THE PRIME MINISTER

DECIDES:

Article 1.- The long-term orientation, 2001-2005 five-year plan and fundamental solutions for the socio-economic development of Central Highlands (which embraces the provinces of Dak Lak, Gia Lai, Kon Tum and Lam Dong) aim to bring into full play the region�s potentials, geographical advantages as well as natural conditions, creating a dynamic development with high and sustainable growth rate, protecting the ecological environment and proceeding to make it one of the dynamic economic regions of the whole country; to step by step improve and raise the living standards of people, first of all, in deep-lying, remote areas inhabited by ethnic minority people and areas meeting with exceptional difficulties; to build a strong and clean political system and an equitable, democratic and civilized society, contributing to the maintenance of security and defense. The major development targets are:

1. The gross domestic product (GDP) in 2005 shall double that of 2000, with the average growth rate of about 9%/year, in which the industrial production shall grow by 16%/year, the agricultural and forestrial production by 7%/year, service sector by 12%/year; the average per-capita gross production shall increase by 1.5 fold over 2000.

2. The economic restructure shall be effected along the direction of diversification, specialization, efficiency and high competitiveness, gradually increasing the industrial, construction and service proportions and gradually reducing the agricultural, forestrial and fishery proportions in the GDP, which shall be 22, 25 and 53 respectively by the year 2005. In agriculture, efforts shall be concentrated on the development of farm produce which can substitute the import goods, such as maize, soybean, cotton, tobacco, milch cow,� while continuing to develop the agricultural products of export advantage, such as coffee, rubber, pepper, cashew, paper pulp, timber, vegetables, flowers� along the direction of highly intensive farming, raising the quality and efficiency, thus contributing to raising the export turnover so as to achieve the average per-capita export turnover of USD 200/year by 2005.

3. By 2005, there shall be no more hungry households, no more communes meeting with exceptional difficulties; the rate of poor households shall fall to below 13%; and 100% of people with meritorious services shall have a living standard equal to or higher than the average level of the people in the same commune of residence.

4. Almost all communes will have motorways to the commune centers, have post and cultural spots and basically have clean water from drilled wells, taps or storage tanks for people; and 90% of the communes will be supplied with electricity.

5. All health stations will be provided with adequate conditions (electricity, water, equipment, machinery, medicines, health workers) in order to ensure primary healthcare for people.

6. To complete primary education universalization and illiteracy eradication in communes which have not yet reached the standards therefor. By 2005, 30% of the communes and all cities, provincial capitals and district towns will reach the junior-high education universalization standards; 18-20% of the laborers working in various sectors of the national economy will have gone through training; each district will have at least one boarding school; almost all districts, provincial capitals, district towns and cities will have short-term job training establishments.

7. To better settle the social issues, raise the population�s intellectual level and markedly improve the living conditions of people, particularly ethnic minority people.

8. To well maintain the political security and strong national defense.

Article 2.- Orientations for development of branches, domains

To reach the average annual growth rate of 7% on the basis of restructuring production along the direction of large-scale, concentrated and specialized commodity production suitable to the ecological conditions of each locality, doubling the output per acreage unit of arable land over 2000.

1. On food production: The output will reach about 1.5 million tons, focusing on the development of hybrid maize (particularly maize of high protein), high-yield manioc with a view to promoting the region�s strengths so as to ensure food for people and produce animal feed for husbandry, and industries using manioc raw materials.

a/ Rice: To focus on the application of intensive-farming measures and raise the rate of using hybrid rice strains on the existing paddy acreage, expand wet rice acreage only in areas where conditions permit. Particularly to give priority to the construction of medium- and small-sized irrigation works for on-spot food production by people in deep-lying and remote regions.

b) Subsidiary food crops: Central Highlands has great potentials for strong development of subsidiary food crops such as maize, manioc. It is necessary to formulate regions producing maize, particularly cross-bred maize along the direction of concentrated and specialized production in order to reach the output of 1 million tons/year by 2005. To formulate concentrated manioc regions where conditions permit, ensuring raw materials for manioc-processing industry.

a/ Coffee: Not to expand the acreage, to put the coffee areas which cannot be irrigated under other crops of higher economic efficiency. To convert part of the area being under robust coffee into area cultivated with Arabian coffee where conditions permit. To focus on intensive farming and strain improvement on the remaining areas. The People�s Committees of the Central Highlands provinces shall devise the existing coffee acreage, work out mechanisms and policies and guide in detail the reduction of coffee acreage for cultivation of other crops.

Vietnam Coffee Corporation, the Central Highlands provinces will, by 2005, complete the investment in building (preliminary, refined) processing establishments, post-harvest foundations such as sun-drying yards, heat-drying establishments,� in order to raise the product quality, standards and competitiveness on domestic and world markets.

b/ Rubber plant: Only to continue with new cultivation as planned under the AFD capital-borrowing project within the State rubber companies and small rubber farms borrowing WB capital (agricultural diversification project), prioritizing the growing in border regions. To continue with the investment, intensive farming on the existing acrease. By 2005, to have some 120,000 ha.

Vietnam Rubber Corporation and the Central Highlands provinces must complete the investment in upgrading the processing establishments (for preliminary processing of rubber) and restructure the products to meet the market demands so as to formulate the rubber latex- processing industry by 2010.

c/ Tea plant: To focus on intensive farming on the existing tea acreage. To cultivate tea on new areas only where conditions permit, chiefly in Lam Dong. To gradually replace the existing tea varieties with new ones of yield and quality suitable to domestic and foreign markets. By 2005, the acreage is expected to reach about 23,000 ha. To continue building new processing establishments and upgrading the existing ones, raising the product value, quality and competitiveness on the market.

d/ Cashew: By 2005, the cashew acreage will reach about 31,000 ha, which will later increase to 60,000 ha, based on the betterment of the old cashew gardens and the acreage expansion to appropriate soil areas for intensive farming of high-yield and high-quality cashew in order to reach the output of over 30,000 tons of nut/ year. To invest in the construction of cashew nut- processing establishments compatible with the on-spot raw material regions, in order to create more jobs for people.

e/ Sugarcane: To continue expanding new sugarcane acreage in order to ensure the adequate supply of raw materials for the existing sugar factories. To practice intensive farming, raising the percentage of area under new sugarcane varieties of high yield and high sugar content and expanding the irrigated sugarcane acreages in areas where exist irrigation works.

f/ Cotton: It is necessary to quickly develop cotton as substitute for import raw materials. To link the cotton development to the investment in the construction of irrigation works such as upstream Easuop, downstream Easuop, Ia Lau, Ia Mo, in order to formulate the concentrated specialized and highly intensive farming area. To strive to achieve around 25,000 ha by the year 2005, then gradually to over 50,000 ha; to widely use crossbred cotton varieties of high yield, high cotton fiber quality, and high productivity per acreage unit.

g/ Mulberry: To focus on restoring the mulberry acreage and silkworm raising in Lam Dong. After 2005, to basically ensure the adequate supply of raw materials for spinning and silk weaving plants already built in the region. To maintain the acreage of about 5,000 ha with the application of advanced methods to raise the mulberry productivity and achieve the silkworm output of about 2,000 tons.

h/ Pepper plant: which remains to be plants of high economic value in Central Highlands has strongly developed in recent years, thus formulating highly concentrated specialized commodity production region; it is necessary to focus on intensive farming, raising the quality of existing pepper.

i/ Tobacco: To be grown in areas with favorable conditions, with high-yield and high-quality strains suitable to the market demand and taste, ensuring the adequate supply of raw materials for cigarette factories while being able to export cigarette raw materials.

a/ Regarding vegetables and flowers: To be grown mainly in Lam Dong province, to formulate the concentrated specialized farming regions along the direction of industrial production with modern technologies to produce high-class flowers and vegetables reaching the food safety standards for export (particularly fresh flowers for export) and domestic consumption. By 2005, to reach about 30,000 ha, including some 500-600 ha for flower growing.

b/ Regarding fruit trees: To develop trees yielding fruits with outlets and suitable to climatic and soil conditions of the region.

c/ Food plants: To bring into full play Central Highlands� advantages for strong development of soybean and assorted beans and peas. To formulate the concentrated specialized farming zones of commodity production, associated with on-spot processing establishments. By 2005, to have some 100,000 ha.

d/ Pharmaceutical plants: To continue expanding the acreage in Kon Tum, Da Lat and areas where conditions permit. To protect the precious pharmaceutical zones in Kon Tum.

4. Husbandry and aquaculture: Central Highlands is endowed with more potentials and strengths than other regions of the whole country to develop cattle rearing along the direction of commodity production with high quality, particularly beef cattle and milch cow. To deploy projects on development of high-quality beef cattle rearing in Dak Lak, ensuring the supply of high-quality meat for urban centers and industrial zones. To step by step develop the milch cow rearing in provinces together with the investment in milk-processing establishments. By 2005, to reach a herd of 700,000 bovines, including 5,000 milch cows. To develop husbandry in Central Highlands mainly along the direction of household- and farm-based rearing; while State enterprises and cooperatives shall provide services regarding breeds, veterinary, agricultural promotion, product sale and husbandry product processing. To develop fresh-water aquaculture, chiefly in reservoirs, in order to have more products to be supplied for the local market.

5. Forestry: To strongly develop forestry in Central Highlands is the immediate and long-term task to increase the forest coverage to 65% with a view to protecting the ecological environment, water sources and making forestry a spearhead economic branch, formulating the major raw materials zone for paper industry, the production of artificial board, the production of wood furniture for export and domestic use, contributing to the income increase and job creation.

a/ To continue well performing the tasks of forest protection, zoning of existing forests for regeneration, including natural forests, protective forests, national gardens, nature preservation zones, to apply strict measures to protect natural forests.

The industrial development in Central Highlands aims mainly at the industrialization of agriculture, forestry, processing of agricultural and forestrial products, hydro-electric power industry and mining industry.

1. The processing industry: To focus on the completion of investment in the construction of new farm produce processing establishments and the upgrading of the existing ones according to planning so as after 2005 to basically complete the investment in the construction of agricultural, forestrial product-processing establishments and post-harvest technologies, first of all tea, coffee and fruit-processing technologies, and intensive-processing industries which use agricultural and/or forestrial products, including paper industry, wood production, rubber, textile industries,� In the immediate future, to:

Complete the construction of Kon Tum paper pulp factory with the capacity of 130,000 tons/year, Lam Dong paper pulp factory with the capacity of 150,000 tons/year and a number of paper mills in other provinces.

2. Hydro-electric power industry: The Central Highlands has great potentials for developing hydro-electric power industry which may achieve the capacity of 2,383 MW, the electricity output of 12.7 billion kWh/year, and mini-hydro-electric power stations with the output of about 1.5 billion kWh/year.

To complete the hydro-electric power projects: Ham Thuan Dami for power generation in early 2002, Ialy hydro-electric power station with the remaining turbogenerator being put into operation at the end of 2001.

To complete the elaboration of feasible investment projects for hydro-electric power stations within Dong Nai river system (upstream being under Lam Dong province), Se San river system in Gia Lai and Kon Tum provinces in line with the general scheme on electricity development in the 2001-2010 period and to the year 2020. To reform the power grids for 4 cities and provincial capitals, to build the second 500 kV transmission line linking Pleiku, Buon Ma Thuat - Di Linh and Phu Lam; to build the 110 kV power transmission line to Ma Drac and Dac Min districts (Dak Lak province).

To continue studying the investment in hydro-electric power-cum-irrigation projects; prioritize the investment in small-sized hydro-electric power stations in areas where conditions permit. To complete the construction of power transmission line to 142 communes where electricity is yet available even at the communal centers, ensuring that by 2005 over 70% of the population will be supplied with electricity.

3. Mining and chemical industries: On the basis of taking into account the economic efficiency and possible capital sources, to construct the bauxite mining and aluminium-refining factories in Lam Dong and Dak Lak. To expand the scales of projects on exploitation of tin, gold, precious stones and assorted building materials in the locality. To build a NPK fertilizer plant in Dak Lak.

To reorganize the production of the mechanical engineering industry, to make intensive investment by renewing equipment in the existing mechanical engineering establishments. First of all, to increase the mechanical engineering industry�s capacity to repair and manufacture small mechanical engineering products in service of on-spot agricultural and forestrial production as well as farm produce processing. To encourage the development of handicraft and cottage industry in urban and rural areas, particularly the centers of commune clusters where conditions permit.

5. To build industrial parks: To complete all procedures for the construction of Tra Da industrial park, prepare conditions for the construction of the industrial parks of Tam Thang, CuJut (Dak Lak), Chupah (Gia Lai), Hoa Binh (Kon Tum), Bao Loc (Lam Dong), etc., of appropriate sizes, when there appears demand therefor.

To develop commerce, tourism and service sector, creating the driving force for stepping up the economic development throughout the whole region in order to bring into full play its advantages and achieve the set socio-economic targets with the growth rate of 12%/year.

1. To develop the diversified trade network suitable to the Central Highlands terrain, and encourage all economic sectors to join in goods circulation in order to create motive force for production to develop. To build trade centers in provincial cities and some key districts. To well organize the trade network from the provincial, district to commune level for smooth goods circulation as provided for in the Government�s Decree No. 20/1998/ND-CP of March 31, 1998 on trade deployment in mountainous areas, islands and regions inhabited by ethnic minority people. By 2005, to complete the construction of markets and shops in centers of the commune clusters.

To invest in the construction of border gates, border markets and border-gate economic zones in order to step up trading activities and goods exchanges with Laos and Cambodia. To complete investing in the construction of a number of border-gate trade centers in the region.

2. To concentrate intensive investment in the existing tourist centers, to make selective new investment in areas where conditions permit in diversified forms of tourism, such as ecological tourism, cultural tourism, historic tourism� To formulate intra-regional and inter-regional tourist routes and diversify tourist products suitable to Central Highlands� particularities, in association with tourism in Central Vietnam coastal provinces and eastern South Vietnam provinces.

1. Regarding education and training: To raise the quality of comprehensive general education, step by step approaching the standard level of other countries. To consolidate the fruits of primary education universalization, increasing the rate of school-goers within the school-age bracket. To strive to achieve the standards of unversalization of junior-high education for the entire region in 2010. To invest in building enough solid or semi-solid classrooms for all educational levels; about 50% of schools will be equipped with teaching aids, labs, libraries, play grounds and sport areas of minimum standards; 80-90% of the schools will be furnished with standard equipment and facilities by 2010. To complete the construction of boarding schools for ethnic minority pupils of all districts, improve the material foundations of boarding high schools for ethnic minority pupils in all provinces. To develop semi-boarding schools and schools for disabled pupils in all provinces. To consolidate and develop creches and kindergartens. To concentrate investment to raise the training capacity and scale of Da Lat university and Central Highlands university. To open pre-entrance courses at Central Highlands university for ethnic minority pupils. To upgrade Dak Lak culture and art intermediate school into Dak Lak Culture and Art College by 2005 and to plan the establishment of Gia Lai economic and technical College and Kon Tum Economic and Technical College in the 2006-2010 period. To invest in upgrading the job-training schools for ethnic minority youths in Dak Lak, the technical training school in Da Lat, Lam Dong; to upgrade and expand 4 existing vocational-training schools, invest in building a new Kon Tum vocational-training school and 4 key district job-teaching centers (one center for each province). All districts and cities shall have their own regular education centers.

2. On public health: To upgrade and build medical establishments, first of all to build regional hospitals (inter-district) of Daknong, Ajunpa, Ngoc Hoi, An Khe, Krongpa,�, consolidate district health centers; to maintain and develop regional polyclinics with efficiency. To build and develop the regional health center with Buon Me Thuot - Dak Lak hospital, the Central Highlands Hygiene and Epidemics Institute and the medical department of the Central Highlands university as the core. To set up and build the traditional medicine hospital in Kon Tum province. All communes must have solid health stations adequately staffed with professional cadres in order to well ensure the primary healthcare for people. To work out appropriate policies to step up the posting of doctors to communes. To strive to achieve by 2005 the target of 50% of the communes to have medical doctors; 100% of the commune health stations to have midwives or obstetric-pediatric assistant doctors, each medical station to be staffed with 3-5 medical workers; to have 4-5 medical doctors per ten thousand people throughout the region; 100% hamlets to have professionally trained medical workers. To strive to eliminate plague throughout the region by 2010. To upgrade 4 social support centers.

3. Culture and social affairs: To attach importance to investment in cultural, public-addressing and television projects as well as sport establishments, cultural houses, communal houses in hamlets in service of rituals promoting the cultural traditions and national identity. To organize cultural exchange among areas and within the region, among ethnic groups with traditional festivals. To preserve and develop material culture and non-material culture of ethnic minority people of Central Highlands, to enhance the grassroots cultural institutions in hamlets through the realization of the regulation on democracy. To strive to achieve, by 2005, 80% of the families to be recognized as the cultured family, 50% of the hamlets, villages, wards to have reached the national cultural standards, step by step having commune/ward cultural houses; each person will have 4 books a year on average. All communes will have post and cultural spots.

To strive to achieve, by 2005, 100% of the communes to be covered with television. To invest in one more centrally-run FM radio station with 5 kW capacity in Dak Lak; each province will be furnished with an equipment set to produce ethnic minority language programs and one FM transmitter of 2-5 kW, clusters of FM public-addressing stations; to increase the transmission in ethnic minority languages. To build a television station for each commune and each commune cluster. To modernize equipment, increase the time volume for broadcasting programs in ethnic minority languages, each district will be equipped with a television receiver-relay transmitter of 100-150 W, to build satellite antennas in concave regions and the transmission tower on Ham Rong mountain (Gia Lai), one VTV1 transmitter of 2 kW in Kon Tum provincial capital.

To implement with efficiency the national target program on crime and social evils prevention and combat.

Hunger elimination and poverty alleviation constitute an urgent program of Central Highlands. The People�s Committees of the Central Highlands provinces must work out plans for implementation organization and concrete solutions regarding land, breeds, capital, agricultural and forestrial promotion for hungry and poor households; to help poor households, with their own efforts, get out of poverty in a sustainable manner.

To efficiently implement the national program on employment in order, by 2005, to create jobs for 400,000-420,000 laborers (an average of 80,000-85,000 laborers a year, providing loans as support for creation of jobs for 16,000 laborers); to strive to reduce the urban unemployment rate to 4% and to raise the use rate of agricultural working time to 82%, creating an upturn in the labor structure, quality and productivity.

To complete the sedentarization of local ethnic minority people, first of all those in deep-lying and remote areas, former revolutionary bases, border regions. To sedentarize free migrants who are being confronted with difficulties and stabilize the lives of people who have come to build economic zones in Central Highlands over recent years. To limit then put an end to free migration.

To plan and prepare to build the projects on resettlement along the direction of building complete economic and social infrastructure (traffic, irrigation, electricity, water supply, schools, health stations,�), production land as well as residential land, aiming to receive more locals and part of new settlers from other regions, including resettlement people under a number of hydro-electric power projects.

Article 3.- Objectives of investment in socio-economic infrastructure in the 2001-2005 period are as follows:

1. To concentrate on development of infrastructure in service of development of production, improvement of people�s living conditions and lives, particularly traffic (including district roads), irrigation, schools, hospitals (especially regional hospitals), projects in direct service of improving the living conditions of ethnic minority people in deep-lying and remote areas, regions still facing many difficulties.

- Regarding traffic: To complete Ho Chi Minh road as scheduled; to upgrade roads leading to Laos, Cambodia, highways 14, 19, 20, 24, 25, 27 and 28 and roads from west to east. To invest in upgrading the whole length of highway 14C for early opening to traffic, to build highway 40 of mountain grade 3 standards, linking with highway 18B of Laos. To upgrade 32 provincial roads with the total length of 3,030 km. To strive to have 80% of the provincial roads asphalted according to mountain grade 5 standards, to solidify 100% of the bridges and sluices on all the provincial roads. To complete the construction of roads leading into 12 communes which have no motorways leading to commune centers. To study and invest in proper renovation of landing ways, parking yards and terminals of 4 existing airports in the region. To prepare and implement the project on construction of railway systems from the national railways into Dak Nong (Dak Lak) and Bao Loc (Lam Dong).

- Regarding irrigation projects: To prioritize works irrigating hills cultivated with industrial trees and other trees of high economic efficiency. To continue investing synchronously in small projects, projects leading to canals, solidifying canals, projects on water reservoirs to store enough water for irrigation in the dry-season. To complete the irrigation projects of Upstream Easuop, IaLau and IaMo in order to create more land for production and to prepare for reception of new settlers from other localities.

2. To attach importance to investment in projects in service of culture, public-addressing, television and sport establishments, cultural houses, communal houses in service of rituals to promote the cultural traditions and ethnic traits.

3. To prioritize investment in educational, training, job-teaching establishments, the research, application and transfer of scientific, technical and technological advances to production and daily life of people, first of all the domains of creating plant varieties, animal breeds, technologies for agricultural and forest product preservation, processing, mineral exploitation and processing.

4. To develop the urban networks along the direction of investing in the construction of regional cities such as Buon Me Thuot, provincial centers such as Pleiku, Bao Loc, Da Lat, Kon Tum. To formulate new urban centers on the basis of developing particular economic zones such as border-gate economic zones, tourist sites, ore-mining zones. To develop the network of district towns in district centers and in commodity-manufacturing areas. To construct townships functioning as economic, cultural and service centers at rural population clusters and spots. To work out the program for construction of rural population quarters.

To upgrade water supply and drainage systems in urban areas, basically meeting the rural population�s demand for clean water.

5. To modernize the post and telecommunication networks along the direction of synchronization and digitalization to meet the domestic and international communication requirements.

Article 4.- On a number of policies and solutions

a/ To immediately find solutions for ethnic minority households having no or inadequate land for production, along the direction of:

Reclaiming virgin land for acreage expansion in areas where conditions permit;

Readjusting land of State agricultural and forestrial farms;

Undertaking land contracted from State agricultural and forestrial farms.

The People�s Committees of the Central Highlands provinces must determine the number of ethnic minority households having no or inadequate land and work out measures to settle the situation in 2002.

The localities must well settle the question of land, guide production, provide loan capital, consume agricultural products in order to help people stabilize their sedentary life, quit nomadic forest slash and burn farming.

b/ To basically finanlize the planning on land use at district and commune levels, granting certificates of the right to use agricultural, forestrial and residential land so that people feel at ease to carry out their production.

c/ To strictly forbid illegal trading and transfer of land, particularly the land of ethnic minority people. To definitely settle burning issues regarding land complaints and disputes among people, between people and State enterprises or organizations.

a/ Regarding investment: The State budget capital (including ODA capital) in support of investment primarily in the following infrastructures in service of socio-economic development:

- Regarding communications: To give satisfactory capital priority to communications development in service of socio-economic development, security and defense, including national highways, provincial roads, roads in communes under program 135, hamlets and villages of region III other than communes under program 135.

- Regarding irrigation: The medium- and small-sized irrigation projects, source-generating projects, projects on water supply for urban centers, concentrated population quarters and industrial parks. To solidify canals under Decision No. 66/2000/QD-TTg of June 13, 2000 of the Prime Minister.

- Educational, training, medical and cultural infrastructures.

- Forest planting and tending under Decision No. 661/1998/QD-TTg of July 29, 1998 of the Prime Minister.

- The national target program on employment, hunger elimination and poverty alleviation, the national target program on education, training and job-teaching, the program to prevent and combat a number of social and dangerous diseases and HIV/AIDS.

- To invest in scientific and technological development, agricultural and forestrial promotion, scientific research institutions, crossbreeding establishments in service of production (including the importation of breeds).

Each locality works out plans to distribute and incorporate the national target programs in its respective area for management and efficient use of various sources of State budget capital.

b/ The State�s development investment credit capital: To well observe the current provisions of Decree No. 43/1999/ND-CP of June 29, 1999 of the Government on the State�s development investment credit and Decision No. 02/2001/QD-TTg of January 2, 2001 of the Prime Minister on the policies for investment support from the Development Assistance Fund for projects on production or processing of export goods and projects on agricultural production; Decision No. 133/2001/QD-TTg of September 10, 2001 of the Prime Minister promulgating the Regulation on export support credit. It is necessary to provide, with satisfactory priority, capital sources for investment projects in Central Highlands, especially the projects on exploitation of the region�s advantages and potentials in the fields of industry, production and processing of agricultural and forestrial products.

c/ Credit capital: The State Bank of Vietnam shall direct commercial banks to ensure adequate capital to satisfy the borrowing demands in the region; continue improving the capital-borrowing procedures and apply concrete measures by nominating credit officials to directly guide people in carrying out the capital-borrowing procedures so that they can borrow capital from banks; coordinate with the Peasants� Association in expanding forms of setting up borrowing teams in order to help peasants have a better access to credit capital and use the borrowed capital efficiently and repay their debts.

To increase capital sources for the Bank for the Poor, the national target program on employment in Central Highlands and provide capital largely for poor households, particularly poor households of ethnic minority people so that they develop production and get out of poverty.

To encourage enterprises of all economic sectors to implement form of signing contracts with peasants for farm produce consumption and provision of services on capital and supplies for production, first of all production and/or business enterprises, organizations and individuals that rely on the raw materials areas of people to process agricultural and/or forestrial products and build up the mode of uniform production-processing-consumption organization in the process of developing the commodity production under the market machanism.

d/ To encourage forms of mobilizing capital among population, capital from enterprises for investment in raising production capacity, investment in developing medium- and small-sized enterprises, cooperatives, farms and family households.

3. Freight and price subsidy policies: To assign the Committee for Ethnic Minorities and Mountainous Areas the prime responsibility to study, together with the concerned ministries and branches, and propose the renewal of current freight and price subsidies to suit the conditions and practices of ethnic minority people throughout the country.

In the immediate future, in the Central Highlands provinces as from 2001, the ethnic minority poor households in Region III are provided free of charge with 5 kg of iodized salt/person/year; VND 20,000/ person/year as medicine support; hungry and poor households (according to the criteria set by the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs), village patriarchs and hamlet chiefs who meet with difficulties and families with meritorious services to the country, with 4 meters of ordinary fabrics/person/year. Regarding the lighting, for the localities where electricity is yet available, they shall be supplied free of charge with kerosene at the level of 5 liters/household/year, and for localities where electricity is available, the electricity price subsidy shall be provided corresponding to the level of 5 liters of kerosene/year for ethnic minority households and families entitled to social policies.

4. Housing support policy: The State adopts the policy of providing appropriate support for ethnic minority people who really meet difficulties regarding dwelling houses. The Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs shall assume the prime responsibility and coordinate with the concerned ministries and branches in mapping out specific support policy and submit it to the Prime Minister in the fourth quarter of 2001. The provincial People�s Committees must work out plans to mobilize enterprises and people with conditions to provide assistance and draw up plans to exploit to the utmost forest tree timber in the basin of the hydro-electric power and irrigation reservoirs in order to help people build their dwelling houses so that after 2003, the housing question shall be basically solved for ethnic minority households meeting with difficulties and households entitled to social policies.

5. The policies on education and training: As from 2002 the following educational policies shall be implemented for ethnic minority children in Central Highlands:

a/ Exemption of school-building contributions, school fees, support in textbooks and writing papers.

b/ Compiling teaching materials and textbooks in ethnic minority languages, implementing the teaching and learning of ethnic minority languages at different educational levels, suitable to the particularities of the region. To teach ethnic minority languages for teachers, medical workers, State officials and employees, mass-organization officials and commune administration cadres, who are not ethnic minority people but work in areas inhabited by ethnic minority people.

c/ The State shall cover all expenses for meals, accommodation and study of ethnic minority pupils in their boarding schools. For children who are entitled to study at boarding schools but stay outside the school dormitories and study at public or semi-public schools, they shall be provided with scholarship being equal to 50% of the scholarship enjoyed by the boarding pupils.

d/ Adopting the policy of recruiting and sending ethnic minority children to intermediate vocational schools, colleges and universities for training, giving priority to subjects who volunteer to return to their native places to work after their study. The administration at all levels must work out plans to train, employ and arrange qualified local people of ethnic minorities to work at State agencies, mass organizations, political and/or social organizations in their respective localities. To step by step achieve the norm that the vast majority of medical and educational workers in rural areas inhabited by ethnic minority people are people of ethnic minorities.

e/ Adopting the policy of providing dwelling houses for teachers who are sent to work in communes meeting with exceptional difficulties in the region.

f/ Adopting the policy to attract science workers and technicians to Central Highlands for working.

a/ The State shall provide budget for implementation of the regime of full exemption of medical examination and treatment charges at health stations, medical centers and hospitals for ethnic minority people.

b/ For hungry and poor households and people in general in communes of region III, the current medical insurance cards shall not be used, but the free-of-charge medical examination and treatment shall apply; the health establishments shall settle their actual expenses from the medical examination and treatment funds for the poor, set up by the provinces and managed by the provincial Health Services.

c/ Opening regular courses for training of recruited and nominated people of ethnic minority people in region II and region III to be medical doctors. To work out appropriate allowance regime and adopt the policy of providing dwelling houses for medical doctors working in particularly difficult communes in the region.

a/ To increase funding for the implementation of cultural program on sending books and newspapers to hamlets, villages and communes, as well the preservation and promotion of the cultural traits of ethnic groups, including material culture and non-material culture.

b/ To increase the time volume of radio and television broadcasts in the languages of ethnic minority groups in the region, and publish pictorial newspapers in ethnic minority languages.

c/ To provide funding support so as to consolidate art troupes, mobile information teams, mobile film protection teams in service of ethnic minority people, particularly in deep-lying, remote and border regions.

To encourage all organizations and individuals of all economic sectors to invest in socio-economic development in the Central Highlands provinces. The People�s Committees of the Central Highlands provinces shall consult with the provincial Party Committees through the provincial People�s Councils before adopting specific policies on land, tax preferences, training support,� with convenient investment procedures in order to attract investors in their respective localities and other parts of the country.

a/ For State enterprises:

- To well carry out the restructuring, renovation and development of State enterprises. For State-run agricultural and forestrial farms in the locality, they must revise the land fund, first of all transferring land which has been left unused or used inefficiently to the locality for assignment to peasants for long-term and stable use. The remaining land areas must be assigned, contracted according to Decree No.01/ND-CP of January 4, 1995 and Decree No.187/1999/ND-CP of September 16, 1999 of the Government. The State-run agricultural and forestrial farms shall well perform the tasks of providing services on strains and breeds, supplies, techniques, farm produce processing and consumption. Enterprises shall have to sign contracts for consumption of commodity farm produce with peasant households or cooperatives in order to protect the producers� interests.

In cases where the land formerly belonging to people, especially ethnic minority people, and was handed over to the State-run agricultural or forestrial farms for management and use when such people joined such farms, and a section of laborers being workers, in the course of restructuring production, have to leave their jobs according to the prescribed regimes or no longer work in the agricultural or forestrial farms, thus having no land for production, the State-run agricultural or forestrial farms must assign such laborers with appropriate land areas or contract land to them for production and maintenance of their livelihood.

- To support State enterprises with working capital as provided for in Decree No. 20/1998/ND-CP of March 31, 1998 of the Government and other current regulations.

- To continue developing form of State enterprises with the combination of economic tasks with national security and defense, especially to continue building and promoting the efficiency of, economic-defense zones in key regions and along the borders in order to attract people (including locals and immigrants from other localities) in production along the direction of receiving production land associated with population clusters, villages and hamlets in line with the production orientations and security as well as defense tasks. To prioritize the provision of land and technical guidance to ethnic minority people in the locality.

b/ For cooperatives: To transform cooperatives and production groups according to the Cooperative Law, and at the same time step by step formulate economic cooperation organizations and cooperatives with voluntary participation by people in order to help one another in the services on techniques, breeds, supplies, consumption and processing of agricultural products, first of all by a number of people engaged in concentrated specialized commodity production.

c/ The household economy, farm economy, people-founded businesses are encouraged and given conditions to thrive with a view to tapping their potentials in capital, techniques and labor.

9. The policies towards officials, building of strong and clean political system, especially at the grassroots.

- The policy of providing additional support beside salaries and other preferential treatments for reinforced officials at the grassroots (districts, communes, hamlets, villages), for teachers, medical workers and officials who work in areas inhabited by ethnic minority people.

- The policy of prioritizing the fostering and training to raise the managerial and leading skills, the teaching of ethnic minority languages for grassroots officials, particularly those working in the State sector.

- Raising the allowance levels for village and hamlet chiefs and working out regimes for village patriarchs.

The Government�s Commission for Organization and Personnel shall assume the prime responsibility and coordinate with the concerned ministries and branches in studying the specific support levels and submit them to the Prime Minister in the fourth quarter of 2001.

Article 5.- Implementation organization

1. The Central Highlands provinces must determine the contents of this Decision as the primary tasks of the Party Committees and administrations in their respective localities and concretize them into programs and plans of each specialized branch, each administration level, each mass organization in order to organize the implementation thereof.

First of all, to select and determine some target and key programs with concrete contents and their urgency in order to direct the implementation thereof in the fourth quarter of 2001 and in 2002, and work out concrete plans for realization of the contents of this Decision in the subsequent years and till 2010.

The presidents of the provincial People�s Committees shall have to closely coordinate with ministries, branches and localities in the region in readjusting, elaborating the plannings and plans of the provinces in line with the overall planning of the region and organize the execution of elaborated programs and projects.

2. The ministries and branches, depending on their respective functions, tasks and powers, shall, together with the Central Highlands provinces, organize the direction of the implementation of specific programs and projects under their respective State management responsibility according to the objectives and contents of this Decision.

Based on the approved programs and projects, to work out concrete annual plans, starting the investment right from 2001 and organize the direction, supervision of their implementation according to objectives of the programs and projects under this Decision.

Each concerned ministry and branch should nominate qualified professional officials and technicians who have good knowledge about Central Highlands to monitor and assist its leadership in coordinating with the Central Highlands Steering Committee as well as the concerned ministries, branches and People�s Committees of the Central Highlands provinces in the implementation of this Decision.

In their quarterly and annual reports on the evaluation of their work results, the ministries and branches must review and assess the working programs in Central Highlands and detect difficulties and obstacles in order to work out remedial measures.

3. The Ministry of Planning and Investment, the Ministry of Finance and the concerned ministries and branches shall, on the basis of the approved programs and projects, map out annual investment capital plans, concretize policies for execution according to the set objectives.

4. To set up the Steering Committee for socio-economic development in Central Highlands, comprising leading officials of the Ministries of Agriculture and Rural Development; Communications and Transport; Industry; Planning and Investment; Finance, the Committee for Ethnic Minorities and Mountainous Areas; and a number of concerned ministries and branches, a number of officials knowledgeable about Central Highlands and leading officials of four Central Highlands provinces, which is led by a Deputy-Prime Minister as its head, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development as its standing deputy-head.

Article 6.- This Decision takes effect 15 days after its signing.

Article 7.- The ministers, the heads of the ministerial-level agencies, the heads of the agencies attached to the Government and the presidents of the Central Highlands provinces shall have to implement this Decision.

Prime Minister
PHAN VAN KHAI