Life injected into planning landscape

Life injected into planning landscape

It is expected that the 15th National Assembly’s third session will, on June 16, adopt a resolution on results from the supervision of the implementation of planning-related policies since the Law on Planning (LoP) took effect in January 2019.

In July 2021, the National Assembly (NA) established a team in charge of supervising the implementation of planning-related policies since the law became valid, in order to “have a comprehensive and objective assessment of the deployment of this law by the government, ministries, sectors, localities, and relevant agencies, so that solutions can be advanced to remove obstructions and speed up the completion of planning for the 2021-2030 period.”

Under the draft resolution discussed last week at the NA, ministers, heads of ministerial-level agencies, and chairs of people’s committees “shall consider and decide on applying the form of contractor appointment to consultancy-related bidding packages in order to make national, regional, and provincial planning if a contractor fails to be selected.”

If an authorised person decides not to apply for a bidding appointment or does that but fails to select a contractor, the form of open bidding, limited bidding, self-implementation, or selection of a contractor may be applied.

These are among many solutions applied by the NA to remove difficulties facing ministers, heads of ministerial-level agencies, and leaders of localities in making plans for the 2021-2030 period, in line with the LoP.

According to the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) which compiled the LoP, this law has given the country a unified law, instead of the previous overlapping of almost 100 related laws and ordinances. The law covers 39 types of national-level sectoral planning – such as all modes of transport, waterway infrastructure, electricity, energy, information and communications, and gas and petrol supply.

Product-level and sector-level planning have been integrated into the master planning at all levels.

High effectiveness

According to results from the supervision team, the LoP has helped reduce the number of plans established for the national, regional, and provincial levels by 97 per cent, from 3,654 previously to only 111 now. Specifically, the national-level planning number decreased from 270 to 41, the regional level went down from 76 to six, and the provincial number shrunk from 3,308 to only 63.

“Not only reducing in number, but the national planning system has also established a unified, integrated form which is easy to follow and implement. This has helped effectively concentrate scarce resources into development goals, spaces, values, and momentum of the nation, regions, and localities,” stated a governmental report delivered to the NA last week.

Many NA deputies said that since the LoP became valid, it has created a close connection in planning from the central to the grassroots levels.

“It can be said that the LoP has been quite feasible as it has removed many shortcomings of the country’s previous planning system,” said deputy Tran Van Tien representing the northern province of Vinh Phuc.

Deputy Nguyen Hai Anh representing the Mekong Delta province of Dong Thap also said since its enforcement, the LoP “has clarified the approaching methods and contents of planning based on the restructuring of development spaces in order to mobilise and effectively use all resources to create new momentum and new values for the nation and localities.”

Specifically, before the enforcement of the law, each locality and each ministry had its own planning, without taking into account the resources needed to implement their plans. This created major disputes between localities and ministries.

There were at that time so many types of plans in Vietnam, including those for rice, cassava, coffee, fish, and many kinds of industrial products.

Also before 2019, a total of 71 legal documents and ordinances and 73 decrees had been promulgated by the NA and the government to regulate planning in Vietnam. While a total of 19,285 plans of all types were drafted by government agencies and sectors from 2011 until 2020, many had shortcomings, including overlaps, wasted resources and a lack of quality.

According to MPI Minister Nguyen Chi Dung, the law means all products are determined by the market’s supply-demand law. “The state only acts as a regulator who conducts forecast and analysis of the market in favour of people and enterprises,” he said. “There has been a popular ‘ask-and-give’ mechanism over the past years because of sector-level and product-level planning. But under the LoP, there will be no specifics on this, and everything must follow market demand,” he stressed.

The oft-used ‘ask-and-give’ mechanism refers to the means of governing society by orders rather than the rule of law, such that actions by lower officials are contingent on receiving approval from superiors, with various favours exchanged in return.

National master scheme

This will be the first time that national master planning will be developed in Vietnam (see box). According to the LoP, it is a strategic plan in the direction of zoning and linking regions of the territory, including the mainland, islands, archipelagos, seas and skies; urban and rural systems; infrastructure; resource use and environmental protection; natural disaster prevention and control, response to climate change, assurance of national defence and security; and international integration.

In October, it is expected that the government will look to the NA for consideration and approval at the fourth session.

“Currently in Vietnam, at the national level, there is currently only a socioeconomic development strategy and plan, without any national master plan. This has led to a lack of general balance, while there is a lack of focus as all sectors are planned as a key. This is the main cause of wasting or dispersing resources, reducing the country’s competitiveness,” stated the MPI in a report on implementing the LoP released last week.

“Thus, Vietnam now needs national territorial planning to create a unified development space, and overcome the contradiction between regional and provincial planning in terms of goals, policy tools, resource allocation, and selection of projects and investment priority programmes,” the report stated.

According to Minister Dung, building a national master plan is an opportunity to arrange and rearrange the development space of the country to achieve the goals and aspirations set out in the resolution of the 13th National Party Congress held in early last year.

“One of the important viewpoints on the spatial organisation of the country is developing the nation as a unified whole, without division and being bound by administrative boundaries, and in which the country’s resources are mobilised and used most effectively for the national interest,” Minister Dung said.

At the same time, according to the minister, the overall goal is “to create an efficient and sustainable spatial distribution model for national development, forming dynamic economic zones, economic hubs, strategic urban areas, synchronous and modern infrastructure networks, connections between regions, between urban and rural areas, creating conditions for high economic growth, and promoting implementation the goal by 2030 to be a developing country with modern industry and high middle income. By 2050, Vietnam will become a high-income, fair, democratic, and civilised society.”