Congratulatory letter from Minister of Planning and Investment Bui Quang Vinh on the 70th anniversary of the planning and investment sector.

Bui Quang Vinh

On behalf of the Ministry of Planning and Investment leaders, I would like to convey my warmest regards to all staff members who worked or are currently working in the planning and investment sector, on the occasion of the sector’s 70th anniversary (December 31, 1945-December 31, 2015).

Over the course of 70 years, the planning and investment sector has been growing from strength to strength, and managed a comprehensive development. Undergoing the nation’s diverse historical development stages, the sector has made noteworthy contributions to accomplishing strategic tasks set by the party and the state, playing an important role in our final success at the national salvation for independence, national reunification, socio-economic development and national defence, and turning Vietnam from an underdeveloped and low-income nation into the medium-income developing nation as it is today.

The planning and investment sector came into being at the dawn of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam when President Ho Chi Minh set up the Committee for Construction Planning Research, which is the precursor of the present-day planning and investment sector. Initially called the Committee for Construction Planning Research, then the National Planning Committee, the State Planning Commission and now the Ministry of Planning and Investment, we have always been an active adviser to the party and the government in mapping out and overseeing the implementation of important action plans for socio-economic development, mobilising diverse resources in society for resistance wars, and today penning many strategies and plans for economic renovation, integration, socio-economic development, construction and national defence.

Over the past three decades pursuing the economic reform and international integration guideline, the planning and investment sector has been performing its general advisory role to the party and the state outstandingly, particularly in the past decade when Vietnam’s economy bore the brunt of a global economic recession. The sector has consulted with the government the measures to curb inflation, stabilise macro-economy, ensure social well-being, maintain reasonable growth tied with the implementation of three strategic breakthroughs, restructure the economy and reform growth model, with a focus laid on three major pillars including restructuring public investment, restructuring state-owned enterprises and restructuring the finance and banking sector.

These efforts have steered Vietnam through turbulent time when inflation has been put under control, the macro-economy has been increasingly stable and economic growth has fairly revived presently. The planning and investment sector has contributed a great deal to the building and perfecting of policies and mechanisms, and reforming management to boost the effectiveness of public investment, from penning the Law on Public Investment to devising medium-term investment plans, and helping to increase state capital allocation efficiency. This serves as a fresh approach in planning work, proving the long-vision and profound development of the planning and investment sector in the nation’s new development stage.

The sector has played an important role in achieving the resounding success of the economic reform process, particularly in building and perfecting socialist-oriented market institutions.

We have supported the government in submission to the National Assembly important laws such as the Law on Foreign Investment 1987, the Investment Law, the amended Investment Law, the Law on Domestic Investment Encouragement in 1994, the Law on Public Procurement, the Law on Co-operatives. Notably, the laws on Enterprises in 1999, 2005 and 2014, and the Investment Law in 2014 have created a watershed in attracting foreign investment, calling diverse resources from inside and outside Vietnam for national socio-economic development, laying important premises to spur the development of Vietnam’s business community, from there boosting national competitiveness and the economy’s self-reliance.

The valued tradition of the planning and investment sector over the past 70 years with numerous shining examples by generations of sector staff and leaders, who prevailed over mounting hardships for the successful accomplishment of assigned duties, has inspired today’s planning and investment cadres to make further headway along the course of reform, national development and international integration.

Holding high esteem for preceding generations and with a great sense of responsibility, the planning and investment sector as a whole shall make constant efforts, cultivate ethics, improve professional capacity, apply further creativity in advisory work. The sector shall also effectively serve the party and the state in outlining plans, strategies, and reforming institutions and policies for socio-economic development, helping to enhance investment capital usage and management efficiency, bettering local business climate, and making deserving contribution to realising the cause of “affluent people, strong nation, democratic, fair and civilised society”.

Good health, happiness and prosperity to all of you.

Warmest regards,

Bui Quang Vinh

Member of Party Central Committee Minister of Planning and Investment