 1997./.