DECISION

Decision No. 175/QD-TTg of January 27, 2011, approving the overall strategy on the development of Vietnam’s service sector through 2020

THE PRIME MINISTER

Pursuant to the December 25, 2001 Law on Organization of the Government;

Pursuant to the Government’s Resolution No. 03/2008/NQ-CP of January 11, 2008, promulgating the Government’s program of action for the 2007-2011 term;

Pursuant to the 2011-2020 socio-economic development strategy;

At the proposal of the Minister of Planning and Investment,

DECIDES:

Article 1. To approve the overall strategy on development of Vietnam’s service sector through 2020, with the following principal contents:

1. Development viewpoints

- To develop the service sector in a fast, effective and sustainable manner, ensuring the provision of basic services to serve national socio-economic development and establishment of a modern economic structure.

- To strongly develop the service sector along the line of modernization for international and regional integration.

- To raise funds from all economic sectors for the development of service sub-sectors.

- To develop service sub-sectors appropriately in each development period of the national economy.

- To create a fair and transparent competition environment. To synchronously develop, perfect and step by step modernize service markets. To further improve management mechanisms as a momentum for socio-economic development.

2. General objectives

To effectively develop the service sector up to international standards in terms of quality and competitiveness; to develop service sub-sectors with great potential, high competitiveness and high added value to serve the national industrialization and modernization so as to ensure sustainable development and gradual shift to a knowledge-based economy.

3. Specific targets

- To reach an annual growth rate of 7.8-8.5% of the service sector which will account for about 41-42% of the national GDP during 2011-2015. In the 2016-2020 period, the sector will grow about 8-8.5% per year, accounting for some 42-43% of the national GDP.

4. Strategic orientations, development phasing and focuses and basic orientations

a) Strategic orientations

To strive for the target that the service sector will grow at a rate higher than that of the production sector and GDP.

To concentrate investment in accelerating the development of service sub-sectors with great potential and advantages and those with a high scientific and technological content and high added value to serve as a basis for the development of the service sector as well as the whole economy.

To raise the quality of service products and competitiveness of service providers in domestic, regional and international markets; to further tap the potential and advantages of each service sub-sector while promoting cooperation among them for competition and development.

To accelerate the export of services and provision of domestic services that generate foreign currencies such as tourism, finance-banking, post and telecommunications, airway and seaway transport and sale so as to reduce the service deficit.

To develop domestic and overseas distribution networks for products that have a competitive edge and develop brands for Vietnam’s services.

To build a number of service centers, especially tourism centers of regional scale and competitiveness.

b) Development phasing and focuses:

Major tasks for the 2011-2015 period:

- To  improve social awareness about services;

- To further formulate institutions for the development of the service sector;

- To strongly develop service sub-sectors with high potential and advantages and those with a high scientific and technological content and high added value, including information and communication technology, education, logistics, finance, business assisstance, tourism, transport, distribution, science and technology and healthcare services.

- To complete the construction of infrastructure facilities so as to create a prerequisite for fast, sustainable and comprehensive development of the service sector in subsequent periods through concentrating on developing “infrastructure” services, including information and communication technologies, education, logistics, finance and business assistance.

Major tasks for the 2016-2020 period:

- To strongly, comprehensively and sutainably develop the service sector on the basis of bringing into full play the effectiveness of “infrastructure” services which have been promoted and perfected; and to tap to the utmost service demands which have increased during 2011-2015;

- To make use of the initial achievements of education, especially high education and professional education which have been prioritized for development in the previous period, as well as the competitiveness brought about by the development of information and communication technologies and other scientific and technological domains, and strongly shift to service sub-sectors of a high added value and high technological and gray content so as to attain the objective of creating a knowledge-based economy in subsequent development periods.

- To further develop a number of service sub-sectors, including information and communication technologies, finance, logistics, business assistance, high education, high-quality healthcare and tourism.

c) Fundamental orientations for development of major services through 2020:

- Information and communication technology services

By 2020, information and communication technologies should serve as the core and prerequisite for international economic integration and an important pivot for socio-economic development and economic restructuring, thus turning Vietnam into an advanced country with a knowledge-based economy and an information society and greatly contributing to the success of the cause of national industrialization and modernization.

- Financial services

+ Banking services: To develop the banking system in a stable and sustainable manner as required in the strategy on the development of banking services; and to improve the risk management capacity in banking operations.

+ Securities services: To increase the scope and consolidate the liquidity of the securities market. By 2020, the total capitalization of the stock market will reach 80-110% of the GDP. To develop the bond market, especially government bonds, into an important capital raising and distribution channel for economic development. To increase the competitiveness of market intermediary institutions and support organizations by enhancing risk management, applying multi-functional models and expanding overseas operations.

+ Insurance services

To reach an average growth rate of about 29-30% in the non-life insurance sector, paying special attention to improving the quality to insurance services and prioritizing the attraction of individual customers and development of liability insurance and health insurance.

To reach an average growth rate of about 16-18% in the life insurance sector, paying special attention to exploiting mixed insurance products, integrating traditional insurance products, improving the quality of insurance services and increasing the number of insurance-cum-investment products (mixed products of investment, safeguard and saving).

- Business assistance services

To formulate projects and programs to develop business assistance services through creating business environment, building and improving enterprises’ competitiveness, improving and facilitating enterprises’ access to resources, markets and services, and creating and improving business culture and administration capability.

To identify essential business assistance sub-services for each socio-economic domain or area so as to create favorable conditions for their development to meet development demands in these domains and areas.

- Education and training services

To develop education and training services so as to develop human resources into a competitive edge in international integration; to train human resources to meet demands of the society and business community for the fulfillment of one of the three breakthrough objectives set forth in the 2011-2020 socio-economic development strategy.

- Logistic services

To make logistic services a key factor in accelerating the development of distribution systems for other services as well as for domestic circulation of goods and import and export.

To form integrated third-party logistic (3PL) and e-logistic services in association with e-commerce and effective and friendly supply chain management.

The logistic market will grow 20-25% per year. By 2020, the rate of outsourcing logistics will reach 40%.

- Transport services:

To develop road, railway, seaway, inland waterway and airway transport in an appropriate manner.

To adopt policies to encourage all economic sectors to provide transport business and transport support services and support enterprises providing in public passenger transport services and transport services in deep-lying, remote and exceptional difficulty-stricken areas.

- Science and technology services

To study and evaluate potentials of R&D organizations at the national level (considering all criteria regarding human resources, physical foundation, financial capacity and information technology capacity) so as to adopt appropriate policies in the new period.

To develop human resources for science and technology services; and further develop a network of science and technology service organizations.

To intensify the making of statistics on science and technology potentials, adhering to international statistical standards.

- Tourism services

To develop tourism into a spearhead industry. To concentrate on developing tourism in a professional manner with brand names, priorities and focuses; to develop both domestic and international tourism.

To develop sustainable tourism, ensuring linkage among areas and regions. To encourage socialization while assuring security, defense and social order and safety. To tap to the utmost the national advantages and sources for Vietnam to become a competitive tourist destination in the region.

- Healthcare services

To build a developed Vietnamese healthcare system along the line of equality and effectiveness by accelerating the modernization of the health sector and developing health services to regional standards.

To strive to ensure public access to primary healthcare services and high-quality health services. To strive for the target that people will live safely within their communities and well develop both physically and spiritually. To reduce morbidity rates, improve physical strength, increase life expectancy and improve the quality of Vietnamese race.

- Distribution services

To further develop and enhance the state management of distribution systems of major producers and traders so as to ensure smooth distribution throughout the country and dominance in key and important geographical areas; to ensure sufficient resources for timely dealing with changes in supply-demand balance or fluctuations of goods and service prices.

To adopt policies and mechanisms to create a good standing and market regulation capacity for Vietnam’s retail system in the distribution network. To further develop and enhance the state management of small- and medium-sized distribution systems in provinces and centrally run cities, first of all and chiefly, in rural and mountainous markets.

5. Region- and territory-based development orientations

a) Delta areas:

To strongly develop trade and investment services, participate in international and regional distribution networks and form international-level trade centers such as Hanoi, Hai Phong, Ho Chi Minh City and Can Tho.

To attach special importance to the development of production and business support, science and technology, financial and credit; education and training, medical and healthcare and social security services.

 To tap the potential for large-scale tourism development in a number of localities so as to develop tourism into a spearhead service industry.

b) Midland and mountainous areas:

To attach importance to the development of services to serve agricultural and forest production as well as rural life.

To develop eco-tourism and cultural tourism so as to bring into full play the value of natural heritages, historical relics and cultural traits of ethnic groups. To develop tourist resorts in temperate climate locations.

To develop tourism through properly making use of social and economic infrastructure facilities in economic zones, including border-gate economic zones, so as to boost trade relations with bordering countries. To tap advantages brought about by the development of economic corridors and belts in service development and exchange relations with other countries in the region and the world and with China.

c) Seas, coastal areas and islands

To develop the service sector in association with the implementation of the Vietnam’s marine strategy through 2020. To diversify service sub-sectors, especially those with a high added value and quality, with modern infrastructure and advanced business modes.

To develop diversified sea and island tourist products. To invest in the construction of high-quality sea-tourism resorts of national and regional levels. To strongly develop seaway transport services and petroleum exploitation services. To tap potential to develop seaports, accelerate and develop logistic services for maritime activities.

d) Service development in rural areas for the building of a new countryside:

To strongly develop basic services in appropriate forms and scopes to serve the life of rural residents, agricultural production, craft villages, farm produce processing and sale and other industrial production activities in association with renewable energy use and environmental protection.

To attach importance to the development of education and training services, especially vocational training in appropriate forms in rural areas, aiming to raise the quality of human resources to meet the requirement for building a new countryside, remedy and mitigate negative impacts of the industrialization and urbanization process.

To develop information and communication services in order to raise the people’s knowledge and ensure public access to information on development opportunities in an equal, effective and sustainable manner.

e) Service development in association with economic corridors and belts and growth poles of national significance and regional linkage

To tap investment potentials and conditions to create a synchronous infrastructure system in line with the strategy for forming the North-South economic axis, East-West economic corridors, trans-Asian economic corridors, Kunming-Lao Cao-Hanoi-Hai Phong and Nanning-Lang Son-Hanoi-Hai Phong economic corridors for fast and effective development of the service sector. To form large economic development cooperation centers in border gates along economic corridors. To develop transport, trade and investment services and production and business support services so as to promote trade, raise socio-economic benefits of economic corridors, and link domestic and overseas development centers along these corridors.

Article 2. Organization of implementation

1. The Ministry of Planning and Investment shall assume the prime responsibility for, and coordinate with concerned agencies in, elaborating and submitting to the Government early in the second quarter of 2011 a government program of action for the implementation of this strategy, clearly determining tasks of ministries and branches, deadlines and resources for the performance of these tasks and integrating the materialization of the objectives of this Strategy and those of  national and local five-year and annual socio-economic plans.

2. Based on the objectives and orientations set forth in this strategy and the government program of action, the Ministry of Planning and Investment shall guide ministries, branches and provincial-level People’s Committees to elaborate their respective programs of action according to their functions and competence, and send annual reports to the Ministry of Planning and Investment.

3. The Ministry of Planning and Investment shall assume the prime responsibility for, and coordinate with concerned ministries and branches and provincial-level People’s Committees in, summarizing the implementation results of this strategy for annual reporting to the Prime Minister; and organize a preliminary review in 2015 and the final review in 2020.

Article 3. This Decision takes effect on the date of its signing.

Article 4. Ministers, heads of ministerial-level agencies, heads of government-attached agencies and chairpersons of provincial-level People’s Committees shall implement this Decision.