Resolution No. 41/2004/QH11 On Tasks for 2005

RESOLUTION

ON THE TASKS FOR 2005

OF THE NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

Pursuant to Article 84 of the Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam promulgated in 1992, as amended and supplemented by Resolution No. 51/2001/QH10 dated December 25, 2001 of the 10th National Assembly, 10th Session;

Based on the consideration of the Government's Report, the Reports of the National Assembly's agencies, relevant agencies, and the opinions of National Assembly deputies;

RESOLUTION:

The National Assembly basically agrees with the assessment of the implementation of tasks in 2004, the orientation and tasks for 2005 as set out in the reports of the Government, the agencies of the National Assembly, and relevant agencies; while emphasizing the following points:

I/ ASSESSMENT OF THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE PLAN IN 2004

In 2004, despite many difficulties within the country and adverse impacts from abroad, the national economy maintained a relatively high growth rate. Most key indicators for socio-economic development achieved and exceeded the plan according to the National Assembly's Resolution. Agricultural production yielded encouraging results, industry continued to grow significantly, services made progress, and exports reached a high increase. Various resources mobilized for investment and development were diverse, effectively utilizing internal resources, which promoted positive structural economic transformation. State budget revenue exceeded the estimate. Some cultural and social fields made progress. Poverty reduction efforts achieved significant results. People's living standards continued to improve. Political stability was maintained; national defense, security, and public order and safety were secured. Foreign relations were further expanded, the role and status of the country were enhanced, and negotiations to join the World Trade Organization (WTO) made notable progress.

Achieving these results was due to the great efforts of the entire Party, people, and military; dynamic and effective management by the Government, ministries, sectors, and localities; active supervision by elected bodies; increasingly effective contributions from overseas compatriots; and support and assistance from international friends.

However, the socio-economic situation in 2004 still had many limitations and weaknesses. Economic growth only reached a low level compared to the target, with quality, efficiency, and sustainability not showing clear improvements. State investment and development capital deployment was slow, dispersed, with arrears and significant waste and loss. Consumer price index increases adversely affected many industries and people's lives. Socialization of social fields was implemented slowly and had many shortcomings; education and training had urgent issues that were not promptly resolved. Traffic accidents were not effectively prevented or reduced. Criminal and social evils were complex. Bureaucracy and corruption remained serious problems. The living conditions of people in rural, remote, and disaster-prone areas were difficult. The disparity in living standards between regions, especially between urban and rural areas, was quite large. Administrative reform did not show significant progress. Social management still had many inadequacies...

II/ OBJECTIVES AND KEY INDICATORS FOR 2005

1. General objectives:

As the final year of the 2001-2005 plan, 2005 must achieve stronger changes in speed and higher quality in growth. Strive for rapid economic development linked with improved efficiency and sustainability. Mobilize and use domestic and foreign resources efficiently. Improve the investment, production, and business environment. Make significant progress in administrative reform and perfect the economic system. Establish strong mechanisms to encourage people's resources alongside the state to develop education, training, healthcare, culture, and sports. Maintain political stability and public order and safety, ensuring national defense, border, maritime, and island security.

2. Key indicators:

- Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate of 8.5%;

- Value added in agriculture, forestry, and fisheries increased by 5.2%; value added increased by 3.8%;

- Value added in industry and construction increased by 16%; value added increased by 11%;

- Value added in service sectors increased by 8.2%;

- Consumer Price Index increase below 6.5%;

- Total export turnover increased by 16%;

- Total investment capital for development equal to 36.5% of GDP;

- Create new jobs for 1.6 million workers; including 70,000 workers for export;

- Increase vocational student enrollment by 12%;

- Reduce poverty rate below 7%;

- Reduce malnutrition rate among children under five years old to 25%;

- Reduce birth rate by 0.4%.

III/ MAJOR TASKS AND SOLUTIONS

1. Enhance the quality of economic growth. Shift investment structure towards the goal of a strong shift in economic structure; production and business closely tied to raw material sources and market consumption. Focus on technological innovation. Develop high-tech industrial products, industry serving agriculture and rural areas. Apply appropriate mechanisms for all economic components to participate strongly in developing services, particularly those capable of quickly adding value, high-end services, and services with competitive advantages and potential.

Implement comprehensive measures to prevent dispersion, waste, and negative practices in basic construction investment. Effectively implement the National Assembly's Resolution on basic construction investment using state funds.

Concentrate on developing medium- and long-term capital markets. Increase the ability to attract foreign direct investment. Continue to attract and use Official Development Assistance (ODA) funds effectively.

Implement comprehensive measures to stabilize prices, focusing on production development to adjust supply and demand, and timely intervene through financial, monetary, administrative, and other economic measures to create a favorable environment for investment, sustainable economic growth, and improvement of people's livelihoods.

Reorganize, innovate, and consolidate state-owned enterprises operating in key sectors, based on which, actively implement shareholding according to the program and schedule already proposed. Focus on improving financial relationships in state-owned enterprises. Implement bidding, ordering production, and supplying public goods services to all types of enterprises without discrimination among different economic components.

Strive to increase revenue, thoroughly reduce expenditure, and combat ostentatious formalism. Proactively manage monetary policy, exchange rates, and interest rates in accordance with market fluctuations. Improve credit quality, strengthen inspection, supervision, and oversight to enhance safety in banking operations.

Vigorously promote exports; strictly manage imports for each group of goods to limit trade deficits.

2. Develop a strategy for socializing social activities, emphasizing the responsibility of all levels of government, mobilizing resources from the people, and the participation of mass organizations, economic sectors, and social organizations in investing in and developing healthcare, education, culture, science, sports, etc.

Enhance vocational training quality for workers, particularly rural youth, ensuring employment for farmers when land is reclaimed and converted for other uses, and meeting labor export demands. Implement specific policies, especially regarding housing, for workers at industrial zones and export processing zones. Rectify and improve the effectiveness of social insurance operations, implement steps to carry out the project on salary reform, social insurance, and preferential allowances for those who have rendered meritorious service.

Adjust poverty criteria towards alignment with other countries in the region. Focus on effectively and sustainably addressing poverty alleviation issues in rural areas, remote regions, ethnic minority areas, especially poor households of those who have rendered meritorious service, eliminating temporary housing conditions.

Strengthen propaganda, mobilization, and population growth rate control; promptly issue guiding documents for the Population Law.

Enhance state management over hospital fees and drug prices; prioritize domestic production of essential drugs; invest in upgrading county-level health facilities and those in difficult regions and ethnic minority areas. Improve and expand types of health insurance. Enhance medical ethics.

Continue implementing the program to manage, train skills, and create jobs for individuals after drug rehabilitation in Ho Chi Minh City and other provinces and cities. Synchronize measures to prevent and combat drug abuse and prostitution.

3. Effectively implement cultural-information programs; promote the "All People United to Build a Cultural Life" movement; enhance the spiritual cultural life of the people; strengthen inspections and controls, and combat unhealthy activities in the cultural sector.

Increase broadcasting coverage in mountainous, border, and island regions; develop radio and television programs in ethnic minority languages. Strengthen cultural-artistic exchanges with countries around the world.

Enhance educational quality. Study and adjust the education strategy until 2010 and develop a long-term education strategy for subsequent years. Effectively implement the National Assembly's resolutions on education.

Enhance child health care quality; effectively implement the policy of free medical examination and treatment for children under six years old. Integrate economic-social programs with child protection, care, and education, especially for those in special circumstances, reducing the number of vagrant children and juvenile delinquents.

Strengthen moral and sportsmanship education; combat negative phenomena in sports. Efficiently utilize infrastructure for physical exercise and sports, particularly facilities built for the 22nd Southeast Asian Games.

Vigorously promote scientific research to serve strategic planning, policies, and plans for national socio-economic development, regional, and sectoral development. Develop the technology market; complete legal documents on intellectual property rights; accelerate the development of high-tech fields and improve technological levels in production, business, and services. Strengthen the transfer of scientific and technological progress to serve agriculture and rural areas. Reform financial mechanisms for scientific and technological activities, organizational and management mechanisms for research institutions; promote the application and utilization of scientific research results; actively plan the transition of applied research and technology transfer agencies to operate according to enterprise models. Accelerate the construction of high-tech zones and national key laboratories.

Continue to perfect Vietnam's environmental standards system. Effectively implement environmental assessments based on sustainable development perspectives in socio-economic development programs and projects. Strengthen management and monitoring of natural resource exploitation and use activities; adopt proactive preventive measures and address pollution, ecological degradation, and environmental improvement and conservation. Promote environmental protection awareness and education. Urgently study, amend, and supplement the Environmental Protection Law. Diversify funding sources for the environment and allocate specific budget funds for environmental public services.

Evaluate the effectiveness of socio-economic development programs in mountainous areas and regions with extremely difficult socio-economic conditions; review mechanisms and policies for ethnic minority areas to timely adjust them to fit actual conditions. Implement the program to support production land, residential land, housing, and clean water for poor ethnic minority households.

Effectively implement land settlement and production stabilization work; innovate production methods, technology transfer, and information provision to strongly develop commodity economies; effectively implement cadre training policies for mountainous, island, border, and ethnic minority regions.

Evaluate the results of the conscription system over 15 years to develop appropriate solutions for the next phase to provide cadres for each ethnic group, especially those without university or college-educated cadres. Preserve and develop the languages and scripts of ethnic groups.

6. Continue to implement the action program to carry out the Strategy for national defense in the new situation, ensuring the integration of economic and social development tasks with the tasks of consolidating and enhancing the national defense and security potential.

Proactively prevent, promptly detect, and thwart plots and factors causing political instability, public order, and social safety, threatening the independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity, and national security. Strengthen coordination and close cooperation between the People's Army and the People's Public Security, and between ministries, sectors, localities, and people's armed forces in effectively performing national defense, security, disaster prevention, and epidemic control tasks. Focus on building and gradually improving the overall quality of the people's armed forces to have sufficient capability and strength to complete assigned tasks.

7. Continue to implement foreign activities with a proactive and positive spirit to consolidate and improve long-term stable relations with neighboring countries in the region, key partners, and expand relations with international organizations.

Complete the unified management mechanism to fully leverage the combined strength of foreign activities serving the cause of building and defending the country. Pay attention to external information dissemination and propaganda work, and mobilization work for overseas Vietnamese.

Support market information and trade promotion; guide enterprises to implement the CEPT/AFTA Program to proactively participate in the ASEAN market. Proactively and positively prepare and ensure conditions to accelerate international economic integration.

8. Continue to enhance the quality and effectiveness of criminal investigation, prosecution, and trial work, ensuring that no crimes are overlooked and no innocent persons are wrongfully convicted. Timely and legally resolve civil, family, economic, labor, and administrative cases.

Address the violation of procedural deadlines, returning case files for supplementary investigation, suspending investigations due to the accused being innocent; the situation where many judgments and decisions are annulled or revised; delays in issuing judgments and decisions, and failure to enforce judgments and decisions that have become legally binding. Take active and resolute measures to prevent and curb crime, social evils, and traffic accidents.

Promptly issue comprehensive guiding documents to implement laws and ordinances, ensuring specific and transparent legal bases in social relations, management work, and litigation proceedings.

Strictly implement Resolution No. 388/2003/NQ-UBTVQH11 of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly regarding compensation for damages caused to innocent persons by authorized bodies in criminal litigation activities.

Improve and reorganize the judicial staff, particularly focusing on enhancing the quality, sense of responsibility, and moral character of investigators, prosecutors, judges, court clerks, and enforcement officers to effectively implement judicial reform policies. Promote the policy of judicial reform.

Promptly identify and strictly handle corruption cases. Quickly prepare to submit the Anti-Corruption Law to the National Assembly for consideration and approval. The Government will cooperate with the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuracy, and relevant agencies and organizations to study and propose solutions to enhance the effectiveness of anti-corruption efforts.

Ensure the rights and legitimate interests of the people when formulating and promulgating policies, especially in land recovery, compensation for land clearance, and construction of new projects; transparency in implementation organization, minimizing citizen complaints and petitions.

Concentrate on resolving pending, complex, and prolonged complaints; promptly address newly emerging complaints and petitions; strengthen supervision and inspection of complaint and petition resolution.

10. Accelerate the administrative reform process. Review and adjust current regulations, eliminating unreasonable procedures. Continue to reorganize and improve organizational structures towards efficiency, clearly defining functions and responsibilities. Enhance the ethics and discipline awareness of civil servants. Link responsibilities with authorities and specify the accountability system for heads of agencies and organizations.

Effectively implement democratic regulations and grassroots mediation work. Strengthen discipline in state agencies. Create a strong change in thrift and waste prevention practices. Increase people's oversight, enhance inspections, and strictly handle officials and civil servants who violate the law. Study reforms in the provision of transportation and working equipment for officials in state agencies.

IV/ IMPLEMENTATION

The Government directs and manages sectors and levels to proactively organize the successful implementation of the targets, indicators, and tasks for 2005; strive with great effort to successfully complete the five-year plan from 2001 to 2005.

The Standing Committee of the National Assembly, the National Ethnic Council, the Committees of the National Assembly, the Delegations of National Assembly members, the People's Councils at all levels, and People's Council representatives closely supervise the implementation of this Resolution.

The Vietnam Fatherland Front, member organizations of the Front, and other social organizations encourage all strata of the people to effectively implement the National Assembly's Resolution.

The National Assembly calls upon compatriots, soldiers across the country, and compatriots abroad to raise the spirit of patriotic competition, unity, mobilize all resources, overcome difficulties and challenges, and strive to successfully accomplish the 2005 tasks.

This Resolution was adopted by the National Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam at its sixth session on December 3, 2004./.