Quyết định 943/QD-TTg

DECISION

APPROVING THE MASTER PLAN ON SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT OF SOUTHEASTERN VIETNAM TO 2020

THE PRIME MINISTER

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

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

At the proposal of the Ministry of Planning and Investment,

DECIDES:

Article 1. To approve the master plan on socio-economic development of Southeastern Vietnam to 2020 (hereinafter called the Regional planning) with the following principal contents:

I. POSITION, ROLE

- Southeastern Vietnam (including Ho Chi Minh City and the following provinces: Ba Ria – Vung Tau, Dong Nai, Binh Duong, Binh Phuoc and Tay Ninh) is a dynamic development economic region with sustainable and high rate of economic growth, leading in the national industrialization and modernization, a motive force of the national economic development; an area of providing a link between Mekong River Delta areas and Western Highlands; leading in proactive integration, trade expansion, effective economic cooperation with other countries in the Southeast Asia and the world.

- Being a leader in development of some important sectors, contributing to improve the quality, efficiency and international competitive edge, motivating the socio-economic development process of whole country.

- The Southeastern Vietnam, of which Ho Chi Minh City is the kernel , is a financial, trade, tourism and international exchange center of the Southeast Asia.

- Being a center of education and training human resources, especially high-quality human resources; and a leading national center of science and technology application and transfer at the same time.

II. DEVELOPMENT VIEWPOINTS

1. The master plan on socio-economic development of Southeastern Vietnam to 2020 must conform to the national strategy on socio-economic development; ensuring consistency with sectoral master plans; building and developing Southeastern Vietnam into a driving force region with socio-economic growth rate higher than the average rate of the whole country; being a significant economic, financial and trade center of Vietnam and Southeast Asia.

2. Promoting the highest potential, advantages of regional localities, especially advantages of industrial production and services, Southeastern Vietnam must lead in the national industrialization and modernization; of which Ho Chi Minh City and Dong Nai, Ba Ria – Vung Tau, Binh Duong provinces are key areas, promoting its role of motivation and development to other localities in the region and the whole country.

3. Shifting the regional economic structure in accordance with improving the efficiency and competitiveness, giving priority to those industries with potential, advantages, high labor productivity and content of knowledge, associated with promoting the link among industries, economic sectors and localities.

4. Focusing on training and developing high-quality human resources, meeting requirements of international integration for the region and the whole country. Improving quality, expanding training scale with reasonable structure of career and qualifications in many forms.

5. Economic development must go together with ensuring social justice, effectively solving pressing social problems, improving the people’s material and spiritual lives and narrowing gaps of living standards among the regional localities, especially the poor, ethnic minorities and inhabitants in Vietnam - Cambodia border.

6. Harmonious and sustainable development among objectives of economic development, social development and ecological environment improvement; gradually effective control of free migration to the regional provinces along with forest protection and development; industrial development associated with protection of urban environment, air and water resources.

7. Combining socio-economic development with strengthening security, defense capabilities, ensuring political stability and social order and safety.

III. DEVELOPMENT OBJECTIVES

1. On economic development:

- The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Southeastern Vietnam to 2020 increases by 2.7 times compared with that of 2010, the average annual economic growth rate in the 2011 – 2020 period will reach 9.5 – 10%, with 10% for the 2011 – 2015 period and about 9.5% for the 2016 – 2020 period; the industrial, construction and service proportions in the regional GDP in 2020 will be 97 – 98%, in which services will account for over 44%, higher than the national average proportions.

- Striving for a per-capita GDP of equivalent to 4,600 USD by the year 2015 and 6,400 USD by the year 2020; a per-capita export value of 4,200 USD in 2015 and 7,800 USD in 2020. Maintaining the contribution level to the state budget about 50 – 55% in the 2011 – 2020 period.

- The average speed of technological innovation will reach 20 – 25%/year; raising the percentage of trained laborers to over 90% in 2020.

- Establishing high-quality social and production service centers, attaining the levels of the Southeast Asia and the world.

2. On social development:

- By the year 2020, stabilizing the regional population of about 18 million people; reaching the urbanization rate of 75%; creating jobs for about 29 – 30 ten thousand laborers; with the rate of unemployed people is 4% and the unemployment rate in urban area of below 5%.

- Striving for 500 students/ten thousand people in 2015 and 550 students/ten thousand people in 2020; improving people’s health, increasing the average life expectancy up to 78 years old, decreasing the malnutrition rate among under-five children to below 7% in 2020.

3. On environmental protection:

- Ensuring the harmony between economic growth, social justice and environmental protection, using sustainably natural resources, protecting biodiversity. Combining prevention, limitation of the increase in pollution level, degradation and environmental incidents caused by people’s activities and natural impacts with overcoming environmental pollution, firstly in seriously polluted areas, restoring degraded ecosystems.

- The rate of forest coverage will be over 35% in 2015 and over 45% in 2020.

- By the year 2015, 100% of newly-built production facilities will be applied clean technologies or installed equipment to mitigate the pollution, ensuring waste treatment and 60% of manufacturers will reach environmental standards; 70% of urban areas and 100% of industrial zones, export processing zones will be equipped with concentrated wastewater treatment systems, 95% of solid waste will be collected; over 90% of hazardous waste and 100% of medical waste will be treated.

- By the year 2020, maintaining the targets achieved in the previous period, striving for 100% of manufacturers to reach environmental standards, 100% of urban areas will be equipped with concentrated wastewater treatment systems, 100% of solid waste and hazardous waste will be collected and treated.

4. On national security and defense and social order and safety:

- Strengthening the political security and social order in region, preventing social evils; establishing movement “Entire people protect Fatherland’s security”, building the regional areas to become civilized, polite areas with healthy social and cultural life.

- Promoting to propagandize and campaign people to strictly abide by the law of the State in order to limit and prevent traffic accidents.

IV. DEVELOPMENT PLAN OF SOME MAJOR SECTORS AND DOMAINS

1. Industry

Promoting the development of high-tech industries, industries with high value-added products, supporting industries. Striving for the average annual growth rate of about 9.5 – 10% in the 2011 – 2015 period and 9.0 – 9.5% in the 2016 – 2020; proportion of industry – construction in GDP will be about 53 – 54% in 2020.

Prioritizing fast development of high-tech industries, clean industries, saving raw materials, energy and creating much added value. Developing electronics and IT (Information Technology) to become key industries, both hardware and software, prioritizing software development. Making Southeastern Vietnam become strong centers specialized in production of electronic components, software, IT and communications in the Southeast Asia. Promoting supporting industries: manufacture of components, accessories, repairing and maintenance… Speeding up the rate of building infrastructure, completing functional areas of high-tech zones in Ho Chi Minh City. Building technical and service areas of which tasks are improving engineering and technology for Southern industrial facilities.

Further promoting development of some major industries such as: oil and gas exploitation, electronics and software production; mechanical engineering, electricity, fertilizer, chemicals from oil & gas; construction materials industry, processing of agricultural, forest and aquatic products, food processing industry; production of consumer products, textiles, leather shoes, plastic.

Adjusting the regional industrial distribution based on the exploitation of natural resources and geography of Binh Phuoc, Tay Ninh provinces. Developing industrial zones pursuant to Decision No. 1107/QD-TTg dated 21^st August 2006 issued by the Prime Minister on approving the plan on developing industrial zones in Vietnam to 2015 and orientation towards 2020. Promoting the role and effectiveness of regional industrial clusters.

Establishing the regional industrial – urban belt, limiting the further establishment of industrial zones in the center of Ho Chi Minh City. Creating favorable conditions of outside-fence land, infrastructure to develop large-scale industrial – service and urban complexes according to high-tech urban model in Long Thanh, new Phu My city, Binh Duong industrial – service – urban complex.

2. Services

Developing services with high speed and high quality, in order to ensure high growth rate, comprehensive and sustainable development for the whole Region. Striving for an average annual growth rate of services about 11 – 11.5% in the 2011 – 2015 period and 10.5 – 11.0% in the 2016 – 2020 period; increasing the proportion of services in the regional GDP up to 44% in 2020.

Building the Southeastern Vietnam to become a regional service center of the Southeast Asia. Focusing on comprehensive development of high-quality services such as Finance, banking, insurance; commerce and distribution; international transportation and warehousings; information technology and communications; consultancy, research and implementation; tourism; health (especially high-tech medical services); education and training. Developing the markets of real estate, capital and securities. Establishing logical, synchronal and modern trading infrastructure system to develop distribution service, including networks of markets, supermarkets, commercial centers and warehouses…

Building Ho Chi Minh City to become a large general service center with the national and international stature. Vung Tau City is the national and international center of petroleum exploitation and tourism. Bien Hoa and Thu Dau Mot are large service centers to serve the industrial development (training, consultancy and supporting, etc). Some county towns such as Tay Ninh, Dong Xoai are provincial service centers and service focal point to connect with Western Highlands provinces and Cambodia. Developing border economy of Tay Ninh and Binh Phuoc provinces.

Developing Southeastern Vietnam to become a national key tourist area with unique tourism products that have high competitiveness in the region and in the world. Diversifying tourism products such as weekend travel, MICE travel, cultural and historical travel, mountainous convalescent tourist (Dinh Mountain – Ba Ria – Vung Tau), marine convalescent tourist (Vung Tau, Long Hai); ecotourism (Nam Cat Tien, Con Dao), medical tourism (Binh Chau – Phuoc Buu)... Developing hotels system and tourist service works; entertainment works; embellishing cultural – historical monuments and promoting traditional festivals, cultural activities to serve tourism. Building and developing systems of travel information, security and safety. Studying to establish The Regional Tourism Association, promoting the tourism development connection within the expanded Greater Mekong Sub-region. Receiving about 15 million tourists, of which 4 million of international tourists by 2015; equivalent to 18 million in 2020 (of which 5 million of international tourists); the total revenue from tourists in 2015 will be 3 billion USD and 5 billion USD in 2020.

3. Agricultural, forestry and aquatic products:

- About agriculture: Promoting high-quality agricultural commodity production to serve demand of processing, consumer industries in urban areas and exports.

Improving the quality of specialized cultivation areas, expanding breeding according to concentrated scale, ensuring food hygiene and safety and protecting ecological environment. Establishing agricultural production centers of high technology, clean technology, widely applying science and technology in production process, focusing on seeding, importing new and high-yield seeds, studying new varieties, seeds production, developing technology of water-saving irrigation, technology of post-harvest storage and processing. Creating brand names for some typical and strong-point agricultural products.

Focusing on developing the strength of agricultural commodity producttion: vegetables, flowers, bonsai; perennial industrial plants (rubber, cashew, pepper); fruit trees; products of annual industrial plants; products of livestock sector. Building areas of traditional specialty fruit trees, in order to meet demand of domestic consumption and export.

Products of livestock: Taking advantage of market, processing industry to develop livestock according to concentrated orientation, farms, applying high technology and science to create quality products to meet demand of high-quality food for local urban areas and proceeding to export. Developing herds of cows about 1.5 - 1.6 million, herds of pigs about 3.3 – 3.4 million and flocks of poultry about 23 – 23.5 million by 2020.

- About forestry:

+ Developing forest together with perennial industrial plants to contribute to ecological balance, sustainable development; localizing to protect current forest, to enrich forests to develop planted forest to make paper raw materials and domestic wood.

+ Establishing stable forest areas, strengthening and protecting the protective forest systems for riverhead areas, dam and hydropower, the environmental protective forest for industrial zones and big cities and coastal areas. Enhancing the conservation of biodiversity; attaching special importance to protect gene of rare animals and plants

- About aquatic products:

+ Strongly developing aquaculture and aquatic product processing (especially aquatic product processing for export), maintaining and upgrading offshore fishing boats on the basis of ensuring effectiveness, good protection of ecological environment and reproduction of aquatic resources. Developing the farming of ornamental fish to serve tourism and export.

+ Investing and developing aquatic breeding centers according to modern orientation, meeting sufficient breeders that are quality and without disease; establishing logistic service centers for the regional aquaculture development and supporting the aquaculture development of Mekong River Delta areas.

4. Synchronal, balanced and pioneer development of socio-economic infrastructure system

+ About transportation:

- Prioritizing the development of the regional transportation system with sustainable, modern and fast speed, in order to set the premise for socio-economic development, strengthening national defense and security, serving the industrialization – modernization of Southeastern Vietnam and other regions in the country.

- Constructing high-speed axis: Ho Chi Minh City – Long Thanh – Dau Giay, Bien Hoa – Vung Tau, Ben Luc – Long Thanh, Ho Chi Minh City – Moc Bai and beltway No. 3, beltway No. 4 Ho Chi Minh City. Expanding, upgrading High Way 1, 51, 22B, Ho Chi Minh… Completing inter-port roads of Cai Mep – Thi Vai and Dong Nai.

- Completing the removal of ports in Saigon River, building ports in Vung Tau, Dong Nai and Ho Chi Minh City clusters of port, especially the area of Cai Mep – Thi Vai. Developing infrastructure, logistics servicers, connecting the seaport of Cai Mep – Thi Vai in accordance with the approved detailed seaport plan.

- Prioritizing the upgrade and modernization of the Northern – Southern railway to reach level 1 standard. Building urban, key and inter-regional railways in Ho Chi Minh City.

- Upgrading existing airports and completing phase I of Long Thanh International Airport.

- Completing the construction of the regional general transshipment warehouse in Dong Nai province.

- Developing multi-method transportation and improving the quality of transportation services, first of all air and maritime transportation, with high-quality and reasonable freights, to meet increasingly diversified demands of society; controlling and reducing traffic accidents and minimizing environmental impacts during the exploitation of transportation.

+ Providing power, posts and telecommuni­cations:

- Completing the 500-kV loop of Phu Lam - Nha Be - Phu My - Song May - Tan Dinh - Bong bridge - Phu Lam. Building a 500-kV electric line connecting with Nuclear Power Plant No. 1, Vinh Tan Power Center and power plants in the Mekong River Delta areas. Further building and upgrading transformer stations, electricity transmission and distribution lines for production and daily life of people.

- Building modern and reliable telecommuni­cations infrastructure, especially in Ho Chi Minh City and central urban areas as well as provincial centers. Increasing capacity to meet subscriber demands and expanding the coverage to all communes in the region. Expanding posts & telecommunications networks and service places in rural and island areas; and gradually developing cable TV networks in rural areas.

+ Water supply, drainage and irrigation:

Giving priority to daily-life water and urban water supply and concentrating on water supply for water-lacking areas. Striving for the target that 100% of urban population will have access to tap water by 2020; minimizing losses caused by flood, storm, drought and salt penetration for midland and coastal areas; draining water for urban centers; ending inundation in urban areas of Ho Chi Minh City; preventing pollution of water source, especially in the lower sections of Dong Nai and Sai Gon rivers.

5. Science and technology:

- Developing the regional science and technology potential, increasing investment in leading research institutes, science and technology centers, major laboratories, and technology application and transfer centers. Promoting investment in Ho Chi Minh City Hi-Tech Park and building some more hi-tech parks in localities meeting given conditions

- Having mechanisms and policies on fast developing scientific and technological personnel, attracting good Vietnamese experts in overseas to join scientific and technological activities in the region.

- Promoting socialization of scientific and technological activities and developing that market, supporting technological renovation in enterprises. Encouraging and promoting creativity, improving the quality and increasing the quantity of inventions, patents and technical innovations to meet requirements of socio-economic development.

6. Social fields:

- Human resource training, employment and social protection assurance:

+ Promoting training, ensuring to provide personnel with stable quantity and quality for the Southeastern Vietnam and other regions. Encouraging and diversifying forms of collaboration and cooperation between employers and training institutions. Focusing on training sufficient high-quality personnel for high grey-content sectors and bringing back high added value to meet the international integration requirements for the region and the whole country.

+ Focusing on creating sustainable jobs, labor structure shifting, improving quality of jobs, and increasing income of employees. Developing the labor market and properly regulating supply-demand of labor; properly forecasting and summarizing labor demands by sector, skill and locality to appropriately guide vocational and training development. Increasing the rate of work time usage in rural areas and reducing the rate of unemployment in urban areas.

+ Implementing completely, comprehensively and effectively projects and programs of reducing poverty; creating favorable conditions for poor households to access supporting policies on land, credit, vocational training; supporting, creating favorable conditions for poor households to develop production, increase income to sustainably escape from the poverty.

+ Good implementation of social policies, taking care of meritorious people of country, focusing on vocational training and teaching, creating jobs for children in families under preferential treatment policy; promoting charitable and humanitarian activities to support the poor and people with difficult conditions.

- Education, training:

+ Making basic changes in quality, efficiency and scale, focusing on labor training to meet demand of regional and national socio-economic development, especially labor demand of key industries.

+ Building Ho Chi Minh City National University to become a high-quality training center with international prestige. Giving priority to investment in regional major universities in to quickly approach to Southeast Asian training level in a number of disciplines in which these universities have strengths. Further socializing tertiary education, expanding domestic and foreign cooperation and linkage in parallel with ensuring and increasingly improving training quality

+ Developing the vocational training network according to planning, in which giving priority to investment in and development of some vocational colleges and secondary schools reaching regional and international standards aiming to meet the demand of high-quality workforce for the region's socio-­economic development.

- Healthcare:

Building and developing the regional health care to become a technical and hi-tech health center of the South and the whole country; a center for medical research and training of qualified health workers reaching regional standards.

Further developing Ho Chi Minh City specialized health center. Building and upgrading provincial central general hospitals to standard of level I hospital. Building provincial level specialized hospitals to meet specific requirements and conditions.

Expanding and enhancing the capacity of preventive medicine networks and gradually developing preventive medicine systems at the provincial and municipal levels. Reorganizing, consolidating and strenthening commune health networks so that all wards and hamlets have health workers and all commune health stations have medical doctors and attain national standards.

Socializing the heath care together with increasing the inspection and examining of service providers. Encouraging and facilitating fast development of non-public hospitals, developing new service models to meet the increasingly diversified demands of people.

- Culture, physical training and sports:

+ Developing cultural facilities in province, district and ward. Striving for that all hamlets, villages and street quarters in the whole region will have cultural houses and sports complexes satisfying the standards set by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism; 80% of national and provincial-level relics will be renovated and embellished. Focusing on developing cultural and sports works near industrial zones.

Striving that by 2020, 30-35% of the regional population will do regular physical exercises; establishing a contingent of high-achievement athletes in football, volleyball and tennis.

Building a cultural-sports center in each province in accordance with prescribed standards; continuing to build, upgrade and expand cultural-sports centers and establishments in provinces, districts, communes, wards, schools and agencies in the region. Providing more physical foundations for sports establishments in cities and towns to be capable of hosting regional and international competitions.

7. Environmental protection:

Restoring and protecting natural forest ecosystems and existing greenery. Stabilizing the provincial zones of industrial trees. Localizing to protect and develop the vegetation in the areas along Dong Nai, Sai Gon rivers. Ensuring the construction distance of 200-300 meters from industrial zones, factories and enterprises to the riversides in order to control wastewater and easily localize and handle when happening environmental incidents. Organizing water quality observation networks in appropriate steps in the whole region.

Planning and arranging industrial zones towards the environmental protection, increasing inspection of compliance with environmental standards of manufacture and business facilities to have suitable sanctions.

Building standard wastewater drainage systems in urban centers and industrial zones; building standard wastewater treatment zones for garbage landfills and treatment complexes in the upstream areas of Dong Nai and Sai Gon rivers. Fast implementing and putting into effectively operating wastewater and garbage treatment projects with modern technologies.

8. Ensuring security and defense:

- Enhancing the defense potential, building the all-people defense posture, and developing to build firm provincial-level defense zones. Establishing strong armed forces, a regular and modern standing army and developing militia and self-defense forces suitable to each defense zone. Focusing on building the coast guard and increasing the defensive capacity to safeguard the national sovereignty and interests at sea and in the islands in combination with socio-economic development at sea and in island and coastal areas.

- Building well-trained forces that are professionally skilled and politically firm in parallel with increasing physical foundations and equipment. Consolidating the people's security posture and enhancing commune-level forces in order not to let unexpected circumstances occur. Combining forces for effectively implementing national programs on crime prevention and combat and elimination of social evils. Regularly educating people in proper implementation of the Party's and State's guidelines and policies.

V. URBAN DEVELOPMENT AND TERRITORIAL ORGANIZATION

1. Development and distribution of the urban system:

- Creating connection among regional urban areas towards to be to be civilized, modern and have their own characteristics based on sustainable development; attractive to investors and convenient for production and people's life. Establishing a multi-center structure as a driving force for developing the peripheral areas and reducing pressure for Ho Chi Minh City's downtown area.

- Developing Vung Tau, Bien Hoa and Thu Dau Mot to become level I urban centers with the role of development poles in the region's urban system.

- Developing the satellite urban centers of Ho Chi Minh City such as Nhon Trach, Long Thanh, Tam Phuoc, Hiep Phuoc, Cu Chi, Trang Bom, An Lac, Nha Be, Can Gio, and Di An-Thuan An. Developing urbanized corridors from Ho Chi Minh City and linked with national highways 1A, 51, 22 and 13.

2. Development of rural residential areas:

- Developing rural areas and distributing population spots in closely associated with the master plan on development of urban areas to ensure synchronism in developing the peripheral areas of urban areas and urban corridors; taking measures to plan and completely build concentrated rural population areas into urban areas.

- Establishing rural service centers; building rural population lines and complexes with adequate standard infrastructure according to the national set of new countryside criteria; planning on renovating and building craft villages towards sustainable development; planning and building coastal fishing and aquaculture villages.

3. Development planning of sub-zones: Developing the potential, advantages of the regional provinces, cities towards establishing their functions in the process of inter­regional and -provincial work assignment and cooperation.

- Building Ho Chi Minh City to become a regional motive-force center; a center of inter­regional and international cooperation; an economic, trading, service, educational-training and scientific-technological center of the region and the whole country. Restructuring the municipal economy in the direction of service-industry-agriculture, giving priority to develop high-quality services creating great added value and modern industries with high technological content.

- The area of Dong Nai, Binh Duong and Ba Ria – Vung Tau provinces is a regional dynamic development area. Focusing on increasing industrial competitiveness and synchronously developing services to serve key and spearhead industries; fast increasing technological content and technical labor in the economic sectors as well as supporting development of Tay Ninh and Binh Phuoc provinces.

- Developing Tay Ninh and Binh Phuoc provinces one step ahead the process of shifting industries from other localities and concurrently exploit their advantages of border-gate economic zones and expand economic and trade activities with Cambodia.

- Building the coastal zone into an "open economic zone" with major industries as oil and gas exploitation; ship building and repairing; sea and island tourism; fishing, aquaculture and aquatic product processing. Closely combining marine economic development with sea protection and security and defense tasks.

- Developing Vung Tau city to become a seaward center and gateway to the region and Cambodia and Thailand; establishing a large oil, gas and chemical industrial park; and a famous international tourist zone of South Vietnam.

- Building Con Dao to become a high-quality economic-tourist-service zone in association with conserving and embellishing Vietnam's special revolutionary relic zone, and developing and promoting the value of Con Dao national park.

VI. LIST OF PRIORITIZED PROGRAMS AND PROJECTS FOR INVESTMENT STUDY

(Attached Appendix)

VII. SOME MAJOR SOLUTIONS FOR THE MASTER PLAN IMPLEMENTATION

1. Major breakthrough tasks:

- Rapidly restructuring the economy towards modernity, increasing the contribution and the role of the service sector, increasing the value of key products and quickly developing upfront products to meet market demands and become more competitive in various fields.

- Further upgrading and improving socio-economic infrastructure systems towards balance and synchronous and a step ahead development. Completing expressways, expanding and upgrading national highways connecting different regions and neighboring countries; upgrading and building a number of seaports and airports. Completing and upgrading industrial zones, export-processing zones and hi-tech parks towards establishing urban-industrial zones, park-industrial zones and specialized industrial zones.

- Developing human resources, especially high-quality human resources, meeting international integration requirements. Promoting research and application of scientific and technological advances, especially high and new technologies in various socio-economic sectors.

- Enhancing economic cooperation and building a unified economic space with a view of promoting comparative edges in the whole Southeastern Vietnam region, creating effective coordination and support and promoting the advantages of all localities.

2. Solutions for the master plan implementation:

a/ Effectively raising investment capital sources

- Further improving the investment environment to attract more domestic and foreign resources. Reducing state budget investment in combination with raising the effectiveness of public investment, diversifying and increasing other capital sources and focusing on effectively tapping land resources. Attracting to the utmost the ODA source for investment in large-sized key technical infrastructure works.

- Adjusting the investment structure towards attracting modern technologies and techniques, contributing to increasing economic effectiveness and competitiveness. Adopting policies to concentrate investment capital in high-quality services, hi-tech industries and high-value exports.

- Synchronously developing the capital and securities markets to serve different economic sectors. Accelerating the reorganization and equitization of state businesses. Effectively managing the real estate market to increase state budget revenues.

b/ Promoting coordination and collaboration among the localities inside and outside the Southeastern Vietnam region in implementing development policies, raising and allocating resources and capital for development investment, and building infrastructure; training and attracting laborers and create jobs; protecting the environment and responding to climate change, maintaining security and defense as well as protecting regional forests and water sources. Adopting specific mechanisms to gradually narrow the gap in each period and each sector between the two provinces of Tay Ninh and Binh Phuoc and the three provinces of Dong Nai, Ba Ria - Vung Tau and Binh Duong and Ho Chi Minh City.

c/ Training human resources, especially high-quality ones, with a rational occupation and degree structure, meeting the development demands of the region, South Vietnam and the whole country. Expanding the training scale in different forms, focusing on training a contingent of skilled workers. Coordinating with other regions in the country and cooperating with other countries in labor training. Focusing on developing human resources in the spearhead sectors like electronics, information technology, telecommunications, finance, logistics and tourism. Building a contingent of talented experts in information technology, biotechnology, nanotechnology and new-material technology.

d/ Solutions to administrative reform

Improving existing mechanisms and further raise the effectiveness of administrative reform for greater publicity and transparency; increasing the quality of cadres and civil servants to create a more favorable environment for investment.

Establishing and issuing fully and promptly mechanisms and policies to ensure democracy and creativity; ensuring that administrations at all levels properly operate, meeting development requirements.

Increasing the effectiveness of management and administration of authorities of all levels; clearly defining the competence and responsibilities of agencies as well as intensifying the prevention of and fight against red tape, corruption and waste in state agencies.

e/ Solutions to cooperation promotion and market development

- Promoting cooperation among the regional localities and with localities in the Mekong River Delta areas, Central Vietnam and Western Highlands in investment promotion, technology transfer, labor supply, building of raw-material zones and expansion of product outlets; commonly using industrial, solid waste treatment and water supply infrastructure facilities in the region; coordinating in tourism promotion and advertising; exploiting, using and protecting in a sustainable manner water resources, and protecting the environment.

- Enhancing cross-border trade development cooperation with Cambodia, developing border-gate economic zones, building transport and electricity supply networks between localities of Vietnam and Cambodia. Increasing cooperation with other countries in the greater Mekong sub-region (GMS).

Article 2. Organization and supervision of the master plan implementation

1. The master plan on socio-economic development of the Southeastern Vietnam which has been approved by the Prime Minister is a foundation for the formulation, submission and implementation of sectoral master plans of the region and socio-economic development master plans of the localities in the region.

2. The Ministry of Planning and Investment shall assume the prime responsibility for, and coordinate with ministries, sectors, and localities in the region in:

- Publicizing this master plan and organizing investment promotion and advertising activities with a view of attracting domestic and foreign investors and all economic sectors to participate in the master plan implementation.

- Monitoring, urging, supervising and examining the implementation of this master plan and the master plans of ministries, sectors and localities in the region; supervising the implementation of key investment programs and projects of regional scale and nature.

- Studying and proposing mechanisms and policies for coordination among localities in the region and with other regions. The Ministry of Planning and Investment shall assume the prime responsibility for and coordinate with related ministries and sectors in attracting investment in the region's key projects.

3. Related ministries and sectors are responsible for:

- Establishing, adjusting and submitting for approval master plans on sectors and key products in the region in line with the development objectives, tasks and orientations approved under Article 1 of this Decision.

- Studying, establishing and submitting to competent state agencies for promulgation a number of specific mechanisms and policies within their management scope for attaining the objectives and tasks set forth in this master plan.

- Coordinating with the Ministry of Planning and Investment in organizing and supervising the implementation of this master plan, supervising the implementation of key investment programs and projects of regional scale and nature in the priority order under their management with a view to stepping up socio-economic development in the region.

Following are specific tasks of a number of ministries and sectors:

a/ The Ministry of Transport in charge of:

- Directing the construction and completion of important transport infrastructure projects in the region, ensuring their schedule and quality.

- Coordinating with the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Planning and Investment in studying and proposing capital-raising mechanisms to ensure implementation schedules of large-scale transport development projects in the region.

- Studying, proposing and implementing solutions to redressing traffic congestion in Ho Chi Minh City.

b/ The Ministry of Industry and Trade is in charge of:

- Directing the building and completion of industrial and trade infrastructure in the region under approved planning according to schedule.

- Further studying, proposing and supplementing mechanisms and policies to promote development of key industrial products, support industries and hi-tech industries.

- Enhancing trade promotion, especially for exports of different economic sectors in the region.

c/ The Ministry of Construction is in charge of:

- Formulating and adjusting master plans for, examining and supervising the building of hazardous waste treatment zones, cemeteries and regional-level water supply systems; coordinating with localities in building water drainage and wastewater treatment systems, gradually ending the inundation in urban centers.

- Evaluating and proposing solutions for effectively managing the process of urban development in the region.

d/ The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is in charge of:

- Completing the formulation and organize the implementation of the irrigation master plan and master plans on development of different sectors and key agricultural, forestry and fishery products in the region.

- Establishing master plans proposing mechanisms and policies to support localities in the region in building hi-tech agricultural zones.

- Coordinating with other ministries, sectors and localities in further implementing solutions to gradually basically end the inundation in Ho Chi Minh City.

dd/ The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment is in charge of:

- Implementing solutions for increasing the effectiveness of environmental protection activities, especially the environment of urban centers and industrial zones in the region. Supporting the improvement of the quality of appraisal of environmental impact assessment reports by environment state management agencies in the localities.

- Studying and proposing mechanisms and policies to encourage businesses to produce environmentally friendly products.

- Directing and coordinating with the localities in protecting and rationally using natural resources in the region.

e/ The Ministry of Education and Training is in charge of:

- Studying and proposing mechanisms and policies to promote association between training institutions and businesses employing trained human resources in the region.

- Building Ho Chi Minh City national university to become an internationally prestigious high-quality training center; creating conditions for a number of key universities in the region to modernize their physical foundations and develop their lecturing staffs and training programs to be on par with those of advanced regional countries.

4. The People's Committees of the provinces and cities in the region are in charge of:

- Reviewing, adjusting, supplementing and submitting to competent authorities for approval their local master plans on socio-economic development through 2020 in line with the objectives and tasks approved under this Decision.

- Coordinating with ministries and sectors in organizing investment promotion and advertising activities to attract domestic and foreign investors as well as different economic sectors to participate in the master plan implementation.

- Supervising and examining the implementation of development investment projects in their localities according to their assigned functions and report supervision and examination results to the Prime Minister.

Article 3. This Decision takes effect on the date of its signing.

Article 4. The chairpersons of the People's Committees of provinces and cities in the region, ministers, heads of ministerial-level agencies and heads of government-attached agencies shall implement this Decision.

APPENDIX

LIST OF PROGRAMS AND PROJECTS PRIORITIZED FOR INVESTMENT IN THE SOUTHEASTERN VIETNAM REGION THROUGH 2020
(Together with the Prime Minister's Decision No. 943/QD-TTg of July 20, 2012)

I. Transport:

- Roads: Belt roads 3 and 4 - Ho Chi Minh City; expressways of Ho Chi Minh City -Long Thanh - Dau Giay, Bien Hoa - Vung Tau, Ben Luc - Nhon Trach - Long Thanh, and Dau Giay - Phan Thiet; national highways 1A, 1K, 13, 14, 14C, 20, 22, 22B, 50, 51, 55 and 56.

- Railways: Urban railways, focal-point railways and inter-regional railways in the Ho Chi Minh City region.

- Inland waterways: To renovate and upgrade Sai Gon - Kien Luong, Sai Gon - Ca Mau, Sai Gon - Moc Hoa, Sai Gon - Ben Keo, Sai Gon -Dau Tieng, Sai Gon - Hieu Liem and Sai Gon -Ha Tien waterways; and a waterway linking Thi Vai river to the Mekong River delta.

- Seaports: Vung Tau port zone, Ho Chi Minh City port zone, Dong Nai port zone; passenger wharves in Ho Chi Minh City, Vung Tau.

- Airports: Upgrading Tan Son Nhat international airport, building Long Thanh international airport.

2. Trade, warehouse and storing yard infrastructure:

Eastern general transshipment warehouse

3. Electricity supply:

- Completing the Phu Lam - Nha Be - Phu My - Song May - Tan Dinh - Cau Bong - Phu Lam 500-kV loop circuit.

- Building 500-kV transformer stations and 500-kV electric lines sevicing for connection to the power plants in the Mekong River delta, Vinh Tan electricity center and the nuclear power plant.

4. Irrigation:

- Projects under the master plan on anti-inundation irrigation for Ho Chi Minh City.

- Phuoc Hoa irrigation project (phase 2).

- Ray river irrigation system.

5. Waste treatment:

- A hazardous industrial solid waste treatment complex in Ho Chi Minh City.

- A garbage treatment complex servicing for Ho Chi Minh City and Long An province.

6. Tourism:

Con Dao revolutionary relic tourist zone.

7. Education:

- Building Ho Chi Minh City national university, Ho Chi Minh City teacher training university, Ho Chi Minh City economic university and Ho Chi Minh City medicine and pharmacy university according to the criteria of key universities.

- Building Viet Duc university into a high quality university.

8. Health care:

- Ho Chi Minh City specialized health center.

- General hospitals in provinces.

Notes: The locations, scales, land areas and total investment amounts for the above works and projects will be calculated, selected and specified in the stage of elaboration and approval of investment projects, depending on the demand for and capacity of balancing and raising investment capital in each period.-