A breakthrough in policy and strategy making is a key factor in ensuring the successful and sustainable development of an economy.

The equitisation process of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) has been implemented over the past 15 years but the results of the process have not met expectations. The slow progress of equitisation is attributed to barriers from administrative mechanisms.

A perceived “brain drain” is increasingly becoming a hot issue among young people. Whether it is linked to the State’s preferences, the working environment or even young people’s knowledge, how to encourage young people to stay and help them prove their capabilities in State agencies remains an open question.

With its limited financial and management capacity, the domestic distribution network, mostly markets and retail shops, are set to compete fiercely with foreign distributors that are allowed to penetrate the Vietnamese market as of January 2009.

Prime Minister of the Czech Republic Mirek Topolanek began an official visit to Vietnam on March 21 at the invitation of Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung. This is the second Vietnam visit by a government leader from the Czech Republic after it separated from Czechoslovakia in 1993.

The Vietnamese National Assembly (NA) delegation’s visit to Japan, which took place at a time when both countries were celebrating the 35th anniversary of the establishment of their diplomatic ties, will contribute to bringing their cooperative relations between the two countries and the two parliaments to a new high.

The US Department of State has released its annual report on human rights practices in many countries in the world, including Vietnam. Many countries have immediately voiced strong opposition, saying the report contains biased and inaccurate information about the human rights situation in their countries.

Fulfiling this year’s export targets is of great significance to achieving a GDP growth target of 9 percent for the whole year.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung began a trip to Britain, Germany and Ireland on March 3 at the invitation of the heads of these states. The European tour aims to promote political relations, mutual understanding and trust, as well as economic, trade and investment cooperation with these countries.

The US Federal Court on February 22 dismissed the appeal lodged by Vietnamese Agent Orange/dioxin victims in their lawsuit against US chemical companies. By issuing the unfair ruling, the court defied the fact that millions of Vietnamese AO/dioxin victims have long been suffering the lingering pain and waiting for a fair judgement.