Decision No. 773-TTg Regarding the Program for Exploitation and Utilization of Degraded Land, Riverbank Sediments, Coastal Sediments, and Water Surfaces in Delta Regions

Pursuant to …;

ON THE PROGRAM FOR THE EXPLOITATION AND USE OF DEGRADED LAND, SEDIMENTED AREAS ALONG RIVERS AND COASTS, AND WATER SURFACES IN PLAIN REGIONS

PRIME MINISTER

Pursuant to the Government Organization Law dated September 30, 1992;

Pursuant to the proposals of the Ministers of Agriculture and Food Industry, Forestry, Fisheries, Water Resources, Labor - Invalids and Social Affairs, the Chairman of the State Planning Commission, and the Director of the National Center for Natural Sciences and Technology,

 

DECISION:

REGARDING THE ECONOMIC STRUCTURE AND POPULATION SETTLEMENT

Article 1.

 From now until the year 2000 and some subsequent years, all sectors and levels must mobilize all domestic economic resources and foreign capital to basically complete the effective exploitation and utilization of degraded land, sedimented areas along rivers and coasts, and water surfaces in plains that have not yet been developed, thereby increasing production areas, boosting agricultural, forestry, and fisheries product yields, protecting and developing coastal protective and special-use forests to safeguard the environment and ecological balance, gradually stabilizing and improving the living standards of people on new lands. The main focus of exploitation will be the regions of Dong Thap Muoi, Tuc Khac Long Xuyen, the Ca Mau Peninsula, and other small regions with degraded land in the Mekong Delta, Red River Delta, and coastal lagoons in central and northern Vietnam.

The protection of existing protective and special-use forests and the exploitation, utilization, and greening of degraded land in mountainous areas (mainly in midlands and mountainous regions) will continue to be implemented according to Decision No. 327-CT dated September 15, 1992, of the Council of Ministers, which has been detailed in document No. 4785-KTN dated August 29, 1994, by the Government.

Article 2.

The program for the exploitation and utilization of degraded land, sedimented areas along rivers and coasts, and water surfaces in plain regions will be carried out through projects. These projects must be constructed comprehensively, promoting economic development, forming an economic structure oriented towards integrated agriculture, forestry, and fisheries, aligning with the requirements for rural economic restructuring towards industrialization and modernization, while resettling populations (migrating and relocating residents) to address social needs (culture, education, health care), aiming to build new, civilized, and modern rural areas, protecting and improving the general ecological environment.

The implementation of projects for the exploitation and utilization of degraded land, sedimented areas, and water surfaces must proceed step-by-step, following planning guidelines with priorities in each period, in accordance with the investment capacity of both the people and the state. Priority should be given to projects that create many jobs, relocate many migrants from areas lacking land; regions producing concentrated high-value products; border and island areas critical for security and defense.

Article 3.

Agricultural, forestry, and fisheries production projects must start from natural characteristics, investment capabilities, and align with regional socio-economic development plans, ensuring market demand, sustainable development, and effectiveness.

Projects must integrate agriculture, forestry, and fisheries with processing industries and product consumption; balance crop cultivation with animal husbandry; protect and plant forests; raise aquatic products; balance environmental protection with economic development, implementing comprehensive measures from production to processing and related services.

Irrigation is the primary measure for each project and must be directly linked to other works such as land improvement, expanding cultivated areas, and arranging water and land transportation systems according to appropriate scales based on investment capabilities.

Article 4.

Emphasis should be placed on restoring and increasing the area of protective coastal forests, mangrove forests, and planting forest belts in each project to maintain ecological balance, while also creating local construction materials and fuel sources. The area of timber and fruit trees in each project must ensure a coverage rate of no less than 20-30% of the natural area.

Article 5.

Aquaculture projects need to be combined with irrigation projects, agricultural and forestry projects, hydropower projects, and tourism projects to develop suitable aquaculture models, effectively exploit the potential and strengths of each type of water surface, and establish a sustainable ecological environment....

Article 6.

Reasonably develop industrial and small-scale handicraft bases, primarily medium and small-sized units equipped with advanced technology to improve product quality to meet increasingly high domestic and international market demands; emphasize concentration and specialization from the outset.

Organize commercial networks to ensure supply of goods and services to residents and consumption of products produced in the production area.

Article 7.

Regarding the application of technological progress and introduction of new technologies into production:

Expanding cultivated areas and developing agriculture, forestry, and fisheries must be closely tied to advanced production methods to combat erosion, protect and continuously enhance soil fertility, prevent environmental and water pollution, increase productivity, and carry out agricultural, forestry, and fishery extension work to transfer high-yielding seeds and advanced technologies to ensure high-quality crops and livestock.

In industry, immediately apply advanced new technologies to produce high-value products for domestic consumption and export.

Article 8.

Regarding population settlement and cultural-social infrastructure:

Population settlement planning must follow specific projects, linking with fixed residence, production areas, and infrastructure development plans, ensuring early stabilization of residents' lives, especially in regions with difficult natural, economic, and social conditions such as heavily saline and acidic areas, coastal lagoons, fishing villages now settled on mainland, areas frequently affected by natural disasters, and ethnic minority regions, remote and underdeveloped areas.

The residential areas need to be comprehensively planned with specific steps towards building civilized and modern new rural areas, arranged in clusters combined with linear layouts to form new administrative village units; utilizing traffic axes and canal axes to appropriately arrange residential areas. Emphasis should be placed on solutions for house frames and foundations to proactively prevent and combat floods. Small-scale industrial processing clusters should be integrated with concentrated residential areas; focusing on leveraging comparative advantages of each area, diversifying products and industries from the outset, contributing to increasing income for residents.

In each project, related sectors must mobilize their own capital to immediately arrange essential infrastructure regarding culture and society (schools, health stations, internal regional civilian roads, etc.).

Localities cooperate with related sectors to implement measures to quickly relocate all households still living in lakes, ponds, and floating villages on water surfaces to settle on land, including planning residential areas, determining production directions, and addressing cultural and social needs for the people. Boarding schools should be organized to attract all children of school age.

Article 9.

Following these directions, relevant ministries will lead and coordinate with related ministries to guide and assist localities in promptly completing the overall plan for exploiting and using degraded land, water surfaces, and river and coastal floodplains to develop the economy and stabilize the population until 2000 and 2010 in each province.

Each province's overall plans must be submitted to the Standing Office of this Program before August 1995 for consolidation and submission to the Government for review and inclusion in the general plan for socio-economic development.

Based on the overall plan, relevant sectors will guide localities in developing specific projects to be included in the five-year plan from 1996 to 2000 and annual plans for consideration and decision by the Prime Minister. Projects must consider funding capacity and focus on key construction, avoiding dispersion.

FORMS OF ORGANIZATION FOR PRODUCTION

Article 10.

The implementation of this Program mainly relies on the strength of the people in each locality. Encouraging economic components to invest their own capital in expanding production facilities to exploit and utilize degraded land, water surfaces, and river and coastal floodplains, constructing cultural, educational, and public welfare works through various forms such as state-owned enterprises, collectives, private enterprises, joint ventures (including foreign-invested joint ventures or wholly foreign-owned enterprises), etc....

State management agencies will guide economic components in establishing projects according to the planning of each region with appropriate scale, creating favorable conditions for implementation.n.

Article 11.

Organizations and individuals as production units established in suitable forms corresponding to the production, construction, and business activities of each project, such as Volunteer Youth Teams, Pioneering Youth Teams, Youth Mobilization Units, Land Reclamation Companies; enterprises, production and processing cooperatives, economic organizations, etc., undertake parts of the project or the entire project. Developing joint venture and cooperative relationships between units belonging to different economic components within the area, aiming to create comprehensive strength, promote production, build new rural areas, ensure equal benefits among economic components, and fulfill obligations to the State.

In agriculture, forestry, and aquaculture, the household is the autonomous economic unit, primarily in the form of small and medium-sized farms oriented towards concentrated and specialized commodity production from the outset.

Article 12.

Project scale:

- For agricultural, forestry, and fisheries projects, approximately 100-3000 hectares (depending on the terrain and land conditions of each region and management capacity), equivalent to a new hamlet or commune to form an administrative unit combining economic and social aspects with national defense security, suitable for the investment capacity of the people and the State.

- For forestry, agricultural, and fisheries projects, approximately 500-5000 hectares.

- For aquaculture projects, approximately 100-3000 hectares.

Article 13.

Land allocation and forest contracting standards for each household.

Households moving to new areas are allocated land, water surface, or contracted forests according to the overall planning and project plans, with participation from the main managing sector and local authorities, prioritizing land distribution for local households, newly transferred households without or lacking production land, especially those living on water surfaces relocating to land.

The land area allocated to each household moving to a project area is distributed based on specific conditions of each region. General limits are as follows:

- From 1 to 3 hectares for agricultural, forestry, and fisheries projects.

- From 2 to 10 hectares for forestry, agricultural, and fisheries projects and aquaculture projects. Among them:

+ Residential land and garden economic land 500-2000 square meters.

+ Forest planting land and buffer forest land in agricultural, forestry, and aquaculture projects is 10-20%; in forestry and agricultural projects it is 70-80%.

The remainder shall be for agricultural development or aquaculture.

In areas where difficulties still exist due to poor transportation and water management systems, acidic, saline, and frequently flooded land, private individuals and other economic sectors are encouraged to take over the land to invest in building farms for agricultural, forestry, and fisheries production.

It is strictly prohibited for households and individuals to arbitrarily create boundaries to encroach upon farmland.

or to encroach upon land by relying on crop rotation in forest land.

INVESTMENT FUNDS

Article 14.

The State encourages all economic sectors both within and outside the country to invest their own capital in this Program, utilizing joint venture and cooperative funds from localities, individuals, collectives, and social organizations. Budgetary funds are only supplementary investment funds.

The State will support and supplement the Program with the following funds:

a) Funds for constructing major infrastructure projects, irrigation systems, drainage channels, main inter-district and inter-commune roads, and large welfare facilities, which will be directly invested by relevant ministries and localities according to annual plans, not included in the total investment budget of each project.

b) Budgetary funds for direct investment in projects include:

- Construction of tertiary levees, embankments, and irrigation channels connected to main channels for irrigation, flood control, saltwater exclusion, and acid removal.

- Transportation infrastructure within the degraded land area of the project.

- Jointly with related sectors, supporting the construction of health stations, primary schools, wells, and water reservoirs in particularly difficult areas.

- Construction of nurseries for trees, livestock breeding farms, and special aquatic species breeding farms to provide high-quality seeds for the project area.

- Planting protective forests and mangrove forests around river dikes, sea dikes, and coastal areas to prevent sand, waves, and typhoons, prioritizing critical areas often threatened by typhoons and sea waves in provinces such as Minh Hai, Kien Giang, Ho Chi Minh City, Ha Tinh, Quang Binh, etc.

- Management and agricultural promotion funds including project planning, management, operation, agricultural extension work, and the transfer of new technologies, amounting to 6-8% of the total direct investment budget of the project.

- Funds to assist in relocation, resettlement in new areas, transferring residents from lakes, swamps, fishing villages, etc., to settle on mainland, and supporting ethnic minority regions facing difficulties in agricultural, forestry, and fisheries production.

c) Medium-term or long-term loan funds from the budget are used for the following purposes:

- Loans for planting industrial crops, fruit trees, commercial timber forests with cycles over 20 years, and raising large livestock.

- Loans for reclaiming wasteland and building paddy fields.

- Loans for constructing fish ponds, purchasing essential equipment and machinery as proposed by specialized departments.

Repayment period without interest starts from when the product is harvested according to the production cycle of each crop or animal.

d) Sources of funds and fund management mechanisms:

All sources of funds from various sectors and programs must be mobilized and utilized effectively and synchronously, such as transportation, water resources, healthcare, education, settlement, national employment programs, poverty reduction, and foreign capital.

Budgetary allocations (including investment and operational funds) and interest-free loans as mentioned above are unified under the National Planning Commission and announced by the Ministry of Finance to provincial People's Committees; departments only propose distribution and do not directly manage or allocate funds.

Capital allocation and repayment to the project owner (or household) are managed solely by a designated entity specified by the Ministry of Finance.

e) Preferential credit funds are used for the following purposes:

- Planting small-scale commercial timber forests with cycles under 20 years.

- Developing small-scale livestock farming and aquaculture (buying seeds, disease prevention).

- Building service systems (grinding, fish meal processing, fish sauce, sugar refining, small-scale mechanical repair).

- Purchasing transportation means and water transport equipment in difficult areas.

g) For large processing zones such as sugarcane, fruits, rice milling for export, seafood processing, cold storage, separate projects must be established. The State will assist in calling for joint ventures, cooperatives, or international financial organization loans to implement these projects.

Article 15.

Ministries, central agencies, and localities need to pay adequate attention to investing in scientific and technological capabilities and transferring new technologies to project areas.

Besides the common funds of the Program, annually, the National Planning Commission, relevant departments, localities, and scientific institutions must allocate necessary funds, including investment and operational funds, for basic investigation projects, applying advanced techniques, especially researching, implementing, and transferring new technologies in project areas covered by this Decision.

Article 16

Other economic sectors (not under State management) that invest their own capital in implementing the Program will enjoy investment incentives as stipulated in Chapter III of the Law on Encouraging Domestic Investment; additionally, they will also benefit from the following incentives:

a) Participating in providing technical services in agriculture, forestry, and fisheries production, processing, and product consumption, enjoying equal rights and obligations as State-owned economic units.

b) If directly participating in building concentrated agricultural, forestry, and fisheries raw material areas of medium and large scale related to exports, in addition to their own investment, they will be eligible for state loans of 20-30% of the total project investment cost through preferential credit with low-interest rates under the Program.

If these economic sectors participate in building welfare facilities such as health stations and schools in the project area, the State will support them with 50% of the construction costs through budgetary funds.

c) Other economic components within and outside the country investing in processing and preserving agricultural, forestry, and aquatic products shall be directed to preferential policies according to the Law on Encouraging Domestic Investment and the Law on Foreign Investment.

If investment is aimed at transferring high-quality crop and livestock seed systems or constructing preservation and processing systems for agriculture, forestry, and aquaculture that meet advanced world technology standards, they will enjoy special state incentives such as procedures for land use rights transfer, partial funding support for infrastructure construction in project areas, labor selection, etc., to create the most favorable environment for these activities.

REVIEW AND APPROVAL OF PROJECTS

Article 17.

The review and approval of projects shall be conducted as follows:

a) Project Review:

For projects under local management, before the Provincial People's Committee approves, there must be a written review opinion from relevant Ministries (forestry and fishery projects are reviewed by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development; agriculture and forestry projects are reviewed by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, etc.). The reviewing ministry has the responsibility to work with other related ministries and agencies. The review should be carried out promptly, mainly examining production direction and investment capital structure, concentration level (not scattered), key economic and technical solutions to ensure the effectiveness and feasibility of the project.

For projects under central ministries and agencies' management, before the head of the ministry or agency approves, there must be an agreement opinion from the provincial people's committee where the project is implemented (if the provincial land allocation document does not clearly state the objectives, directions, and tasks of the allocated area).

The State Planning Commission is responsible for reviewing projects by the Prime Minister.

b) Approving Projects:

- The Prime Minister approves projects with large scale and total investment amounting to 100 billion VND or more.

- Ministers of relevant ministries or equivalent departments, Chairmen of provincial and centrally-administered city People's Committees approve projects with investment capital less than 100 billion VND. For projects with investment capital ranging from 15 billion VND to 100 billion VND, before making the approval decision, there must be a unified opinion from related ministries and the Chairman of the State Planning Commission.

- The Chairmen of provincial and centrally-administered city People's Committees are responsible for state management of all projects implemented in their respective areas.

- The State Planning Commission, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Science and Technology, and Environment have the responsibility to audit projects regarding overall economic structure balance in the region, technology, and environment.

- Projects previously approved by ministries and provinces, if inconsistent with the goals and content of this program, must be reconsidered and adjusted to fit the program.

IMPLEMENTATION

Article 18.

Relevant ministries such as the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Ministry of Forestry, Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, Ministry of Fisheries, Ministry of Water Resources, Ministry of Construction, Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Energy, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Environment, Ministry of National Defense, and other related sectors, depending on their functions and responsibilities, cooperate with localities to ensure the synchronization and balance of the program.

The Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs and the Committee for Ethnic Minorities and Mountainous Areas need to study and develop early support policies for ethnic minorities moving to new settlement points, particularly difficult regions, and ethnic minority areas to stabilize production and living conditions in new territories.

Article 19.

Mass organizations, associations, and people's organizations may directly participate in the Management Board or provide direct services such as supplying seeds, technical materials, promoting agriculture, etc., and selling products in localities with projects.

The Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union collaborates with related sectors and local people's committees to organize volunteer youth forces and emergency youth teams to play a vanguard role in implementing projects such as land reclamation, road construction, water conservancy works, cultural, social works, etc., or organizing cultural and social activities in new regions with many difficulties.or regions with many difficulties. The Central Youth Union may pilot some projects in key regions to draw lessons for general guidance.Regarding the implementation guidance of the program:

Article 20.

The implementation guidance of this program needs to be closely combined with the implementation of the program to green barren mountains (according to Decision No. 327-CT dated September 15, 1992 of the Chairman of the Council of Ministers) to avoid any overlap, ensuring the consistency, balance, and synchronization of the program, especially in approving projects, resolving investment policies, financial policies, and socio-economic strategies in various territorial areas.

- At the central level, the Prime Minister assigns a member of the Government to directly oversee and organize the implementation guidance, coordinating with relevant sectors and localities to conduct inspections, urging progress, and proposing measures to implement this Program, while also overseeing Program 327.

The permanent office of the Steering Committee for the Program is located at the State Planning Commission.

- In each specialized ministry, a specialized steering group needs to be established.

- In each province and centrally-administered city, the Chairman or Vice-Chairman in charge of agriculture, forestry, and fisheries implements direct guidance for the implementation of Program 327, now concurrently guiding this program.

- To ensure the effective implementation of the program for exploiting and utilizing degraded lands, riverbank areas, coastal areas, and surface waters in delta regions according to this Decision, from now until the end of the third quarter of 1995, all provinces and central agencies need to conduct a summary of land reclamation work in delta regions during the recent period (approximately 1989-1990) to 1995 (including a summary of the exploitation of the Mekong Delta), aiming to draw necessary lessons for effectively implementing this program in the coming years.

- To ensure the effective implementation of the program for the exploitation and utilization of degraded land, riverbank, coastal, and water surface areas in the delta regions pursuant to this Decision, from now until the end of the third quarter of 1995, all provinces and central sectors must conduct a summary of the land reclamation work in the delta regions during the recent period (approximately 1989-1990) to 1995 (including a summary of the exploitation of the Mekong Delta), with the aim of drawing necessary lessons for the successful implementation of this program in the coming years.

Article 21.

CEach Ministry, agency at the ministerial level, agency under the Government, People's Committee of provinces and centrally governed cities related to their responsibilities and authorities assigned shall select responsible and competent officials to manage projects within their respective sectors or localities. The State Planning Commission, the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industry, the Ministry of Forestry, the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, the Ministry of Fisheries, and the Ministry of Finance shall issue guiding documents to direct all levels and entities to implement this.

Article 22.

This Decision takes effect from the date of issuance, all previous documents that conflict with this Decision are hereby abolished.

The Ministers of each Ministry, agencies at the ministerial level, Heads of agencies under the Government, Chairmen of People's Committees of provinces and centrally governed cities are responsible for implementing this Decision.