Quyết định 936/QD-TTg

DECISION

APPROVING THE MASTER PLAN ON SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF THE CENTRAL HIGHLANDS TILL 2020

THE PRIME MINISTER

Pursuant to the Law on Organization of the Government dated December 25, 2001;

Pursuant to the  Decree No. 92/2006/ND-CP dated September 7, 2006 of the Government on the formulation, approval and management of socio-economic development master plans, and Decree No. 04/2008/ND-CP dated January 11, 2008, amending and supplementing a number of articles of Decree No. 92/2006/ND-CP;

At the proposal of the Ministry of Planning and Investment,

DECIDES:

Article 1. Approving the master plan on socio-economic development of the Central Highlands till 2020, with the following principal contents:

I. POSITION AND ROLE

The Central Highlands has a crucial strategic position for national socio-economic development, national defense and security; a natural corridor bordering on southern Laos and northeastern Cambodia, a transport system connected to coastal central and southeastern provinces; and international border gates on the East-West corridor and is close to deepwater seaports in the central coastal region.

The Central Highlands has great potential and advantages on land, minerals, particular climate (moderate and subtropical), rich and diverse fauna and flora for developing a large-scale and concentrated commodity producing agriculture; landscapes and scenic places favorable for tourism development; and favorable conditions for developing power and large scale aluminum industries of the country.

3. The Central Highlands is characterized by cultural traits of different ethnic minority groups and localities nationwide; is the home of various material and immaterial cultural heritages together with rich folklore and community activities and an original folklore treasure; and is keeping the country's many material and immaterial cultural heritages of historical and aesthetic values.

II. DEVELOPMENT VIEWPOINTS

1. The master plan on socio-economic development of the Central Highlands to 2020 must conform to the national socio-economic development strategy and ensure consistency and conformity with master plans of sectors and areas.

2. To effectively tap and promote the potential and strengths of the Central Highlands; to boost international integration, particularly in the Vietnam-Laos-Cambodia development triangle, to increase cooperation between localities in the region and others nationwide in order to mobilize and properly use all resources for fast and sustainable development and incrementally narrow the socio-economic development gap between the region and the country.

3. To renovate the growth model and restructure the economy toward reasonable extensive and intensive development in order to build a highly competitive economy which economically and effectively uses natural resources. To associate socio-economic development with gradual urbanization and modernization of infrastructure networks in the region.

4. Socio-economic development of the Central Highlands must consist with the distribution and development level of production forces, ensuring balanced and harmonious development among areas associated with social progress and equity in each development step; to generate more employment for laborers; to eradicate hunger, reduce poverty, care for people's health and stabilize the society; to pay attention to human resource development; to preserve and promote traditional cultural values of ethnic minority groups.

5. To closely combine economic development with building and consolidation of a strong grassroots political system; to increase solidarity among ethnic minority groups, to maintain political stability and social order and safety.

III. DEVELOPMENT OBJECTIVES

1. General objectives:

To stably and sustainable develop the region on the basis of spatial organization of appropriate socio­economic activities; to build an infrastructure system to the average level as compared with the national level, creating a basic change in comprehensive socio-economic development; to step by step turn the Central Highlands into a driving economic development region of the whole country; to continuously improve people's material and spiritual lives, protect the eco-environment and assure national defense and security.

2. Targets

a/ Economic development:

- To strive for an average annual growth of gross domestic product (GDP) of 7.9% during 2011 -2015 and 8.7% during 2016-2020. To reach an average GDP per capita of VND 24 million by 2015 and around VND 46 million by 2020;

- The proportions of agriculture, industries and services in the economic structure shall be 43.6%, 29.2% and 27.2% respectively by 2015 and 34.7%, 35% and 30.3% by 2020;

- The annual export growth rate shall average at 17% during 2011-2015 and around 15.5% during 2016-2020.

b/ Social development:

- To reduce the average natural population growth to around 1.5%/year during 2011-2015 and around 1.4%/year during 2016-2020. To keep the region's population at around 5.8 million by 2015 and around 6.4 million by 2020;

- To strive to reduce the rate of underweight under-5 children to below 21% by 2015 and below 16% by 2020. The rate of districts and towns recognized for universalization of secondary school education shall reach 55-60% by 2020;

- To annually create 140,000-150,000 jobs on average. To reduce the rate of unemployment among people of working age in urban areas to below 3%. To strive to increase the rate of trained labor to 40-45% by 2015 and around 50-55% by 2020. To annually reduce the number of poor households by 2.5-3.5% on average;

To strive that by 2015, 90% of inhabitants in urban centers of grade III or higher shall get clean water from concentrated water supply systems and the rates shall be respectively 70% and 50% for grade-IV and grade-V urban centers. By 2020, the rates shall be respectively 90% for urban centers of grade IV or higher and 70% for grade-V urban centers. The water quality shall reach prescribed standards.

To assure that 80% and over 90% of rural inhabitants shall have access to hygienic water by 2015 and 2020 respectively.

c/ Environmental protection:

- To raise the forest coverage to around 57% by 2015 and around over 59% by 2020;

- By 2015, to collect and treat up to prescribed standards over 80% of solid waste in urban centers and 40-50% of daily-life wastewater in urban centers of grade III or higher before they are discharged into the environment. The rates shall surpass 90% and 60% respectively by 2020;

- To reasonably use natural resources and protect bio-diversity; to increase education and raise public awareness about environmental protection.

d/ National defense and security: To firmly maintain political security and social order and safety, to increase solidarity among ethnic minority groups, to consolidate national defense and security; to build provinces in the region into firm defense zones.

IV. SECTORAL DEVELOPMENT ORIENTATIONS

1. Economic sectors:

- To comprehensively restructure agriculture so that by 2020, the Central Highlands shall basically have a large-scale and concentrated commodity agriculture which is highly competitive, effective, sustainable and associated with the processing industry; to concurrently apply hi-tech and biotechnology to agricultural and forestry production to raise the yield and quality of products; to build brands for regional products with comparative advantages such as coffee, rubber, coca, pepper, etc. To stabilize the area under coffee, to further study and develop a number of industrial crops of high economic value, and vegetables, flowers and fruits of natural advantages (land, climate, ecosystem, etc.); to encourage the plantation of more effective upland crops on current low-yield rice areas with unstable irrigation. To attach special importance to animal husbandry, concentrating on cattle raising (beef and dairy cows, buffaloes, goats, etc.). To strictly protect national parks and natural reserves. To effectively tap water surface potential, particularly water surface of big reservoirs (hydro-power and irrigation reservoirs, etc.) for fishery development;

- To tap the potential and advantages of each locality of the Central Highlands, to strongly develop industry in order to achieve the growth targets and quickly restructure the economy. To prioritize the development of agricultural and forest product processing, targeting the processing of products with material advantages. To develop the mineral exploitation and processing industry, concentrating on bauxite exploitation and alumina processing as a major industry of the country. To develop manufacture engineering to serve farm produce and foodstuff processing, forest product processing, mineral exploitation and processing and cottage industries in the region;

- To quickly develop services that meet the needs of production and people. To develop trade, step by step modernize infrastructure facilities ensuring smooth flow of goods; to attach special importance to building commercial centers and supermarkets in cities, towns, urban centers and border-gate economic zones. To diversify tourist products on the basis of tapping potential and advantages in natural resources, history, traditional culture of ethnic minority groups; to focus on development of eco-tourism in areas accommodating forests, mountains, waterfalls and lakes. To effectively tap particular climate resources to form and develop luxury tourist resorts in Da Lat city (Lam Dong) and Mang Den (Kon Turn). To boost border-gate-based economic development, and transport, tele-communications, finance, banking, insurance, technology transfer and other services serving production and people's daily life.

2. Cultural and social affairs:

- To improve physical foundations and equipment for primary schools. To raise the quality and effectiveness of upper secondary school education. To expand the scale and improve the training quality of universities, colleges and vocational schools with appropriate training modes to meet human resource demands under national planning. To elaborate strategies to train in disciplines and occupations meeting development and market requirements; to boost vocational training in rural and ethnic minority areas; to associate vocational training with employment and labor export;

- To step by step modernize and complete the grassroots health system to increase people's access to quality basic health services, especially for ethnic minority people. To expand general hospitals and develop provincial-level specialized hospitals together with more patient beds and improved health service quality, prioritizing areas of ethnic minority people with small population. To develop the preventive health network to proactively prevent and control epidemics, meeting increasing demands for public health protection, care and improvement in the Central Highlands;

- To synchronously build grassroots cultural institutions; to preserve and embellish typical historical and cultural relics associated with tourism development. To consolidate and upgrade culture and arts colleges; to modernize physical training and sports facilities such as stadiums, sports complexes and physical training and sports centers under national planning; to build synchronous and incrementally modernize physical and technical foundations for physical training and sports.

3. Science and technology:

To increasingly apply hi-tech and clean technology to industries; to raise the effectiveness of scientific and technological activities; to improve physical and technical foundations and create favorable conditions for developing and raising the operational effectiveness of local scientific research institutes and establishments.

4. Natural resource and environmental protection:

- To properly conduct basic surveys on natural resources and minerals to plan reasonable use of natural resources; to effectively exploit and closely manage natural resources, especially land, forests and minerals;

- To remedy environmental degradation and improve environmental quality; to protect bio­ diversity and the eco-environment; to proactively forecast, warn and remedy the consequences of natural disasters and climate change.

5. Infrastructure development:

On the basis of approved master plans, to step by step build a system of infrastructure facilities as a driving force for socio-economic development. To concentrate on transport, power supply, irrigation, and infrastructure networks in urban centers and industrial parks, specifically:

- To develop a transport network by forming 3 parallel routes (East Truong Son road and highway 20; Ho Chi Minh road running through the Central Highlands; border corridor in Kon Turn province- highway 14C- border corridor in Dak Nong province) and 4 transversal routes (highway 24-highway 14-highway 40; highway 19; highway 26, highway 28-highway 14-provincial road 686-highway 14C). To upgrade and build provincial and district roads under planning. To attach special importance to developing rural transport networks in deep-lying, remote and border areas;

- To step by step modernize Lien Khuong and Pleiku airports; to study and plan airports for flights of helicopters and small airplanes to meet the needs of people and enterprises;

- To study and select appropriate forms of investment in each period to develop railway services from Dak Nong to Binh Thuan provinces catering the needs of transport, industrial production and mining; the Cham Tower-Da Lat railway; the arterial route of the Central Highlands railway network (Da Nang-Kon Tum-Buon Ma Thuot-Chon Thanh-Ho Chi Minh City) and Tuy Hoa-Buon Ma Thuot railway;

- To focus on completing and operating Dong Nai power plant 4 and Dak R'Tih and Thuong Kon Turn power plants; to build under planning Dong Nai hydro-power plants 4 and 5,500-KV and 220-KV transmission lines connecting the Central Highlands and national power grids with hydro-power plants built in the region and a number of hydro-power plants in Laos and Cambodia. To improve and build medium- and low-voltage grids and district-level intermediary transformer stations. To improve power grids in urban centers and towns ensuring safety and good view. To attach special importance to building transformer stations and power grids in border-gate economic zones, industrial parks and clusters and tourist sites. To install public lighting systems in urban areas. To strive to materialize rural electrification in the whole Central Highlands;

- To build, solidify and incrementally modernize irrigation systems, ensuring their active and effective operation. To build medium- and large-sized multi-purpose irrigation works mainly for storing water in the rainy season and controlling drought in the dry season. To prioritize works irrigating industrial crops and other crops of high economic value. To further invest synchronously in key works leading to canals, canal solidification and reservoirs to ensure sufficient water supply in the dry season. To develop medium- and small-sized water supply and power generation works to serve production development and stabilize people's life, especially for ethnic minority people in deep-lying and border areas, for social stabilization and security and defense. To build and consolidate a number of essential dykes and river and stream embankments to protect production and people's daily life.

6. National defense and security:

- To develop national defense-economic zones in the Central Highlands, contributing to improving and step by step raising people's material and spiritual lives and ensuring defense and security in strategic and border areas. To redistribute population under production planning and national defense and security objectives so as to build border village and commune clusters, forming a border beltway as the foundation for building an all-people national defense posture for national protection;

- To prioritize the building of defense-economic zones attached to villages set up by young people and the program on population redistribution and stabilization in border areas, to restore and set up new villages under new countryside planning. To continue the program on combination of civil and army healthcare, targeting deep-lying and remote areas, making contributions to the effective prevention and control of epidemics and protection and care for the health of people and soldiers;

- To further build and upgrade border patrol roads under planning in order to ensure mobile operation of forces and army vehicles along the border and meet defense and security requirements; and concurrently make contributions to socio-economic development and improvement of the material and spiritual lives of ethnic minority people in border areas;

- To consolidate and complete the system of local administrations at all levels and launch a movement for all people to protect national security; to build a firm security disposition at the grassroots level, to prevent unlawful migration and ward off social evils. To build up, train and equip regular modern police forces capable of detecting and effectively fighting illegal entry, dragging, sabotage and violent disturbances causing political instability to maintain social order and safety in the Central Highlands.

V. SOCIO-ECONOMIC SPACE ORGANIZATION

1. Economic development in sub-regions:

- North Central Highlands sub-region comprising Gia Lai and Kon Turn provinces: To develop hydro-power; to form eco-tourist resorts and tourist sites attached to national parks and natural reserves. To stabilize and improve the quality and yield of industrial crops; to boost the development of commercial exchange along the Vietnam-Laos-Cambodia border corridor;

- Middle Central Highlands sub-region comprising Dak Lak province: To focus on developing agricultural and forest product processing, particularly coffee production, processing and export;

- South Central Highlands sub-region comprising Dak Nong and Lam Dong provinces: To develop services and resort tourism; mineral exploitation and processing and hi-tech agriculture.

2. Urban space development:

To strive for an urbanization rate of around 31.5% for the whole Central Highlands by 2015 and around 36.2% by 2020, of which:

- To build and develop Buon Ma Thuot into the central city of the Central Highlands; a service, industrial, scientific and technological, education and training and health center; and a core urban center in the Vietnam-Laos-Cambodia development triangle;

- To make Da Lat, an urban center with particular natural conditions (climate) and cultural and historical values, a national and international center for resort tourism and a national center for multi-discipline training, scientific research and technology transfer:

- To build Pleiku city into one of the core urban centers of the Vietnam-Laos-Cambodia development triangle;

- To further invest in developing Kon Turn city and Bo Y international border-gate economic zone into important driving forces of the North Central Highlands sub-region;

- To form and develop new urban centers associated with the development of concentrated industrial parks, border-gate economic zones and new administrative units;

To form townlets and concentrated residential points; to step by step build networks of infrastructure facilities and public works (markets, post offices, trade centers, etc.) in areas with conditions favorable for economic development and exchange as a basis for forming urban centers.

4. To continue with the proper implementation of support policies and national target programs on poverty reduction and employment; population and family planning; clean water and environmental sanitation in rural areas; housing support policies for poor households, creating favorable conditions for inhabitants of disadvantaged areas to develop production, raise income and improve living conditions. To effectively implement the program on support for fast and sustainable poverty reduction in poor districts of the region

VI. MAJOR IMPLEMENTATION SO LUTION

1. To boost attraction of domestic and foreign investment

To mobilize and properly use all resource from different economic sectors, attaching special importance to funding sources from the population, non-state enterprises and foreign direct investment. To create a more favorable environment and formulate incentive mechanisms and policies, especially particular incentives for development of potential and advantageous domains, for the Central Highlands to attract investment resources for fast and sustainable development

2. To elaborate and promulgate mechanism and policies to support socio economic development in the Central Highlands to 2020

- To study appropriate mechanisms and policies for infrastructure development in rural and disadvantaged areas; to properly implement support policies for poverty reduction, health and education in disadvantaged and ethnic minority areas; policies on compensation, ground clearance, resettlement and farmland provision for resettled households, and royalty; to adopt incentive policies to attract enterprises to make investment in sparsely inhabited areas, especially mountainous, deep-lying, remote and ethnic minority areas;

- To encourage the development of preliminary processing of agricultural and forest products in deep-lying and remote areas which employs ethnic minority locals; to invest in hi- tech and advanced techniques for production and processing of export farm produce (rubber, coffee, bean, etc.); to support enterprises, cooperatives and farms in investment in production, processing and business in localities; to develop high-yield and -quality clean agricultural products, especially export products;

- To properly provide preferential credit for forestation and development of input material zones for the processing industry; to implement policies on use of land for forest plantation and protection and forest fire prevention and control and policies on benefit from forest plantation and protection; to encourage and assure that forest growers earn incomes from forests and be committed to forestation

3. To develop human resources

- To expand target groups entitled to selection-based enrolment and adopt priority policies for ethnic minority people in learning, recruitment, promotion and appointment. To attach special importance to training local ethnic minority laborers. To support vocational training and orientation and training in foreign languages and general knowledge in order to supply quality human resources for enterprises based in localities and for labor export;

- To elaborate and promulgate policies to train and build capacity for grassroots leaders; to provide village, commune and district leaders with short- and long-term training in socio­economic management, formulation and management of programs and projects and skills to make and implement plans;

- To study and promulgate policies to attract scientists and technicians from other localities to work permanently in the Central Highlands, especially in deep-lying, remote and ethnic minority areas. To create conditions in terms of residential land, housing (or production land for their relatives who do farm or forestry work); regime on recruitment as state payroll employees; and policies to encourage young intellectuals to work in districts of deep-lying and remote areas and specially disadvantaged areas.

4. To conduct administrative reform:

- To boost administrative reform, to raise the quality of cadres and civil servants and clearly define competence of agencies, levels and sectors; to increase administrative discipline, to fight red tape, corruption and waste; to assure people's democratic rights;

- To properly implement the policy to rotate and increase provincial and district officials to hold key leading positions in communes; to properly implement the regime on initial allowance for rotated officials; to adopt wage and allowance regimes and appointment and recruitment policies for rotated officials after finishing their tasks at the grassroots level.

5. To carry out development cooperation and association:

- To further boost cooperation in investment promotion, trade and tourism between localities in the region; to coordinate and cooperate in building input material zones, developing the processing industry and expanding outlet markets; to coordinate in exploiting and using water resources and protecting and developing forests;

- To raise the effectiveness of cooperation between localities in the Central Highlands and the southeastern region and the coastal southern central region. Areas prioritized for cooperation include investment attraction; processing and export-import of and trade promotion for key products such as coffee, rubber, cashew, fruit and wood products. To cooperate in building arterial roads linking the Central Highlands with provinces in the southeastern and coastal southern central regions, especially to seaports, key transport points; sea and island tours in the coastal southern central and southeastern regions with eco-tours to forests and mountains and cultural tours in the Central Highlands; to cooperate in building hydro-power plants using water and materials for agricultural and forest product processing plants;

To boost cooperation between the Central Highlands and localities of Laos and Cambodia within the cooperation framework for building the Vietnam-Laos-Cambodia development triangle; Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) cooperation; development cooperation on East-West corridors and bilateral cooperation; and cooperation between provinces in the Central Highlands and localities in Laos and Cambodia.

VII. ORGANIZATION OF MASTER PLAN IMPLEMENTATION

To announce and publicize the master plan on socio-economic development of the Central Highlands to 2020; to organize investment promotion activities, to provide public information to attract domestic and overseas investors and economic sectors to participate in the master plan implementation; to increase inspection and examination of development investment under the master plan.

Article 2. Provinces in the Central Highlands shall proactively review, adjust, supplement or propose competent authorities to approve adjustments of their local socio­economic development master plans to 2020, assuring conformity with the objectives and tasks approved in Article 1 of this Decision; and supervise and examine the implementation of development investment projects in their localities.

Article 3. Responsibilities of ministries and sectors:

1. The Ministry of Planning and Investment shall preside over and coordinate with ministries, sectors and localities in the Central Highlands in:

- Announcing the master plan and investment promotion activities to attract and raise funds from domestic and overseas economic sectors for investment in the region; monitoring, urging, supervising and examining the master plan implementation by ministries, sectors and localities in the region;

- Reviewing mechanisms and policies currently applicable to the region; studying amendments and supplements and proposing appropriate mechanisms and policies (if necessary), especially the mechanism and policy on association and coordination among localities in the region and with other regions; advising the Prime Minister on regulating development investment funds for projects in the region, particularly infrastructure investment projects, avoiding thinned-out, overlapping and coincident investment in the region;

2. The Ministry of Finance shall:

- Preside over and coordinate with the Ministry of Planning and Investment and the People's Committees of the provinces in the region in, reviewing and adjusting preferential financial mechanisms for provinces in the region and key programs and projects of regional scale and nature;

- Coordinate with the Ministry of Planning and Investment and related ministries, sectors and localities in studying and proposing investment mechanisms and policies for the region.

3. The Ministry of Transport shall:

- Preside over and and coordinate with localities in, reviewing and completing master plans on investment and development of transport infrastructure facilities; study and propose mechanisms to encourage and attract investment from non-state budget funding sources for transport infrastructure development;

- Preside over and coordinate with the Ministry of Planning and Investment and provinces in the region in, working out a roadmap and medium- and long-term plans for investment in transport infrastructure facilities; propose investment fund raising solutions.

4. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development shall preside over and coordinate with related ministries and sectors and provinces in the region in, reviewing and completing master plans to stabilize population, agricultural production zones, irrigation and agricultural production service infrastructure; concentrating on studying and applying hi-tech and bio­technology to agricultural and forestry production in order to raise yield and quality and produce goods of high value and high added value, especially key products of the region such as coffee, rubber, pepper, vegetables and flowers of the cool climate region.

5. The Ministry of Industry and Trade shall preside over and coordinate with related ministries, sectors and localities in, studying and proposing policies to promote production and sale of products in the domestic and export markets, especially agricultural products; building a network of wholesale markets and regional trade centers and developing border-gate economy.

6. The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment shall preside over and coordinate with the provinces in the region in, studying and assessing climate change impacts on people's production and daily life; direct related localities in implementing environmental protection solutions in mineral exploitation and processing projects and protecting national parks, natural reserves and biodiversity.

7. The Ministry of Education and Training shall:

- Preside over and coordinate with the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the Ministry of Finance and provinces in the region in, studying and formulating appropriate mechanisms and policies to modernize physical foundations, develop the contingent of trainers and training programs for development of high-quality human resource training centers meeting human resource needs for socio-economic development of the Central Highlands; and concurrently train scientists and technicians for Laos and Cambodia;

- Coordinate with the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs in working out a roadmap and solutions for investment in vocational training centers in the region.

8. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism shall preside over and coordinate with related ministries, sectors and localities in, reviewing, adjusting and supplementing regional master plans on cultural centers, sports centers and cultural institutions; building regional tourist sites and working out a mechanism for coordination in tourist development between localities and formation of the "Central Highlands green road" tour.

9. The Central Highlands Steering Committee shall direct, examine and urge ministries, sectors and provinces in the region in implementing the master plan; coordinate with the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the Ministry of Finance and related ministries, sectors and localities in studying, advising and proposing to the Government and the Prime Minister mechanisms, policies and solutions for the master plan implementation.

10. Within the ambit of their functions, tasks and powers, relevant ministries and sectors shall:

- Coordinate with the Ministry of Planning and Investment in organizing and supervising the master plan implementation; supervise the implementation of key investment programs and projects of regional scale and nature under their management according to the priority order in order to boost the region's socio-economic development.

- Elaborate, adjust and submit for approval master plans of sectors, industries and key products in the region in conformity with the objectives, tasks and development orientations approved in Article 1 of this Decision.

Article 4. This Decision takes effect on its signing date.

Article 5. The chairpersons of the People's Committees of the Central Highlands provinces, ministers, heads of ministerial-level agencies and heads of government-attached agencies shall implement this Decision.-

APPENDIX

LIST OF PROJECTS PRIORITIZED.FOR INVESTMENT STUDY IN THE CENTRAL HIGHLANDS DURING 2012-2020
(Issued together with Decision No. 936/QD-TTg dated July 18, 2012 of the Prime Minister)

Note: The location, size, land areas and total investment and funding sources of the above works and projects shall be calculated, selected and specified during the elaboration, submission and approval of investment projects, depending on needs and investment capital balancing and raising capacity in each period.