Other topics include the government’s policies on housing and land issues, administrative reform, development of education, culture and health and sci-tech sectors, employment, social policies and prevention of natural disasters and epidemics.

GDP growth rate of 8.2 percent

It is suggested that the PM release a New Year’s message about his plan of actions so that people can oversee and evaluate the operation efficiency of the Government and the PM himself. 

Mr Dung welcomed their idea and said that each country has its own way of addressing this. Normally, he said there is no New Year’s message from the Prime Minister in Vietnam, but the Government presents a report at the year-end session of the National Assembly which reviews the socio-economic development achievements of this year, points out weaknesses and causes and devises solutions for the coming year.

As the people’s highest power agency, the National Assembly debates the Government report and adopts a resolution on major socio-economic development tasks for the coming year. Based on the resolution, the Government and the PM draw up a plan of actions to realise the resolution.

“This is an effective way given the practical condition in Vietnam. To some extent, it is the New Year’s message of the Government leader, as well as of the Government and the State,” said Mr Dung.

Regarding major socio-economic development tasks in 2007, Mr Dung said sectors and localities will exert greater efforts and devise solutions to obtain a GDP growth rate of 8.2 percent. Public administrative reform will be accelerated to fully tap the great potential of enterprises and other economic sectors, as well as promoting people’s democracy. In addition, the Government will work out comprehensive solutions to strictly deal with corrupt cases and prevent the endemic phenomenon.

According to Mr Dung, 2006 marked the first year Vietnam began to implement resolutions of the 10^th National Party Congress and the five-year development plan till 2010. With the great effort made by the entire Party, army and people, and on the back of the achievements of 20 years of implementing the Doi Moi (Renewal) process, the year 2006 ended with following major successes: socio-political stability was maintained; people’s interests and rights to democracy were respected and guaranteed; and people showed their confidence in the future of the nation, the Party leadership and the success of the Renewal process.

Mr Dung noted that in 2006, the national GDP growth rate reached nearly 8.2 percent; the competitiveness and efficiency of the national economy as well as people’s living conditions improved significantly; and the poverty rate among households fell by an additional three percent. Progress was seen in cultural, social and healthcare services; initial results were obtained in administrative reform and the fight against corruption, thereby winning people’s trust; and national defence and security were enhanced.

The Government leader looked at major successes in foreign affairs activities. After more than 11 years of negotiations, Vietnam finally joined the World Trade Organisation; the country successfully organised the 14^th APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting; Asian countries nominated Vietnam as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council in the 2008-2009 tenure; and the US lifted Vietnam out of the list of Countries of Particularly Concern (CPC) regarding religious affairs.

“Those achievements resulted from the initial successes of the Renewal process over the past 20 years, which helped give a fresh impetus and create new opportunities and favourable conditions for Vietnam to move forward, escape the underdevelopment nation status by 2010 and become an industrialised nation by 2020.”

Overseas Vietnamese receive more support

Several overseas Vietnamese complained about difficulties in the purchase of houses in Vietnam.

In response, Mr Dung affirmed that the overseas Vietnamese community which now numbers around 3 million is an inseparable part of the Vietnamese nation. The Political Bureau of the Communist Party of Vietnam has issued Resolution No 36 on work relating to Vietnamese nationals residing abroad. The National Assembly has adopted the Land Law and the Housing Law which refer to overseas Vietnamese who are considered eligible to purchase houses. The Government has also issued Decree No 61 stipulating the purchase of State-owned houses by tenants. However, there remain cumbersome procedures during the implementation.

Mr Dung said he has asked the Ministry of Construction in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and relevant ministries and agencies to study and propose amendments to the Decree aimed at creating favourable conditions for overseas Vietnamese to live and run business in the homeland.

 

Administrative reform given top priority

Mr Dung affirmed that there is no restriction on anticorruption. Pointing out causes of corruption, he said the crux of the matter is that the State budget is not enough to improve living conditions for all State workers. In addition, a segment of Party members and ranking officials are not fully resolved to combat corruption.

Mr Dung said the institutionalisation of the Party and State apparatus is an important issue in public administrative reform. Currently, the Government has 26 ministries and ministerial-level agencies. In response to the resolutions of the 10^th National Party Congress and the recent fourth conference of the Party Central Committee, the Government is planning to reduce the number of ministries and agencies to make their operation more effective.

Several people asked if PM Dung’s recent signing of a decree to ban the privatisation of the press in all forms is against the objective of ensuring freedom of democracy he has pursued so far.

Mr Dung said that the decree conforms to the Vietnamese law and meets the aspiration of a majority of Vietnamese people. The Party and State highly value the press’ important role and its contributions to the Vietnamese revolution. For the Party and State, each newspaper, radio and television station must be an organ of speech and serve as a democratic forum for people, striving to achieve the goal of a rich people, a strong country and an equitable, democratic and civilised society.   

 

43 million accessible to free medical services

According to the Government leader, currently 43 million Vietnamese people or 52 percent of the country’s total population are provided with free medical treatment through the medical insurance system. He said the Government has issued policies on medical insurance for State workers, retired persons and social policy beneficiaries and allocated budgets for free medical treatment of people and children under six years old.

He said the Government will continue to pour intensive investment into infrastructure construction, personnel training and socialisation of medical services.   

In regard to human resource development, Mr Dung said the success of national industrialisation and modernisation will depend largely on human resources. To draw competent persons to the Party and State apparatus and State-owned enterprises, the Party and State should (i) have appropriate policies to train and use talents, (ii) fully develop the market economy, and (iii) promote democracy.

During the online exchange, the PM received more than 20,000 questions from the public.

This is the first time PM Dung has held an online exchange with the public jointly organised by the online newspaper of the Communist Party of Vietnam, the Government website and the VietnamNet online newspaper.