vietnam reforms 22mai2

VIET NAM TO STEP UP ECONOMIC REFORM

  
   Tokyo, May 21 (VNA) -- Viet Nam's government will further improve the country's business environment and create favourable conditions for every enterprise to have access to capital, technology transfer and other resources for its development, said Deputy Prime Minister Pham Gia Khiem.
   "Fully mobilizing internal strengths, renewing technology, increasing the quality of human resources, raising the competitiveness of goods and services, and improving the business and investment environment are vital for Viet Nam's economic growth," Khiem stressed.
   Addressing a two-day annual international conference entitled "The Future of Asia" which opened in Tokyo this morning (May 21), Khiem said: "By so doing, Viet Nam will surmount difficulties and challenges and succeed in its efforts for national development and international integration."
   Summarising Viet Nam's important socio-economic achievements, he said: "The 6.8 percent growth rate in 2001, though lower than the average growth rate of the previous five years, demonstrated the Government's capability in managing to overcome recent complexities in the region and the world. In the 1991-2000 period, the import-export volume increased by 18.4 percent per year, a relatively high rate. Up to the present, FDI has totalled about USD 42 billion, and the ODA commitments, USD 20 billion, half of which has been disbursed.
   "With the number of poor households reduced by half in the '90s. Viet Nam's success in poverty alleviation has been highly appreciated by the international community. Viewing education as the top national priority, the Vietnamese government has continued to increase investment in this sector, from about 10 percent to over 15 percent of the national budget. Viet Nam is working to fulfill the target of compulsory secondary education by 2010," he added.
   "TV coverage has reached over 80 percent, and radio programmes over 90 percent, of households in the country, with several programmes broadcasted in ethnic minority languages. The telecommunications service has expanded rapidly with the number of telephones increasing by 20 times and the Internet services growing strongly at a rate of 130 percent in the 1998-2002 period."
   In the coming years, Viet Nam will continue with comprehensive reforms:
   - Increase administrative reforms, and gradually complete the legal framework which will allow for a transparent environment conducive to the market economy.
   - Carry out economic restructuring aimed at industrialisation and modernisation, rearrange State-owned enterprises for greater efficiency, and develop the private sector. At the same time, the foreign investment sector is considered an integral part of the national economy.
   - Implement social development programmes which will reduce poverty, create jobs, develope education and training, and science and technology, expand and upgrade public services, promote social equality and strengthen environmental protection.
   - Continue with the policy of active economic integration, diversification and multilateralisation of external relations. Implement the process of import and export liberalisation and open up the domestic market. Viet Nam is committed to implementing the roadmap to reduce import tariffs within the AFTA framework.
   Viet Nam has recently completed the process of trade policy clarification and is working on the fifth negotiation round for its entry into the WTO. In an effort to execute the Viet Nam-U.S. Bilateral Trade Agreement (BTA), the Vietnamese Government has formed a programme to amend legal documents and has adopted solutions to raise the competitiveness of Vietnamese goods and services. The two countries have set up a Joint Commission to promote the implementation of the BTA.--Enditem