Poor planning curbs SKEZ progress

The head of the National Assembly’s Central Economic Committee, Truong Tan Sang, made the comment at a conference in Ho Chi Minh City last week.
The conference, chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and attended by leaders of the southern provinces discussed the implementation of the Politburo’s Resolution 53 on socioeconomic development and national security in the SKEZ.
Sang presented a report by the Politburo that confirmed the importance of the SKEZ in the nation’s industrialisation and modernisation process while identifying areas where the zone had failed to meet its economic potential.
The report found that some localities and ministries were not fully aware of the zone’s potential and advantages, he said, which meant there had not been synchronised planning or policies that would allow the region to accelerate its development.
Sang said the report also noted that a number of provincial officials had inadequate leadership and management skills, which was holding back economic development in their jurisdictions.
Representatives from the localities told the conference that they had different development requirements, as well as separate planning approval processes that were often inconsistent with other localities.
The report found that the planning of key infrastructure such as communications, irrigation, electricity, water supply, post and telecommunications was not well coordinated in the SKEZ and that many localities put their own interests ahead of the zone’s.
Many of these problems had been identified years ago, Sang said, but were still unresolved.
Resolution 53 aims to achieve an annual economic growth rate of 9 per cent across the SKEZ until 2010, to improve technological change by 20-25 per cent each year and to reduce the unemployment rate by 5 per cent every year.
The resolution calls for adjustments to the region’s master plan for economic and industrial development, in order to attract domestic and foreign investors.
Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said the necessary adjustments had to be made by the end of this year at the latest, with a focus on large infrastructure projects such as transport, electricity and water, irrigation, post and telecommunications, environment, health and schools.
He said the zone should be the driving force behind the country’s modernisation process, and urged SKEZ localities to make their industries become the engine pushing Vietnam towards industrialisation and modernisation.
“Without the SKEZ making a bigger contribution to the process, the country will not be able to industrialise and modernise successfully. The zone plays an important role in the country’s socioeconomic development and national security, as it contributes one-third of the country’s GDP, 60 per cent of the State budget and attracts over 50 per cent of the country’s foreign investment,” Dung said.
The Deputy PM said that stronger cooperation between localities and industries would boost socioeconomic development across the zone, so he would ask the Government Office and the Ministry of Planning and Investment to raise responsibility for coordinating socioeconomic policy and planning.
He also asked the local governments to ensure their planning conformed with the Government’s Action Programme.
Dung said the zone should submit its plans for further industrial expansion to the prime minister this year and that these plans must identify specific projects for the next five years and present clear-cut scenarios for their implementation.
He said the region needs detailed plans for the manufacturing and service industries to attract investment from all sectors of the economy.
Deputy Planning and Investment Minister Nguyen Duc Hoa presented the conference with a draft Action Programme for the zone, which aims to concentrate investment in competitive industries and would largely draw on domestic resources, in line with Resolution 53.
He said this would help SKEZ achieve an economic growth rate in 2010 that is 2.5 times higher than in 2000, 2.3-2.5 times higher than 2010 in 2020.
Industry, construction and services would account for 95-96 per cent of the economy in 2010, he said, while agriculture would be just 4-5 per cent. Industry, construction and services would reach 97.5- 98 per cent in 2020.
The draft Action Programme also aims to exceed the export growth rate achieved over the past five years to reach 20-22 per cent per year in the 2011-2020 period, and to achieve a 50-70 per cent rate of trained labour by 2020.
Dung said the region would need to overcome its three weaknesses in planning, development and infrastructure to achieve these targets.
“It is necessary to make plans in three major groups – overall socioeconomic planning for the whole zone, socioeconomic planning for each province and planning for each sector. The planning task will not stop at the orientation stage, but will need to define individual projects specifically. For example, what needs to be done in the five coming years, what project is most important and specific planning for each sector. It is especially necessary to focus on planning for key products,” Dung said.
The deputy PM suggested that in the immediate future, the zone should establish a special financial mechanism for important infrastructure projects in the fields of the environment, worker housing, human resources training, hospitals and high-tech parks.
The chairman of Ho Chi Minh City, Le Thanh Hai, also proposed measures such as the decentralisation of power to allow local authorities to license large-scale high-tech projects and upgrading the Urban Development Assistance Fund to become a development fund for the entire SKEZ.
The Southern Key Economic Zone comprises eight localities: Ho Chi Minh City, Dong Nai, Ba Ria-Vung Tau, Binh Duong, Binh Phuoc, Tay Ninh, Long An and Tien Giang.


No. 748/February 13-19, 2006