THE PRIME MINISTER

DECIDES:

Article 1.- To ratify "Vietnam�s 2001-2010 Tourist Development Strategy", with the following principal contents:

1. Objectives of the Strategy:

a/ Overall objectives:

To develop tourism into a spearhead economic sector on the basis of efficiently exploiting the advantages of natural conditions, ecology, cultural and historical traditions, mobilizing to the utmost the domestic resources and getting the best of international cooperation and assistance, thus contributing to the national industrialization and modernization. To step by step make our country a tourist center of the regional caliber, and strive for the Vietnamese tourism�s ranking among the regional countries with a developed tourist sector by 2010 or afterward.

b/ Specific objectives:

To strive for the tourist sector�s average GDP growth rate of 11-11.5%/year in the 2001-2010 period, with the following specific targets:

By 2005: The number of foreign arrivals in Vietnam as tourists shall reach 3-3.5 million tours of people, while that of domestic tourists shall be 15-16 million, and the income generated from tourism shall reach over USD 2 billion.

By 2010: The number of foreign arrivals in Vietnam as tourists shall be 5.5-6 million tours of people, while that of domestic tourists shall be 25-26 million, and the income generated from tourism shall reach USD 4-4.5 billion.

2. Development of some domains:

a/ Regarding tourist markets:

To attract tourists from international markets in such regions as Eastern Asia-Pacific, Western Europe and Northern America, while paying special attention to the ASEAN, China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the United States, France, Germany and England, and getting access to markets in Northern Asia, Northern Europe, Australia, New Zealand, the Commonwealth of Independent States and Eastern Europe.

To attach importance to the development and exploitation of the domestic tourist market, and bring into full play the advantages for tourism development in each locality, thus meeting the exchange and integration demands and in compliance with the State�s regulations. To create conditions for people to make domestic and overseas tours, thus contributing to the elevation of the people�s intellectual level and the improvement of their material and spiritual lives.

b/ Regarding the tourism development investment:

The tourism development investment must well combine the use of investment source from the State budget with the exploitation and use of foreign capital sources and the mobilization of sources from the population under the guideline of socialization of tourism development.

To prioritize the investment in development of national integrated tourist resorts and theme tourist resorts.

To combine the investment in upgrading and development of sightseeing and tourist spots, material and technical foundations for tourism with the investment in propagation, popularization and training and development of the tourism human resources, in order to turn out attractive tourist products, bearing the particular traits of each tourist region as well as the whole country.

To adopt plans to promote the tourism development in key tourist areas, such as Ha Noi, Hai Phong, Quang Ninh, Nghe An, Hue, Da Nang, Quang Nam, Khanh Hoa, Da Lat, Ninh Thuan, Vung Tau, Ho Chi Minh City, Ha Tien and Phu Quoc, and national tourist routes linking various regions and localities with great tourist potentials throughout the country as well as tourist spots on the national tourist routes in line with the socio-economic development plans of each locality and the whole country.

For such tourist cities as Ha Long, Hue, Nha Trang, Vung Tau and Da Lat, and such tourist urban centers as Sa Pa, Do Son, Sam Son, Hai An, Phan Thiet and Ha Tien, the investment must be made in tourism development in a rational manner, thus ensuring the harmony between the urban development and sustainable tourism development, and raising attractiveness of tourist activities.

To realize the socialization of investment, protection and embellishment of relics, landscapes, traditional festivals, folk cultural activities and craft villages in service of tourism development.

c/ Regarding the development of tourism human resources and scientific and technological research and application:

To build a system of establishments engaged in training tourism human resources, covering: vocational, intermediate, college, university and post-graduate training in tourism.

To substantially reform the management and organization of training of tourism human resources; to renew training programs, contents and methods according to the national standards applicable to the tourist sector; to combine theoretical study with practice, training with research, in order to raise the teaching quality and qualification of the teachers� contingent.

To step up the work of basic research and applied research into advanced tourism sciences and technologies in service of the sustainable tourism development, thus making a new and efficient progress in the research and application of scientific and technological achievements to the tourist management and business activities.

d/ Regarding the tourist promotion, propagation and popularization:

To intensify the tourist promotion, propagation and popularization in flexible forms; to forge a close coordination among various levels and branches; to get the best of international cooperation in tourist promotion activities at home and abroad, thus step by step raising the Vietnamese tourism�s profile on the international arena; to raise the awareness and responsibilities of all levels, branches and population of the position and role of tourism in the national socio-economic development.

e/ International integration and cooperation in tourism

To enhance, consolidate and expand bilateral and multilateral cooperation with international organizations and countries with capability and experience in tourism development. To well undertake the tourist cooperation with the countries which have established cooperation relationships, especially in tourism, with Vietnam, to form such link-ups as Vietnam-Laos-Cambodia, Vietnam-Laos-Thailand, Vietnam-Laos-Cambodia-Thailand-Myanmar; the expanded Mekong river sub-region, and the Mekong-Ganges tourism cooperation. To fulfill commitments in and get benefits from tourism cooperation with the World Tourism Organization (WTO), the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC), Pacific-Asia Tourism Association (PATA), the ASEAN Tourism Association (ASEANTA) and the European Union (EU). To prepare conditions for integration at a high level with the world�s tourism as soon as Vietnam joins the World Trade Organization (WTO).

To encourage and create favorable conditions for attracting foreign direct investment capital in tourist resorts and projects to create typical and high-quality tourist products. To attract and efficiently use ODA sources for development of tourist human resources, technologies and environmental protection.

3. Development of tourist regions:

a/ Northern Vietnam tourist region: stretches from Ha Giang province to Ha Tinh province with Ha Noi being the center of the region as well as the dynamic tourist growth triangle of Ha Noi - Hai Phong - Ha Long. The typical tourist products of the region shall be cultural and ecological tourism in combination with sightseeing tours, study tours and convalescence.

b/ Northern Central Vietnam tourist region: covers the provinces and cities from Quang Binh to Quang Ngai with Hue and Da Nang cities being the centers of the region as well as the dynamic tourist growth zone of Quang Tri - Hue - Da Nang - Quang Nam. The typical tourist products of the region shall be sport and entertainment tourism, seaside convalescence, tours of historical and cultural relics, revolutionary bases and world cultural heritages.

c/ Southern Central Vietnam and Southern Vietnam tourist region: covers provinces from Kon Tum to Ca Mau with two sub-regions of Southern Central Vietnam and Southern Vietnam. The center of the region shall be Ho Chi Minh City and the geographical areas for tourism growth shall be Ho Chi Minh City - Nha Trang - Da Lat, Ho Chi Minh City - Can Tho - Ha Tien - Phu Quoc, Ho Chi Minh City - Vung Tau - Phan Thiet. The typical tourist products of the region shall be sightseeing tours, seaside and mountain convalescence, with a view to exploiting tourist advantages of the southern central coast and the Central Highlands, river and canal tourism, ecological tourism in Mekong river delta.

The tourism development in the key tourist regions and geographical areas must stem from the conditions and characteristics of socio-economic development of each locality and tourist advantages of each region, with a view to fully exploiting the whole country�s potentials for tourist development.

4. Major solutions:

To further improve the tourism legislation system; well organize the implementation of the Tourism Ordinance, and at the same time prepare necessary conditions for drafting the Tourism Law, and create a legal environment for managing tourist activities, attracting all domestic and foreign resources for tourist development investment in compatibility with the process of economic development and integration of the whole country.

To invest in the development of infrastructure in the key tourist localities, national tourist zones and tourist resorts with potentials for tourist development in mountainous, deep-lying and remote areas, etc., on the basis of exploiting potentials and advantages of each geographical area, each sector and each locality; to effectively combine the State�s resources with resources from various economic sectors used for investment in tourist development under the guideline of socialization of tourist development.

To re-organize State enterprises operating in the tourist field; to materialize the policy of equitizing, leasing, selling or contracting... State enterprises.

To administratively reform, decentralize management responsibilities and simplify procedures related to tourists and tourist business enterprises.

To flexibly combine such forms of propagation as: fairs, seminars, expositions, etc., with other communications and propagation means, in order to promote tourism in line with the orientation for developing domestic and overseas tourist markets. At the same time, to get access to resources from outside and international assistance in service of the efficient tourist promotion and popularization.

To elaborate and implement plans for development of tourist human resources. To raise the quality of the specialized training in tourism with an appropriate personnel structure. To realize the guideline that the State and enterprises jointly train and develop the tourist human resources. To experiment the job- training model involving the coordination between training establishments and enterprises with funding sources from the State budget and enterprises. To attach importance to and intensify international cooperation in tourist human resource training.

To adopt preferential policies for attracting talents, specialists and artisans to participate in the country�s tourism development.

To step up the scientific and technological research and application in service of tourist development; to pay due attention to the application and development of tourist information technology. To build the exclusive tourism database system capable of meeting the requirements of the economic development cause. To encourage and create conditions for organizations and individuals to participate in the research into and application of scientific and technological advances to tourist business activities. To intensify cooperation with scientific institutions and agencies at home and abroad, so as to take advantage of their technical assistance and experience, and get access to the new and modern achievements in international tourism science and technologies which can be applied to Vietnamese tourism.

To enhance the role and effectiveness of the State management over tourist environment and resources, especially in the national tourist zones, tourist spots with a great attraction, and ecological tourist areas. To encourage and create conditions for mobilizing the participation and contribution of organizations and individuals to the protection of tourist resources and environment, thus ensuring the sustainable development of Vietnam�s tourism.

To incorporate the training in and education of tourist resources and environment in the teaching curriculum of the tourist training systems at all levels. To raise the tourists� and population communities� awareness of protection of tourist resources and environment by means of the mass media.

To take the initiative in joining the multilateral and bilateral cooperation, to fully exploit the membership benefits and well perform obligations. To prepare conditions for tourist integration at a high level, first of all conditions for tapping the tourist factors in the implementation of the Vietnam-US Trade Agreement as well as Vietnam�s future admission to the World Trade Organization (WTO).

To instruct and create conditions for enterprises to work out plans on and solutions to the realization of our international commitments in tourism in particular, and in international economic cooperation in general, thus raising their competitiveness, increasing market shares on traditional markets, and gradually heightening the Vietnamese tourism�s profile in new markets.

To encourage and create conditions in support of Vietnamese enterprises to make tourist investment overseas. To diversify and multilateralize tourist relationships with foreign countries, so as to get access to their investment capital, technologies, techniques, managerial experience, etc., and at the same time build up and heighten the Vietnamese tourism�s profile in the region and the world.

Article 2.- Organization of implementation

1. Basing itself on the major objectives and contents of this Strategy, the National Administration of Tourism shall coordinate with the ministries, ministerial-level agencies, agencies attached to the Government, the People�s Committees of the provinces and centrally-run cities in organizing the implementation of "Vietnam�s 2001-2010 Tourist Development Strategy," propose and request the competent State agencies to take necessary measures to implement this Strategy.

2. The ministries, ministerial-level agencies, agencies attached to the Government, the People�s Committees of the provinces and centrally-run cities shall, within the ambit of their respective functions, tasks and powers, have to coordinate with the National Administration of Tourism in achieving the Strategy�s objectives, thus ensuring the uniformity and compatibility with the implementation of socio-economic development plans of branches and localities.

Article 3.- This Decision takes effect 15 days after its signing.

Article 4.- 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 provinces and centrally-run cities shall have to implement this Decision.

Prime Minister
PHAN VAN KHAI