DECISION

ON THE LONG-TERM ORIENTATIONS AND THE 1996-2000 FIVE-YEAR PLAN FOR SOCIO-ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN THE NORTHERN MOUNTAINOUS PROVINCES

THE PRIME MINISTER

Pursuant to the Law on Organization of the Government of September 30, 1992;
At the proposals of the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, the Minister of Communications and Transport, the Minister of Planning and Investment, the Minister of Finance and the Minister-Chairman of the Commission on Ethnic Affairs and Mountainous Areas,

DECIDES:

Article 1.- Socio-economic development in the Northern mountainous provinces aims to mobilize all local resources and resources of all economic sectors inside and outside the country as well as the State’s support and investment for socio-economic development with a view to exploiting all advantages in land and climate, in forest and mineral potentials... of the Northern mountainous provinces; to improve step by step the living standards of the ethnic minorities; to maintain the ecological and environmental balance in the region and the downstream areas of the Red River delta, and to enhance the strategic security and defense position of such provinces to firmly defend the border of the country.

Article 2.- The long-term orientations and the 1996-2000 five-year plan for socio-economic development in the Northern mountainous provinces aim first of all to develop the infrastructure, in which the planning and mobilization of all resources for building road systems is the central and foremost task of the mountainous provinces in the 1996-2000 period.

The development of communications infrastructure must be carried out one step ahead to serve as basis for the planning and construction of other technical and social infrastructures for the re-distribution of the population, sedentarization and construction of economic, service and socio-cultural centers, centers of communes, clusters of communes, markets and fairs... thus promoting and ensuring socio-economic development, security and defense in the mountainous areas.

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a/ To replan the communications system, including roads, railways, waterways and airways, with roads as the focus, to ensure smooth communication and transport in all the four seasons (especially the rainy season) in service of the population centers, economic zones, socio-cultural centers, districts and centers of commune clusters, areas adjacent to the border, interprovincial routes and communication axes linking with the Northern mid-land and delta provinces and Hanoi capital.

- The Ministry of Communications and Transport shall assume the main responsibility and coordinate with the People’s Committees of the mountainous provinces in drawing up the general planning and plans for the development of roads to district centers, then submit them to the Prime Minister for ratification in June 1997.

The People�s Committees of the provinces shall ratify the general planning and plans for the development of communications links from districts to the centers of commune clusters and communes in the first quarter of 1997 for early deployment.

b/ With regard to communications lines invested and managed by the Central Government, the Ministry of Communications and Transport and the Ministry of Planning and Investment shall decide the order of priority from now to the year 2000 along the direction of rational arrangement and priority of allocation of capital from the annual budget plan and ODA sources for investment in the construction, improvement and upgrading of highways, interprovincial roads, intraprovincial routes and important roads urgently needed for economic development and people�s life in the region.

c/ From now to the year 2000, the provinces shall have to give priority to the use of local budget capital sources and central support capital for the construction, improvement and upgrading of roads from provincial centers to district centers and from districts to economic zones, centers of commune clusters and areas adjacent to the border. It is necessary to direct the districts and communes in working out detailed plans for the creation of a mass movement to build roads for economic benefits and people’s life in those districts and communes.

2. For the construction of roads in the mountainous provinces from now to the year 2000 it is essential to mobilize every resource of the people and localities in addition to the State�s support and foreign investment cooperation. More concretely:

a/ The People�s Committees of the provinces shall work out plans for the mobilization of all resources among the population (contribution of money and labor from all population strata and economic sectors) for the construction of roads, consult the Party Committees thereon and submit them to the provincial People’s Councils for decision and implementation.

b/ The Ministry of Planning and Investment shall assume the main responsibility and coordinate with the Ministry of Communications and Transport in seeking for capital sources (including capital from ODA sources and other international organizations...) to supplement the State investment and to be included in the annual plans right from 1997 till the year 2000.

c/ The Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs shall assume the main responsibility and coordinate with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Ministry of Communications and Transport in preparing a unified plan on deducting a reasonable part of the hunger-elimination and poverty-alleviation support fund for communications development, making payment in food or in cash to households targeted by the hunger-elimination and poverty alleviation program and participating in road construction so as to eliminate hunger and alleviate poverty on the one hand and to create jobs for the targeted households on the other.

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e/ The Ministry of Planning and Investment shall assume the main responsibility and coordinate with the Ministry of Finance and the concerned ministries and branches in working out as soon as possible a plan to readjust the national programs on economic development in the mountainous areas so as to concentrate on the construction of communications infrastructure, to mobilize manpower and decide the form of payment to laborers participating in road construction, particularly unemployed or partially unemployed people in off-harvest time with a view to creating jobs and incomes for them, thus contributing to hunger elimination and poverty alleviation and stopping the slash-and-burn farming.

f/ The Ministry of Communications and Transport shall choose a number of roads to experiment with the BOT form of investment or the form of investment with 40% of State budget capital, 30% of bank credit capital and 30% of construction bonds and other sources. After the completion of projects, toll shall be collected to recover the capital.

g/ Domestic enterprises throughout the country are encouraged to invest their capital in road construction and development, especially in border areas. When the construction is completed, the enterprises shall be entitled to collect toll to recover their capital.

h/ The Ministry of Finance shall assume the main responsibility and coordinate with the Ministry of Communications and Transport, the Ministry of Planning and Investment and localities in considering the establishment of funds to support the rural and mountainous communications development to be submitted to the Prime Minister for ratification in 1997.

Article 3.- To continue investing in the construction of irrigation works, clean water and electricity supply projects in service of production and people’s life:

1. Regarding irrigation

Investment in irrigation in the Northern mountainous provinces aims mainly to create conditions for the stabilization and development of agricultural production, first of all food production and for the implementation of other socio-economic development programs such as programs on sedentarization, hunger elimination and poverty alleviation, environmental protection and improvement.

By the year 2000, the irrigation system shall have to ensure water supply for 270,000 hectares of the Winter rice crop, 130, 000 hectares of the Spring rice crop and 10,000 hectares of industrial and fruit trees. The development of irrigation must be associated with the construction of reservoirs and small-scale hydro-electric power plants to supply water and electricity for daily life and production in the water-shortage stricken areas, deep-lying and remote areas along the following directions:

- Upgrading, improving and consolidating projects and groups of key projects, perfecting the system of canals and ditches so as to make the fullest use of the existing projects.

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- Stepping up the afforestation in combination with the construction of small reservoirs and terraced fields to protect the cover layer, control floods, maintain humidity and increase water life.

- Working out the plan for the construction of embankments to protect border rivers, control water sources and quality of water running into Vietnamese territory.

- The State shall invest budget capital in the construction of main irrigation works while the localities shall mobilize people to contribute their labor to the construction and improvement of systems of canals and ditches.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development shall choose urgent projects associated with the development of communications, re-distribution of population, sedentarization and development of small-scale hydro-electric power plants for investment priority from now to the year 2000 and work out a detailed plan on annual capital allocation for implementation right from 1997.

2. Regarding the supply of daily life water

- By the year 2000, 60% of population must have access to clean water and after the year 2000 the entire population will have enough clean daily life water through different measures, such as building reservoirs, drilling or digging wells, opening ranges, building rain water tanks, slowly-filtering tanks and gravity systems, including the evacuation of people from places without water sources to places along road axes with water sources.

Investment in the water supply in the mountainous provinces must first of all tap and make full use of water sources from irrigation and hydro-electric works, give priority to the ODA capital sources, take advantage of the support from international, non-governmental and charity organizations and all sources from the population to achieve the set objectives.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development shall assume the main responsibility and coordinate with the Ministry of Planning and Investment in working out the general planning and detailed plans to direct this program.

3. Regarding electricity

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- For the remaining communes, together with the re-distribution of population to areas with communications lines and electricity, the development of small-size and micro-size hydro-electric power projects and other energy sources must be studied so that people in areas of ethnic minorities and mountainous areas may use electricity for production and daily life.

- The construction, improvement of electricity generation sources, electricity network (high, medium or low-voltage transmission lines) to bring electricity to population clusters shall be conducted with investment from both the State and the people. The Ministry of Industry, the Vietnam Electricity Corporation shall have to draw up detailed plans and projects along the following directions:

+ With regard to high-tension electricity sources and grids: the State shall balance the investment from the sources of the State budget, ODA capital and State credit loans.

+ With regard to middle-tension electricity grids, the central and local budgets shall invest 30%-40%, the credit capital borrowed with preferential interest-rate shall be 30%, and the remainder shall come from the issue of construction bonds and other sources.

+ With regard to low-tension electricity grids, to mobilize all resources (capital and labor force) of the local population to build the electricity supply network and diversify forms of organizing the construction and management of electricity networks, such as: electricity managing boards, electricity cooperatives and private electricity companies... so as to bring electricity to family households and population clusters.

- To associate the formation of population clusters with the construction and improvement of electricity networks in those clusters. With regard to remote and sparsely-populated areas of ethnic minorities, to combine the evacuation of the population to new villages and hamlets or to places having electricity along communications lines with the search for humanitarian aid for the development of on-spot electricity sources (small-sized, micro-sized hydro-electricity, wind and solar electricity...)

Article 4.- Planning and distribution of population, sedenterization, hunger elimination and poverty alleviation.

1. The planning and distribution of population must be based on the general planning for development of communications system and the master plan for the local socio-economic development in the 1996-2000 period; in the border areas, economic development must be associated with security and defense so as to properly form population clusters, towns and townships, centers of commune clusters and areas of commodity economy.

- In the areas where population clusters have been set up and communications lines, schools and clinics have been built, continued support shall be given to ensure long-term stability.

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In 1997, the Ministry of Planning and Investment shall assume the main responsibility and coordinate with the Commission on Ethnic Affairs and Mountainous Areas in summing up the experimental construction of commune clusters in order to expand them so that by the year 2000, 500 such commune clusters shall have been set up, creating a motive force for socio-economic development in the subregion and serving as basis for the re-arrangement and re-distribution of population and for sedentarization.

2. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development shall together with the mountainous provinces determine the number of nomadic households in each province and review the work of sedentarization and construction of new economic zones in the recent past to find concrete and efficacious solutions along the following directions:

Land replanning is associated with the planning and development of communications and water sources, especially in areas with much land still unused and border areas, for sedentarization in the localities, elaborating new economic projects mainly with local and on-spot readjustment.

3. The re-evacuation of population back to border areas must be associated with security and defense tasks, bomb and mine sweeping and destruction and the construction of socio-economic centers, bordergates, centers of commune clusters, thus creating conditions for the border communes to develop production, stabilize the people�s life and ensure security and defense.

4. With regard to areas planned for the construction of the Son La hydro-electric works, right from 1997 the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development shall reach agreement with the Ministry of Communications and Transport in planning the area for the evacuation of people from the affected zones, settle the people into the planned areas, ensuring first of all communication lines and working and living conditions for the people to stabilize their settlement and daily life.

5. To strive to abolish nomadic farming by the year 2000 and reduce the number of poor households to below 30% and to eliminate the daily hunger and between-crop hunger by the end of 1998.

The Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs together with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and localities shall, on the basis of survey and classification of poor households and the determination of the causes of poverty, create conditions for households to overcome difficulties by themselves, conduct production activities efficiently and increase their incomes along the following directions:

- With regard to poverty-stricken households which due to the lack of land for production have to practice slash-and-burn farming, the People’s Committees of different levels shall have to immediately take measures to assign land and forests to them for production along the direction of combining agriculture with forestry, and at the same time support them with food for several years, so that such households can have conditions to conduct production and stabilize life by themselves.

- With regard to households struck with poverty due to the lack of capital and production experiences, the People’s Committees of different levels shall have to create favorable conditions for them to borrow capital from the Bank for the Poor through different forms such as group of voluntary borrowers, trust guarantees..., linking capital lending with guidance for effective agro-forestry promotion measures.

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- With regard to poor households objects of entitlements policies but who lack labor force, the People’s Committees of different levels shall have to make a detailed list of such households for the grant of annual social allowances and work out a policy on food support for them.

Article 5.- Production development.

1. Forestry:

- To protect and develop forest resources, to raise the forest cover of 20% at present to 30% by the year 2000 and 50% by the year 2010. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development shall together with the concerned ministries, branches and localities apply a number of the following major measures:

- To immediately work out a plan to temporarily close forests for a period of time so as to protect and develop forest resources by allowing only the exploitation of material wood for pit-props and the paper industry at a level permitted by the Government and in accordance with the prescribed procedures and regulations, and then submit that plan to the Prime Minister for ratification in 1997.

- To early complete the assignment of land and forests to family households, grant certificates of long-term land use right to the households so that they become the real masters of the forests and feel reassured in investing capital and labor in protecting, improving, zoning and planting forests, not cutting trees or destroying them, thus creating a mass movement for trading, protecting and planting forests by every family and every people.

- With regard to the protection forests outside the area planned for special use, if they are formed on the basis of transforming the existing natural forests, they must be assigned to each household or to each village, hamlet, commune, collective, school or armed forces unit in sparsely-populated areas, for protection, zoning and planting according to the plan. Such units will be supplied with funds for the protection and planting of forests for a few years; the owners of forests shall be entitled to exploit trees of economic value and other forest products in accordance with the regulations of the State, but they must maintain the forest resources and the protection function of forests.

- With regard to special-use forests, the Managing Boards shall take responsibility for their management and development in accordance with the current regulations of the State.

- With regard to forests planted as production forests, the waste land, bare hills and exhausted forests shall be assigned to households for the protection, zoning, restoration and afforestation; the State shall provide saplings for forest planting in accordance with the general plan for high-land areas (more than 800m above sea level) and provide loans with preferential interest rates according to the cycle of each kind of trees for afforestation in low-lying areas.

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- To assign the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the State Bank of Vietnam to provide regulations and detailed guidance regarding the level of support and preferential lending interest rates for the localities to achieve the above-said objectives.

2. Agriculture:

- Depending on concrete conditions of each locality, to select a suitable structure of plants and animals to develop an effective and stable commodity agriculture in conformity with the market mechanism.

- To develop industrial and fruit trees suited to the soil and climate in subregions, such as: tea, coffee, soybean, sugar canes, fiber trees, tobacco, bananas, longan, litchi, persimmon, mandarin, plum, etc.

- Together with the development of family-based raising of cattle, pigs and poultry, the rearing of dairy cattle should be developed in Moc Chau (Son La) together with the rearing of cows for high-quality meat, horses, deer, bees, etc...

- To encourage food production in areas where conditions permit but to refrain from destroying forests and eroding land.

+ With regard to the existing wet rice area, intensive farming shall be practiced, using various kinds of hybrid high-yield rice seeds, gradually reducing the rice acreage on mountainous slopes, stopping the destruction of forests for the cultivation of hilly rice. To encourage the traditional practice of rice cultivation on terraced fields by the ethnic minorities as well as the investment in intensive farming, to fight against land erosion and soil protection.

+ To expand the area under hybrid high-yield maize, to encourage the cultivation of potatoes in the Winter and Spring crops in subregions with suitable soil and climate conditions.

3. In order to develop the agricultural and forestry production along the above-said directions, it is necessary to continue enhancing the system of agro- forestry promotion organizations from province to hamlet and village, to encourage the development of voluntary agro-forestry promotion organizations and agriculture promotion organizations of State enterprises, to diversify forms of agro-forestry promotion in conformity with the standards and customary practices of each area and ethnic group.

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4. The development of industrial production must first of all aim at servicing the development of commodity economy of the area, such as tools for agro-forestry production. To set up small and medium size enterprises, combining production with processing, consumption with export, first of all the processing of sugar, tea, animal feeds, vegetable and fruits and paper industry...

5. To develop trade and services, aimed at boosting the development of the commodity economy, especially markets, fairs, trade and service centers, border free trade areas and mountainous tourist sites, so as to help people of ethnic minorities not only exchange, buy and sell commodities but also have conditions for cultural exchanges, contributing to the building of civilized and cultured rural areas, hamlets and villages.

Article 6.- Development of education, health care service and culture.

1. Education: To concentrate on the following major works:

- To concentrate investment on the construction of standardized schools and classes, first of all primary schools so that by the year 2000 100% of the communes have primary schools; to encourage the expansion of boarding and semi-boarding classes in semi-public form, invested by both the State and the people in sparsely-populated areas. In areas where there are no conditions for solid constructions, the locally available materials such as wood, bamboo and palm leaves shall be made full use of to ensure that such schools shall be well built, tidy and beautiful, which are warm in winter and cool in summer and which must essentially have playgrounds and trees to create a surrounding environmental landscape .

- To increase the number of boarding schools in provinces and districts to train cadres of ethnic minorities to meet the immediate and long-term demand of localities. To renew the contents of training by combining general education with vocational training in conformity with socio-economic conditions of the mountainous region.

- The Ministry of Education and Training shall study a model of cooperation between universities and intermediate vocational training schools along the multi-disciplinary direction so as to train qualified cadres to meet the demand of localities.

2. Regarding health care:

To enhance material and technical facilities and raise the quality of disease prevention and treatment of the medical establishments in districts, communes clusters and communes; to supply adequate iodized salt for people to reduce the number of goiter sufferers to 20%, control malaria, eliminate leprosy and widely practice family planning.

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- To give priority to the program for radio and television broadcasting coverage, first of all in high-land and deep-lying areas and border areas. To select proper equipment for the efficient construction of radio and television stations in practical service of people in subregions, clusters of communes and population centers.

- The central and local radio and television stations shall have to increase the time of broadcasting in languages of ethnic minorities reports on the socio-economic development in the localities.

4. To encourage the restoration of traditional festivals and rituals bearing national traits and such forms of cultural exchanges as fairs, traditional Tet and festivals...; at the same time, it is necessary to combat old and backward customs and practices, superstition and social vices, especially to stop the cultivation of opium poppy in order to abolish drug addiction, thus building civilized and cultured villages and hamlets with clear national identity.

Article 7.- Organization of implementation:

1. The Ministries and branches shall, on the basis of their functions and jurisdiction, assume the main responsibility and coordinate with the Northern mountainous provinces in guiding the implementation of programs and projects coming under the scope of their direction in accordance with the objectives, contents and programs provided for in this Decision.

On the basis of programs and projects, which have been or shall be ratified from now to the year 2000, there must be in the immediate future annual detailed plans, starting right from 1997, on the organization of direction, inspection and promotion of the implementation of such programs and projects.

2. The People’s Committees of different levels of the Northern mountainous provinces shall have to consider the contents of this Decision a major task of the local Party Committees’ and Administrations’ leadership, direction and organization of implementation.

3. To set up a Steering Committee for the Development of Northern mountainous provinces in the 1996-2000 period with the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, as its Chairman; the Head of the Ethnic Affairs and Mountainous Areas Commission and the Minister of Communications and Transport as its standing deputy Chairmen; with the participation of the Ministry of Planning and Investment and a number of concerned ministries and branches.

Article 8.-

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This Decision shall also apply to mountainous provinces on the coast of Central Vietnam.

Article 9.- The Ministers, the Heads of the ministerial-level agencies, the Heads of the agencies attached to the Government and the Presidents of the People’s Committees of the northern mountainous provinces shall have to implement this Decision.

THE PRIME MINISTER




Vo Van Kiet