THE PRIME MINISTER

DECIDES:

Article 1.- To promulgate a number of mechanisms and policies to support socio-economic development in Central Highlands provinces (embracing Gia Lai, Kon Tum, Dak Lak, Dak Nong and Lam Dong provinces) up to 2010 with the following principal contents:

1. Major objectives and targets up to 2010:

- The region's GDP growth rate will reach 12-13%/year on average;

- To reduce the rate of poor households by 3-4%/year, sustain hunger elimination and poverty alleviation, and prevent relapse into hunger or poverty;

- To create new jobs for 120,000-140,000 people/year;

- The rate of trained labor will be 25-30%;

- The total forest area will reach around 3.54 million hectares (including 950,000 hectares of protection forests), increasing forest coverage to 65%;

- The rate of clean water-using inhabitants will be 95% in cities and 80% in rural areas.

2. Key tasks for development of major industries and domains

a/ Industrial sector

To concentrate investment in major industries such as agricultural-forest product processing, irrigation, construction materials production, and mining.

- Agricultural-forest product processing industry:

To develop the agricultural-forest product processing industry is a central task of each locality in the region from now to 2010. The objective is to develop processing into a spearhead industry of the region.

Agricultural-forest product processing establishments will be built based on available raw materials, local production capacity as well as the region's approved branch plannings and plannings on major products. To invest in advanced equipment and modern technologies to turn out high-quality and competitive products.

Industrial development should be promoted through diversifying production scale and modes, combining medium- and small-scale production, building processing establishments in large raw-material zones, and encouraging the development of household-based manual or preliminary processing of simple products which are made in areas far from factories; to encourage domestic and foreign economic sectors to invest in industrial development.

To prioritize the development of processing industries with large-scale investment conditions such as processing coffee, rubber, cashew, cotton, tea, meat, milk, etc. To strive for the target that, by 2010, at least 50% of the region's coffee output will be processed into high-quality branded commodities for export. To invest in upgrading production equipment and synchronizing production lines of existing rubber-manufacturing factories and building new factories so that the product structure will be 45% of granulated rubber, 20% of latex and 35-40% of technical rubber latex, with part of which to be manufactured into high-quality products like automobile inner tubes and tires, conveyor belts, etc., in substitution of imported products. To process cotton and cashew with appropriate technological lines and diversify products for raising production efficiency. To process tea mainly based on the capacity of existing factories while only making investment in replacing equipment and technologies in order to have more than 70% of the tea output up to export standards.

To reorganize existing sugar production establishments in parallel with maintaining manual sugar production with a view to meeting local demands. To process corn and cassava starch for human consumption, animal raising and export suitable to raw-material zones; to restrict cassava development in order to protect the environment and prevent erosion.

To process forest products, especially timber, even timber of annually cut rubber trees. To invest mainly in manufacturing artificial boards, particle boards and refined woodwork to meet domestic and export demands.

- Hydropower: To concentrate efforts on completing projects under construction, step by step diversify modes of electricity investment and business in parallel with eco-environmental protection, combine the construction of hydropower works with the supply of production and daily-life water for inhabitants in the region.

- To promote mechanical repair services for agricultural mechanization, means of transport, manufacture of farming tools and spare parts for the processing industry; to develop the small-cottage industry producing local traditional articles.

- To invest without delay in establishments producing construction materials such as cement, baked brick, stone, feldspar, etc. To exploit bauxite, manufacture alumina and proceed to refining aluminum, etc.

b/ Agriculture-forestry

To further extend agricultural and forestry production on the basis of protecting and effectively exploiting the region's potential and strengths. To restructure agricultural and rural economy in the direction of concentrating on intensive cultivation, creating products of high economic value and making raw materials for the processing industry.

- Cultivation: To step up the production of food and foodstuff and cultivation of plants of high economic value; to adopt policies to support ethnic minority people in building household gardens in order to improve their daily meals with more nutritious food.

The central task in agricultural production is to continue developing long-term industrial trees for supplying raw materials for the processing industry, such as rubber, coffee, cashew, etc. Up-to-2010 objectives are to plant around 100,000 hectares of rubber, bringing the coffee area to over 200,000 hectares; to continue reducing the area of coffee in water-lacking and -inefficient production places for stabilizing the coffee area at around 330,000-350,000 hectares, plant cashew trees and other industrial trees of high economic value, attaching importance to growing high-grade flowers in localities for local consumption and export.

- Animal raising: To strive to increase the herds of buffaloes by 3%/year on average, of cows, by 6%, and of pigs, by 3-3.5%. The central task is to develop the herds of beef and milch cows, proceeding to producing on a large scale high-quality commodities, so that by 2010 around 5,000 milch cows will be reared under planning for sufficient supply of milk for processing factories. To encourage households to develop poultry rearing and aquaculture in localities where conditions permit.

- Forestry: To review plannings on special-use forests, protection forests and economic forests, transform part of protection forests into economic forests in order to allocate them to people for production to supply raw materials for the processing industry and generating incomes; to prioritize the allocation of production land to ethnic minority households and workers who live on forests. Within 5 years, to plant 250,000 hectares of forest, including mainly timber raw-material forests and perennial industrial trees for increasing forest coverage; to speed up the contracted allocation of special-use and protection forests to local village communities and ethnic minority households for direct management and protection to make the fullest use of forest products. Within the next 10 years, to build the Central Highlands into a national key zone for forestry development. To reorganize forest protection teams and groups in villages by studying and applying appropriate mechanisms and policies in order to mobilize combined strengths of administrations, socio-political organizations and people in forest protection; to strictly handle uncontrolled forest exploitation, effectively prevent and fight forest fires, and seriously implement the policy on forest closing in provinces.

To further reorganize and renew state-run agricultural and forestry farms, change their tasks by providing input and output services for farmer households, return land to localities in order to allocate production land to and create jobs for people.

Projects should be integrated for agricultural development in an environmentally friendly manner, contributing to changing customs and habits of Central Highlands ethnic groups.

c/ Trade and services

To step by step reorganize trade services such as marketplaces, trade centers and service provision cooperatives for people in urban, rural and exceptional difficulty-hit areas. To consolidate exports-purchasing establishments, paying attention to traditional commodities processed from local raw materials. To prioritize tourism development in order to create jobs, increase incomes and contribute to economic restructuring.

To make plannings and plans on the development of border-gate economic zones with Laos and Cambodia; to enhance external economic cooperation in border areas, continue expanding cooperation with Lao and Cambodian provinces with a view to efficiently exploiting the potential of the East-West economic corridor, and increase exchange between regional countries for mutual development.

To develop synchronous and modern post and telecommunications and information technology infrastructure and diversify services.

To step up financial and banking services, contributing to promoting socio-economic development.

d/ Science and technology and environmental protection

- To improve material and technical foundations and increase researchers for existing scientific research establishments in the Central Highlands to directly serve the region's socio-economic development.

- To attach importance to preserving and protecting landscape and the environment, and assess environmental impacts of investment projects. To properly treat solid waste, hazardous waste, daily-life waste and hospital waste. Wastewater from agricultural-forest product processing establishments should be treated up to standard B before being discharged into the public water drainage system. Ore exploitation, processing and sorting must strictly adhere to environmental protection requirements. To strictly handle seriously polluting establishments (even by suspending their operation until investors strictly comply with the Environmental Protection Law). Economic development should be combined with eco-environmental protection and sustainable development.

e/ Cultural-social domains

- Education and training

To increase the rate of school-age children attending school, raise the quality of all-rounded education, enhance the teaching of Vietnamese and ethnic minority languages for ethnic minority pupils in general education schools; to thoroughly combat the relapse into illiteracy in deep-lying and remote communes.

To train and retrain state management cadres, corporate managers and officials and employees engaged in economic and social activities, especially those who are of ethnic minority groups. All commune and village cadres should be provided with medium- and short-term training and granted training certificates.

To complete the construction of educational institutions from preschool to upper secondary level, giving priority to boarding general education schools for ethnic minority pupils in districts, semi-boarding schools in commune cluster centers and handicapped children-nurturing schools in provinces.

To build the Tay Nguyen University into a regional human resources training and scientific research and application center.

To invest in upgrading and consolidating schools and classrooms in the region; to build vocational training schools under planning and district-level vocational training centers providing job training for industrial, agricultural, forestry and rural laborers and ethnic minority children. To apply the model of on-spot training with a view to improving laborers' skills and step by step raising labor productivity and production efficiency.

- Health sector:

The central task for the Central Highlands from now to 2010 is to develop the grassroots healthcare system. By 2010, 100% of communes will have health stations built up to national standards, 80% of communes will have medical doctors, and 100% of villages will have health workers and adequate ordinary medicines and medical equipment on the list promulgated by the Ministry of Health; 95% of children of prescribed age will fully be vaccinated; the child malnutrition rate will drop to below 28%, leprosy, poliomyelitis and infant tetanus will be eliminated; no major epidemic outbreaks will occur. To enhance HIV/AIDS preventive measures.

To develop the preventive medicine network in order to take the initiative in effectively preventing and controlling epidemics; at the same time, to concentrate investment in building under planning healthcare networks for people in difficulty-hit, deep-lying and remote areas; to step up the socialization of public healthcare activities, maintain environmental sanitation and build healthy and cultured villages.

To further implement the Prime Minister's Decision No. 225/2005/QD-TTg of September 15, 2005, on upgrading district hospitals and regional general hospitals during 2005-2008 along with investing in the network of polyclinics in commune cluster centers and health stations with a view to meeting local people's on-spot healthcare needs.

- Culture and information, physical training and sports, radio and television broadcasting:

+ To propagate, educate and mobilize people to observe Party guidelines and State policies and laws. To conserve, embellish and promote cultural values of Central Highlands ethnicities; to concentrate investment in cultural and information and sports activities in communes and village communities, prioritize the building of houses for hamlet and village community activities. To promote grassroots culture and information activities.

+ To renovate, and raise the quality of, local radio and television broadcasts, increase equipment, provide professional training, preparing programs for relaying the central television station's signals, and increase time volumes of broadcasts in ethnic minority languages.

To invest in building facilities for cultural activities, giving priority to houses for community cultural activities; to invest in material foundations of physical training and sports, radio and television broadcasting sectors.

f/ Development of the region's infrastructure

+ Transport: To continue developing the road network, with Ho Chi Minh road as the axis, develop crossroads and the East-West corridor connecting to surrounding areas and regional countries. By 2010, to asphalt roads leading to districts, 100% of communes will have motor roads leading to their centers; to continue upgrading and expanding a number of existing airports under planning.

+ To upgrade and build irrigation works (giving priority to medium- and small-sized ones) for supplying irrigation and daily-life water; to combine hydropower development, flood combat, tourism, aquaculture and eco-environmental protection so that by 2010, 70-80% of the area of planted trees will be irrigated.

+ To invest in clean water-supplying establishments in densely populated cities, towns, townships and rural areas; to continue implementing the rural electrification program.

+ To expand urban centers in association with upgrading urban infrastructure works, and step by step urbanize vicinities and rural areas.

- Defense and security maintenance

To continue building strong all-people defense and security forces; to closely combine socio-economic development with defense and security maintenance, especially in border, deep-lying and remote areas, maintain political security and social order and safety in localities, especially those inhabited by ethnic minority people.

To consolidate and develop defense-economic zones, promote socio-economic development, build a firm defense and security posture, and implement Party and State policies currently applicable to the Central Highlands.

g/ Religious work and consolidation of grassroots administrations

- Ministries, branches and localities shall further grasp and implement the Prime Minister's Directive No. 01/2005/CT-TTg of February 4, 2005, on a number of affairs related to Protestantism; continue disseminating and guiding the Ordinance on Beliefs and Religions for people to practice religions according to law. To resolutely disallow reactionaries to abuse religious freedom to cause disorder and insecurity in the Central Highlands. To consolidate the all-people great unity bloc, generating strengths for promoting socio-economic development and firmly maintaining political security and social order and safety.

- The current central task of Central Highlands provinces is to consolidate grassroots administrations. The provinces should consolidate the political system from villages toward self-management. To renew the contents and raise the quality of the operation of commune-level People's Councils and People's Committees. To closely combine the building and consolidation of grassroots administrations with administrative reform, and implement the Regulation on the exercise of democracy at the grassroots. To renew the contents and modes of operation of mass and socio-political organizations to be closer to local people.

Article 2.- To continue implementing and improve mechanisms and policies as well as solutions for socio-economic development and defense and security maintenance in the region

1. To continue implementing current mechanisms and policies for the attainment of objectives and the performance of major tasks set for the region, giving priority to the following policies which must be implemented according to schedule:

- To provide supports in terms of production land, residential land and houses and daily-life water for ethnic minority people under the Prime Minister's Decision No. 134/2004/QD-TTg of July 20, 2004. Provinces shall ensure that supports are properly provided according to proper objectives, norms and recipients in a public and transparent manner. By the end of 2008, to completely allocate production land and residential land for people. By 2010, all households in the Central Highlands will have semi-permanent or better houses.

- To provide essential commodities for ethnic minority people in difficulty-hit areas under the Government's Decree No. 20/1998/ND-CP of March 31, 1998, and Decree No. 02/2002/ND-CP of January 3, 2002. To review and adjust support activities toward allowing localities to select support purposes, closely manage and deliver commodities directly to users.

- To continue implementing the Prime Minister's Decision No. 231/21005/QD-TTg of September 22, 2005, on supports for state-run agricultural and forestry enterprises and special-use forest and protection forest management boards to employ ethnic minority laborers who lawfully reside in Central Highlands provinces.

- To continue implementing the Prime Minister's Decision No. 304/2005/QD-TTg of November 23, 2005, on pilot forest allocation and contracted forest protection applicable to ethnic minority households and village communities in Central Highlands provinces.

- To continue implementing the Prime Minister's Decision No. 150/2005/QD-TTg of June 20, 2005, approving the national planning on restructuring agriculture, forestry and fisheries up to 2010 with the 2020 vision.

- To implement the project on supplying electricity to Central Highlands hamlets and villages which have had no access to electricity.

- To continue implementing incentive credit policies for poor households, other policy beneficiaries and production and business households in difficulty- and exceptional difficulty-hit areas through the Social Policy Bank and other micro-credit institutions.

- To continue implementing the Government's Decree No. 134/2006/ND-CP of November 14, 2006, providing for appointment-based enrollment of students into universities, colleges and intermediate schools within the national education system. To train and retrain state management cadres at all levels, especially at the grassroots level. Branches should work out plans on training line managers. Central Highlands provinces shall implement policies on training and employing local ethnic minority cadres, first of all employing graduates who have been trained under the appointment-based recruitment system to work in localities in order to encourage ethnic minority cadres and people to take part in local socio-economic development.

Provinces, districts, communes and wards shall draw up plans on training and retraining their cadres, giving top priority to ethnic minority cadres who work in communes and wards and hamlet and village heads who directly carry out self-management activities of population communities lower than the commune level under the Prime Minister's Decision No. 34/2006/QD-TTg of February 8, 2006, approving the scheme on training and retraining commune, ward and township ethnic minority cadres and public employees during 2006-2010.

- To continue implementing healthcare policies for the poor and social policy beneficiaries under the Prime Minister's Decision No. 139/2002/QD-TTg of October 15, 2002.

- To further step up the implementation of the Prime Minister's Decision No. 25/2004/QD-TTg of February 27, 2004, approving the scheme on the development of cultural and information activities in the Central Highlands up to 2010, and the scheme on raising the radio broadcasting capacity at the grassroots level in Central Highlands provinces during 2006-2008.

2. To adjust and supplement the following mechanisms and policies:

a/ Education and training policies

Poor ethnic minority pupils who are eligible for learning in boarding schools but attend public or semi-public schools will be granted a scholarship equal to 50% of the scholarship enjoyed by boarding pupils.

If graduates from ethnic minority pupils' boarding upper-secondary schools who are eligible for appointment-based enrolment into universities, pre-university schools or professional training schools to become grassroots cadres, do not wish to continue their study at professional schools, they will be provided with professional or technical training relevant to practical requirements and employed in localities.

Regarding policies on training, employment and treatment of ethnic minority cadres: To increase the number of cadres working in deep-lying and remote communes through selecting students and pupils graduating from professional schools (giving priority to ethnic minority ones) and training or retraining them in legal knowledge, state administration skills, economic management operations, people mobilization and information technology to assist commune- and district-level administrations in local socio-economic development, political stabilization and order and security maintenance.

After graduation, if ethnic minority students come to work for a long term in exceptional difficulty-hit, deep-lying, remote or ethnic minority areas, they will be recruited as reserve employees, immediately enjoy full salaries and region-based allowances under current regulations and housing support. Those students will be recruited into provincial, district or commune-level state agencies after having fulfilled their tasks at the grassroots level for a specified duration; cadres who are dispatched to work in exceptional difficulty-hit communes will have their salary allowance and salary increased one year ahead of schedule and enjoy housing support.

b/ Policies on human resource employment

Enterprises which themselves recruit and train laborers to work stably at enterprises will be allocated by the State a fund equal to the job-training funding support for training new laborers.

Teachers and medical doctors who come to work for a long term in hamlets or villages in exceptional difficulty-hit communes will be provided with housing support; those who get married or bring their families to live with them on farming in these areas will be allocated production land, residential land and housing support under the Prime Minister's Decision No. 134/2004/QD-TTg of July 20, 2004. Teachers will enjoy incentives under the Government's Decree No. 61/2006/ND-CP of June 20, 2006, on policies towards teachers and educational administrators working in special schools or areas with exceptional socio-economic difficulties.

3. Specific mechanisms and policies

- To increase central budget allocations not exceeding VND 70 billion for investment in industrial parks (including by-passes or roads and bridges leading to industrial parks), for localities meeting the criteria specified in the Prime Minister's Decision No. 183/2004/QD-TTg of October 19, 2004.

- To allocate central budget to investment in the construction of infrastructure of industrial and small-cottage industrial clusters, with up to VND 6 billion/cluster and not more than VND 70 billion/province, up to 2010.

- To allocate 100% domestic capital for locally managed ODA projects, for projects meeting the conditions specified in the Prime Minister's Decision No. 210/2006/QD-TTg of September 12, 2006.

- To adjust norms of medicine expenses and wastage of common medical supplies for commune health stations, increase allowances to 50% of the basic salary level for preschool and kindergarten teachers and hamlet and village health workers. To provide meal, accommodation and travel fare supports for in-patients (who receive treatment at district- or higher-level hospitals).

4. Investment solutions

a/ Planning work: Ministries, branches and localities shall review, adjust and supplement branch plannings and the master plan on socio-economic development in the Central Highlands up to 2020.

b/ Planning and investment work: To implement the Prime Minister's Decision No. 210/2006/QD-TTg of September 22, 2006, promulgating principles, criteria and norms for allocating state-budget development investment expenditures during 2007-2010, on the basis of development orientations of each branch and the region and the 2006-2010 five-year plan of each locality and branch, to work out annual investment plans.

c/ Mobilization and use of investment capital

In order to implement plans, mechanisms, policies and solutions for socio-economic development in the Central Highlands from now to 2010, development investment capital sources should be mobilized from different economic sectors in the region:

- State budget capital (including ODA).

- Investment credit capital.

- Capital of state enterprises.

- Capital of private enterprises and local inhabitants.

- Foreign investment capital.

- Other lawful capital sources.

State budget capital will be prioritized for investment in infrastructure (completion of works under construction; maintenance, renovation and repair of existing infrastructure; construction of new works under planning). Ministries, branches and localities are requested to make rational planning and concentrated investment, ensuring schedule and synchronism for promoting the efficiency of investment works such as reservoirs, irrigation systems, small-scale water resources works and motor roads leading to communes.

Concerned ministries, branches, groups, corporations, enterprises and localities should adopt mechanisms for raising capital from all economic sectors inside and outside the region for investment in production, business, service and socio-economic infrastructure in the Central Highlands.

Banks shall create favorable conditions for enterprises of all economic sectors and people in the region to borrow capital for investment in production and business, especially preferential capital for investment in the development of the processing industry in the Central Highlands.

Article 3.- Organization of implementation

1. Central Highlands provinces must regard the implementation of this Decision a major task of administrations at all levels from now to 2010, associate the implementation of the Resolution of the Xth National Party Congress and the Resolution of the provincial Party Committee Congress with the Central Highlands' 2006-2010 socio-economic development plan and orientations to 2020 with a view to concretizing them into programs and plans of branches, administrations at all levels and mass organizations for implementation; regularly coordinate with ministries, branches and localities (education cadres, Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth unions, border guards and economic groups of Vietnam People's Army working in localities in carrying out sedentarization work, building a cultured lifestyle, eradicating illiteracy and making primary and lower-secondary education universal, etc.) in the region in implementing programs and plans according to the objectives and contents of this Decision.

2. Ministries and branches shall assume the prime responsibility for, and coordinate with Central Highlands provinces in, directing the implementation of specific programs and projects under their state management according to the objectives and contents of this Decision. They shall review mechanisms and policies under their management in localities and make appropriate amendment or supplementation; propose the Government to amend overlapped and inappropriate mechanisms and policies and promulgate new policies with a view to promoting sustainable socio-economic development and maintaining political stability, defense and security in the region.

3. Ministries, branches and localities shall biannually and annually report on the implementation of this Decision to the Ministry of Planning and Investment for synthesization, and report to the Prime Minister.

4. Annually, the Ministry of Planning and Investment shall assume the prime responsibility for, and coordinate with ministries, branches, and localities in the Central Highlands in, preliminarily and finally reviewing the implementation of this Decision and report it to the Prime Minister.

Article 4.- This Decision takes effect 15 days after its publication in "CONG BAO."

Article 5.- The presidents of the People's Committees of Central Highlands provinces, ministers, heads of ministerial-level agencies and heads of government-attached agencies shall implement this Decision.