(VEN) - Building an adequate infrastructure system in order to transform Vietnam into a modernized, industrialized country by 2020 was one of the major topics of discussion at the fourth meeting of the 11th Communist Party of Vietnam's Central Committee.
This is not a new topic because most Vietnamese people know that Vietnam is striving to become a modernized, industrialized country by 2020 - a target laid out in the National Development Strategy for the 2010-2020 period. However, a majority of Vietnamese people perhaps do not yet have a thorough understanding of the concept "modernized, industrialized country" as well as the phrase "infrastructure system". When they speak of an industrial country, Vietnamese people think only of the industrial sector's contributions to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of that country. This means they just think of the backbone of the economy and ignore all other parts, including the one which is as important as the human circulatory system - that is the socioeconomic infrastructure system.
Therefore, the fourth meeting of the 11th Communist Party of Vietnam’s Central Committee focused on concretizing the goal of turning Vietnam into a modernized, industrialized country by 2020. A number of practical measures were discussed to ensure successful realization of the goal and increase the feasibility of the National Development Strategy for the 2010-2020 period.
The Resolution of the fourth meeting of the 11th Communist Party of Vietnam’s Central Committee has strengthened the trust of Vietnamese people in the feasibility of the goals laid out in the strategy.
The resolution indicates that a modern, adequate infrastructure system must consist of the following 10 components:
- Transport infrastructure
- Power supply infrastructure
- Irrigation infrastructure and facilities helping to cope with climate change
- Urban infrastructure
- Industrial zone infrastructure
- Trading infrastructure
- Information infrastructure
- Education, training, science and technology infrastructure
- Healthcare infrastructure
- Culture, sports and tourism infrastructure
Of the above components, top priority must be given to developing infrastructure in four fields: transport, power supply, irrigation and coping with climate change, and urban development.
The fourth meeting of the 11th Communist Party of Vietnam’s Central Committee proposed four groups of measures which must be taken to achieve the goals: (1) improving the quality of infrastructure development plans, (2) intensifying investment attraction, (3) renovating policies relating to site clearance, and (4) improving the efficiency of State management over investment in infrastructure development.
The speech which Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong delivered to close the meeting attracted the attention of the public opinion. In his speech, he emphasized that to bring into play the role of the market, the State must operate the market mechanism creatively so as to create a favorable investment environment that is really attractive to both domestic and foreign investors. In addition, the State must diversify the forms of investment and promote investment in forms such as Public-Private Partnership (PPP), Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT), Build-Transfer (BT) and Build-Transfer-Operate (BTO). On January 4, 2012, at a regular meeting of the Government, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung also emphasized that one of the major tasks of the Government in 2012 is creating favorable conditions and an open environment for socioeconomic development.
The Communist Party and the Government of Vietnam have reached a consensus on the policies to build and develop an open investment and business environment where all economic sectors can compete in a healthy manner to obtain rapid and sustainable growth. One of those policies that is very important and essential for the country's long-term development is building a modern, adequate infrastructure system nationwide from now to 2020./.
By Ho Hai Long, the editor-in-chief
|