Article 1.- To approve the Scheme on socio-economic development in Lai Chau province till 2010, with the following principal contents:

1. Objectives of development till 2010

Overall objectives:

To accelerate economic growth in Lai Chau, bringing the province out of the status of particular difficulty and narrowing the development gap between the province and other provinces in the region and the whole country.

To generate marked improvements in socio-economic infrastructure. To bring into full play the province's advantages in its border location, minerals, hydropower, land and climate for economic development; to concentrate on hunger eradication and poverty alleviation, and fundamentally complete sedentarization work; to protect and develop forest resources; to preserve and promote ethnic minority cultural identities, improve local people's material and spiritual life.

To associate economic development with defense and security maintenance, political stability and firm safeguard of national boundary sovereignty.

A number of major objectives to be achieved by 2010:

Economically:

By 2010, the economic structure of Lai Chau province will be as follows: Agriculture, forestry, fishery-industry-services 32 - 35 - 33%. By 2010, per capita GDP (by 2006 prices) shall reach VND 7 million (double the 2005 figures and equivalent to 45% of the average national level). Budget revenue in the locality will reach VND 160 billion. Total values of locally made exports will amount to USD 10 million. Total food output will surpass 150,000 tons, increasing per capita food ration to around 400 kg per year. The area under tea shall reach 4,500 hectares of which 500 hectares will be newly planted; the area under cardamom will reach 3,000 hectares, including 1,000 newly planted hectares; and the cattle herd growth rate will reach
6-7%.

- Socially, in the 2006-2010 period, the annual population growth rate will be 2.2% on average; the population size will be 368,000 by 2010. The average annual birth reduction rate will be 1.02%o. To consolidate and maintain the results of primary education universalization and illiteracy eradication, and achieve the standard of primary education universalization among children of eligible age by 2008, complete lower secondary education universalization by 2009, and develop pre-school education. By 2010, 50% of communes will have health stations up to national standard, with five medical doctors per ten thousand inhabitants, and 50% of health stations will have medical doctors. There will be no hungry households and the proportion of poor households shall be reduced to below 30% (by the new poverty line); jobs will be created for 4,000 - 4,500 people every year; the rate of trained laborers will reach 25%; and 1,000 addicts will be detoxicated every year. Annually, there will be 100 villages, hamlets and street quarters registering to be cultural units, of which at least 30% will be recognized to reach district- or provincial standard; 90% of families will be awarded the title of cultured family. To promote and strengthen grassroots Party cells; to raise the operational effectiveness of local administrations at all levels, and build mass organizations strong.

Regarding security and defense: To fundamentally complete the resettlement of people in border areas; to firmly maintain political security and social order and safety in border areas, build the Vietnam - China border into one of peace, friendship, cooperation and mutual development; to prioritize coordinated investment in essential infrastructural facilities to serve production and daily life under projects on relocation of people to border areas, i.e. population points near border posts.

- Regarding infrastructure: By 2007, to strive for the target that 100% of (existing) communes will have motorways to their centers; by 2010, over 70% of rural roads will be usable in all seasons in a year. By 2010, 100% communes and 80% of households will have electricity; 100% of communes will have Internet access at their centers; 100% of townships will be covered with mobile phone service; over 80% of urban population and 30% of rural population will have clean water; over 90% of households will be covered with radio programs and over 80% of households will be covered with TV programs in ethnic languages.

- Environmentally, forest coverage shall reach over 45% by 2010.

- Relocation and resettlement: To relocate households now living in to be-submerged areas of Son La hydropower project and other hydropower projects; to ensure a better life for relocated households.

2. Orientations for development of branches and domains

a/ Agriculture, forestry, fishery and rural development: To strongly step up economic restructuring in agriculture, select those plants and animals in which the province has strengths for concentrated development and switch to commodity production associated with processing and domestic and export markets.

- Agriculture: To ensure food security in the locality; to reach an average ration of 400 kg of food/person/year. To step up intensive farming, increase crops and widely apply variety technologies and advanced cultivation techniques to production in order to increase rice and maize yields. To establish concentrated high-yield food production areas. To grow tea through intensive cultivation on a total area of 4,500 ha by 2010 so as to increase its yield and improve its quality. To develop cardamom planting, encourage the planting of short-term industrial trees suitable to the province's conditions, such as cotton, groundnut and soybean; to supply high-quality animal breeds for animal husbandry and properly perform veterinary work; mobilize inhabitants to raise animals in farms instead of letting them graze freely. To quickly increase the numbers of cows and buffaloes to 20,700 and 111,500 respectively by 2010. Annually, around 8,000-10,000 tons of cow and buffalo meat in live weight will be supplied to the market. Appropriate mechanisms and solutions should be adopted to increase consumption of products turned out by farmers.

- Aquaculture: To develop aquaculture towards concentrated and large-scale aquaculture after Son La, Lai Chau, Huoi Quang, Ban Chat and other hydropower reservoirs are put to use.

- Forestry: To properly protect and develop forests, strive to increase forest coverage from 37.5% in 2005 to 45% by 2010 in order to bring into play the function of headwater protective forests and regulate water sources for hydropower projects. To develop concentrated forests, especially big timber trees and trees for use as industrial materials and forest products of high yield and economic value in service of the processing of products for domestic consumption and export, such as paper, plywood and home wood furniture. During 2006-2010, to strive to plant new 10,000 hectares of forests and regenerate another 100,000 ha. To conserve primitive forests and form a nature conservation park on the southeastern side of Hoang Lien Son mountain range and develop eco-tourism. To adopt policies on adequate investment in particularly disadvantaged mountainous and border communes facing shortage of agricultural production land so that their inhabitants can switch to live on planting, regeneration and protection of protective forests. To consider the development of rubber trees in border communes of Phong Tho, Sin Ho and Muong Te districts.

- Rural construction: To redistribute population, implement farming and habitation sedentarization to stabilize the life of ethnic minority people and improve their living conditions. To build irrigation facilities, resettlement points and reclaim 3,000 hectares of wet rice fields in the 2006-2010 period. To build rural infrastructure facilities including electricity, roads, water for daily life and irrigation, schools and health stations, and establish more trade villages and agricultural and forest farms.

b/ Industries - construction: To develop industries in which the province has strengths such as hydropower, agricultural and forest product processing, production of construction materials, mining, traditional cottage industries and handicrafts as well as industrial establishments to serve hydropower projects' resettlement programs. From now to 2010, to strive to set up Phong Tho industrial park (for cement production, mineral processing and production of construction materials) and some industrial clusters in Lai Chau town, Nam Hang (Muong Te), Pu Sam Cap (Sin Ho) and Than Uyen township.

- Hydropower: Along with the construction of Lai Chau, Ban Chat and Huoi Quang hydropower plants, to survey, plan and invest in the construction of small- and medium-sized hydropower projects.

- Minerals: To explore and extract gold from mines in Pu Sam Cap. To survey and explore rare earth, copper, lead and zinc mines; to organize exploitation of small mines and encourage enterprises to invest in extracting and processing minerals in the locality.

- Production of construction materials: To expand the capacity of exploitation of black stones in Nam Ban (Sin Ho), study, explore, exploit and process color and white stones for construction and export. To build tunnel brick factories and cement plants of appropriate capacity in Muong So T-junction to meet the needs of construction of civil and irrigation works in the province.

- Agricultural and forest product processing: To raise production and business efficiency of Lai Chau paper plant together with diversifying its products. To increase the capacity and product quality of tea plants in Tam Duong and Than Thuoc. To step by step set up farm produce processing establishments in concentrated production areas such as those engaged in animal feed processing and slaughtering.

- Other industries: To develop the manufacture of hand-held tools and encourage the construction of mechanical workshops by the private sector.

c/ Trading-services: To quickly develop services so that they will attain a bigger share in the province's GDP.

To develop synchronous infrastructure facilities for trading activities and trade centers in towns, townships and centers of commune clusters. To expand trading services to tap the strengths of border-gate areas, such as temporary import for re-export, transportation and forwarding of transit goods, goods preservation and storage, bonded warehouses, and border-gate markets. In the immediate future, to prioritize the construction of some marketplaces in border areas. To ensure supply of essential goods for highlanders and stabilize market prices.

To develop tourist resorts, eco-tourism and ethnic cultural tourism, turning tourism into an important industry, serving as a driving force for socio-economic development in the province, implementation of the hunger elimination and poverty alleviation program and firm maintenance of security, defense, and social order and safety.

To develop services of goods and passenger transport along inter-provincial and intra-provincial routes and provide international transportation services when conditions permit and waterway transportation services when hydropower reservoirs are built.

d/ Communication, irrigation, supply of daily life water and electricity:

- To construct bypasses for and upgrade national highways 4D, 12 and 32 (phase 2). To construct flood avoidance roads for national highway 12, national highway 32, provincial road 127, national highway 279, etc., to ensure smooth communication within the province and region when building hydropower projects; to construct roads linking provincial roads and national highways to resettlement zones for hydropower projects. To soon invest in constructing a border belt road of Pa Tan - Hua Bum - Muong Te - Pac Ma linked to Pac Ma - A Pa Chai - Chung Chai - Muong Nhe road in Dien Bien province and Pa Tan - Phong Tho - Bat Xat road in Lao Cai province. To construct a number of interconnected roads. To renovate and upgrade provincial roads. To invest in constructing roads leading to the centers of communes where motorways do not yet exist. To renovate and upgrade rural roads to ensure that 70% of them will be usable in all seasons in a year.

- To survey and build some waterway ports along Da river with a view to developing waterway navigation when big hydropower projects are constructed in the locality.

- Irrigation: In the 2006-2010 period, to build new irrigation works and upgrading existing ones to enable stable supply of water for 8,805 hectares of two-crop rice fields. To prioritize investment in 4 reservoirs (Dong Pao, Pa Khoa, Hoang Ho and Nam Ma Dao); 8 clusters of irrigation works in Muong Kim, Muong Than, Than Thuoc (Than Uyen), Binh Lu (Tam Duong), Phong Tho, Dao San, Sin Ho and Muong Mo - Nam Hang.

- To invest in building clean water supply systems in Lai Chau town and Tam Duong, Phong Tho, Sin Ho, Muong Te and Than Thuoc townships. To develop daily-life water systems, both concentrated and small ones, or rural areas.

- To increase investment in hydropower projects and power grids in accordance with the approved electricity planning. To strive to achieve by 2010 the targets that 100% of communes in the province will be connected to the national power grid and 80% of households will have electricity; to proactively deploy the construction of small- and medium-sized hydropower stations to supply electricity as well as water for local inhabitants' daily-life and production activities.

e/ Urban system:

To concentrate investment in building road and water supply and drainage systems, ground renovation, urban lighting, etc., to invest in building Lai Chau town of around 1,000 ha; Phong Tho and Tam Duong townships of around 60 ha each; Ma Lu Thang border gate of around 45 ha, and other urban centers.

f/ Development of social infrastructural works:

- To build provincial senior secondary schools and boarding schools for ethnic minority pupils in Tam Duong and Phong Tho districts; to develop people-funded semi-boarding schools in centers of commune clusters and commune centers to fully meet local needs. To procure more teaching and learning aids under the general education renewal program. To invest in building houses for education administrators and teachers, especially those working at schools in remote- deep-lying and border areas. To build a community college, a provincial politics school, provincial vocational training centers and a number of vocational training centers of appropriate size in districts and commune clusters.

+ Health: To invest in building a provincial general hospital with 300 patient beds; complete procedures for building Phong Tho and Tam Duong general hospitals, upgrade and repair Sin Ho and Muong Te district general hospital. To build a social diseases prevention and combat center and Lai Chau town health center. To step up the upgrading of commune health stations up to standard.

+ Culture: To invest in building libraries, cultural centers and museums in the province and different districts. To restore and embellish historical relics, conserve cultural heritages located in the Lai Chau hydropower reservoir area. To build a system of village cultural institutions suitable to the cultural tradition of each ethnic group.

+ Working offices: To expeditiously perfect the infrastructure of working offices of appropriate size for Party agencies, mass organizations and administrations at all levels to meet requirements, contributing to enhancing management capability.

g/ Resettlement for hydropower projects

The People's Committee of Lai Chau province shall assume the prime responsibility for, and coordinate with investors in, completing the population relocation under Son La, Ban Chat and Huoi Quang hydropower projects according to plan and schedule. At the same time, to prepare conditions for relocation and resettlement work under Lai Chau hydropower project according to schedule. To carry out the redistribution of population, production restructuring and infrastructure development in combination with implementing policies which support disadvantaged ethnic minority people, ensuring better living conditions for relocated inhabitants.

h/ Culture and social affairs:

+ Education and training: To strive to complete lower secondary education universalization by 2009. Annually, the number of children going to school will increase by 4.47%. To well organize training for grassroots cadres, especially ethnic minority cadres and female cadres, and increase the proportion of trained laborers. To develop vocational training for laborers, rural laborers and ethnic minority adolescents, especially to be-relocated laborers who live in areas with changed land use purposes under hydropower projects and in areas where economic restructuring is taking place, thereby contributing to labor restructuring.

+ Health and people's health care: To consolidate the medical and community healthcare network. To put such epidemics as malaria, tuberculosis, etc., under control and effectively prevent HIV/AIDS. To reduce the malnutrition rate among under-five children to 25% by 2010. To reduce the rate of underweighed newborns to below 8%, and ensure that over 96% children will be immunized with six vaccines. To expand health insurance and healthcare support forms for ethnic minority people in deep-lying and remote communes.

+ Population development: To implement family planning and reproductive health programs with a view to improving population quality. To encourage people from elsewhere to settle in the province according to planning and plan. The population will be around 368,000 by 2010 (the average annual natural growth rate will be around 1.8% and the mechanical growth rate 0.4%).

+ Culture and information: To raise the level of cultural and information enjoyment, conserve and promote cultural values of ethnic minority groups. To ensure land funds for the construction of cultural and information establishments and the preservation of cultural heritages. All communes will have telephone lines and postal-cultural points which will supply newspapers, books and information to inhabitants. To build the provincial radio and television station in order to expand radio and television coverage, develop TVRO reception and transmission stations in villages which have electricity. To widely develop sports and physical training activities among the population, striving to win medals in regional and national sport tournaments held for ethnic minority groups. To build sport training and competition facilities in provincial towns; all district townships, communes and wards shall have locations and land funds for sport and physical training activities.

+ Hunger eradication and poverty elimination and job creation will be important and permanent tasks of the socio-economic development process in the entire period. To concentrate resources on hunger eradication and poverty alleviation for particularly disadvantaged communes in mountainous, border and ethnic minority areas (inhabited by Mang, La Hu, Kho Mu, etc.,) so that there will be no hungry households and less than 30% of poor households (by the new poverty line) by 2010. Annually, to create jobs for 4,000 - 5,000 people. To accelerate labor restructuring in order to create jobs, raise productivity, increase the proportion of rural working time to 78-80% and reduce the urban unemployment rate to below 3%.

+ To properly resolves the shortage of residential land and production land and improve rural infrastructure in mountainous areas for sedentarization purposes and abolish nomadic styles of farming and livelihood, and stop unchecked migration in some ethnic minority groups.

i/ Religion and prevention and combat of social evils:

+ To promote propaganda, mobilization and education of religious inhabitants to properly implement Party and State policies on religion; resolutely combat illegal preaching.

+ To intensify propaganda and mobilization of ethnic minority people to preserve and promote their ethnic cultural identities. To take measures to prevent all plots and actions of abusing freedom of belief to induce and provoke national separation and disunity.

+ To continue thoroughly eliminating the cultivation of opium poppy, control and strictly handle acts of storing, trading and abuse of narcotics. To properly organize drug detoxification for drug users and create jobs for them following detoxification, preventing relapse into addiction.

+ To intensify inspection and training to keep traffic order and safety, stringently handle traffic violations.

j/ Spatial and territorial economic development: On the basis of natural and socio-economic conditions of Lai Chau province, to develop the following three economic zones in the province:

- The dynamic economic zone along national highways 32 and 4D (covering Lai Chau town and Phong Tho, Tam Duong and Than Uyen districts): This is an area which has potential for comprehensive development in agriculture, forestry, mining industry, trade and services. This zone will be developed along the orientations of developing border-gate trade and services, commodity agricultural and forest production, agricultural and forest products-processing industry with tea, rice, cardamom, buffalo and cow meat, dairy as its key products; mineral exploitation and processing; and manufacture of construction materials.

- The Da river forest-agricultural ecological zone (covering Muong Te district and low-land communes of Sin Ho district): This is an extremely important protective area of Da river, situated along this river. The major development orientations of this zone shall be to zone off, tend and protect existing forests, strongly develop the planting of protective forests in combination with developing the rearing of buffaloes and cows; to grow pharmaceutical material trees; to make use of national highway 12 and provincial road 127 to develop transport services, goods circulation, eco-tourism and forest products processing. To prepare plans on the development of the rearing, catching and processing of aquatic resources, efficiently exploiting water surface areas of Son La and Lai Chau hydropower reservoirs.

- The economic, eco-tourism, ethnic cultural and high-quality agricultural zone, covering 9 mountainous communes of Sin Ho district; Tua Sin Chai, Lang Mo, Ta Ngao, Xa De Phin, Ta Phin, Phang Xo Lin, Hong Thu, Phin Ho, and Sin Ho township. The major development orientations of this zone shall be to develop into a zone of eco-tourism, cultural tourism and tourist resort in combination with developing a high-quality agriculture, and planting pharmaceutical material trees, flowers and fruit trees.

k/ Adjustment of administrative boundaries:

During the 2006-2010 period, to study the division of communes of more than 100 km2 in area, proceeding to have a stable number of 130 communes, wards and townships.

3. Solutions:

a/ To review, adjust and supplement the planning on economic zones in the province and the planning on construction of infrastructure in all branches and domains to make them conformable with the general plannings of ministries and branches as well as socio-economic development orientations of the entire region. To improve the quality of market researches and forecasts in planning projects with a view to ensuring proactive and sustainable development. To speed up the elaboration of plannings and improve the quality of the master plan on socio-economic development and plannings of all branches and domains; to properly implement investment planning and preparation work.

b/ To develop human resources: To properly implement human resource training and development policies, prioritize training of local cadres, female cadres and ethnic minority cadres; to develop special treatment policies for cadres working in border communes and particularly disadvantaged communes. To form high-quality provincial and district vocational training centers which shall be able to train and build up a contingent of highly skilled laborers meeting socio-economic development requirements. To increase education, health and agricultural extension staffs, border guards, etc.; to promote the role of village heads and hamlet chiefs who shall help mobilize inhabitants to well implement Party and State policies.

c/ To step up the application of scientific and technological advances (in forestry, industry, information, etc.).

d/ Solutions to mobilizing resources for investment

- Investment capital demands: in the 2006-2010 period, total social investment capital in the province shall be approximately VND 23,000 billion, including investment capital for developing production and business activities of all economic branches and domains; investment capital for building social infrastructure; investment capital for building technical infrastructure (communications, irrigation, electric grids, daily-life water, information and communication); investment capital for building urban infrastructure, investment capital for building working offices of Party and State agencies and socio-political organizations; capital for developing trading and tourist infrastructure; capital for implementing resettlement programs under hydropower projects; capital for implementing hunger eradication and poverty alleviation, capital for implementing the protective forest restoration program; capital for implementing the program on training cadres and public employees; capital for implementing programs on development of goods for export and promotion of advantages of border-gate economic activities; and capital for implementing socio-economic development in combination with security and defense maintenance.

- Capital sources: Together with investment capital from the state budget and development investment credits granted by the State, capital should be mobilized from private enterprises, and foreign direct investment capital and ODA capital should be made use of.

- Solutions to mobilizing investment capital: To review and supplement mechanisms and policies which prioritize and encourage investment in the province so as to mobilize all resources for development investment. To prioritize investment in infrastructure in new urban centers, key economic programs, border areas and places where there are conditions for tourist development. To properly prepare projects so as to allocate state investment capital for developing technical infrastructure and socio-economic infrastructure and make use of capital supports from national programs and hunger eradication and poverty alleviation programs. To make use of foreign investment capital and ODA capital sources. To adopt policies to combine the allocation of provincial budget capital supports with encouraging districts and communes to tap their internal resources for developing rural infrastructure. To continue integrating socio-economic development investment programs and projects in the province in order to raise investment efficiency. To formulate and promote investment projects on production and business in domains in which the province has strengths, increase the efficiency of investment capital, build a reasonable investment structure which helps accelerate economic restructuring. To call for projects on protection of natural resources, environment and bio-diversity, protection of land funds, water resources in combination with developing tourism and other services.

To further develop the system of enterprises and entrepreneurs, and appeal and attract enterprises to invest in the province.

e/ To strengthen and expand production relations. To enhance the role of state economy, encourage and facilitate all economic sectors to develop. To establish cooperatives which will provide production services, process and purchase products for farmers.

f/ To review, supplement and promulgate mechanisms and policies in support of development: To reform administrative procedures, nationality policies, production and business development policies, policies on preferences and incentives for market development; and perfect commercial activity mechanisms and mechanisms to encourage tourist development in the province.

g/ To promote management and efficient exploitation and use of natural resources in combination with environmental protection: land, mineral, forest and water resources.

h/ To consolidate defense and security, and external relations; to promote defense and security education; to build up a firm all-people defense. To prioritize the construction of roads leading to border areas, border patrol roads and border guard stations. To develop all-sided cooperative relations with Yunnan province (China), to proactively make use of investment capital sources and financial donations of foreign countries and international organizations for the province's socio-economic development.

i/ To survey and assess local cadres and public employees, and work out plans on training, retraining and management of cadres and public employees, especially local cadres, female cadres and ethnic minority cadres. To perfect the mechanisms on recruitment of cadres and public employees, training of cadres, attraction of cadres and rotation of cadres working at grassroots level. To build the political system and the contingent of cadres at all levels who will meet their task requirements, thereby improving state management effectiveness. To continue carrying out the Party rectification campaign.

Article 2.- The approved Scheme shall serve as the orientation for the process of socio-economic development in Lai Chau province till 2010, and as the foundation for the elaboration of five-year and annual plans, the formulation and proposal of development programs and specific investment projects in the province.

Article 3.- To assign the People's Committee of Lai Chau province:

1. To set up a steering committee for the Scheme's implementation with the president of the People's Committee as its head and the provincial Planning and Investment Service as its standing body. This steering committee shall be responsible for directing the implementation of the Scheme after it is approved.

2. To study and concretize the Scheme's objectives and organize their achievement through socio-economic programs and projects. In the course of implementation, information will be constantly updated. When there is a need to supplement or adjust the Scheme, it must be promptly reported to competent authorities for decision.

3. To consider and determine the order of priority for development of branches and domains and lists of projects with a view to ensuring well-oriented investment and prevent scattered investment. To direct investment in key areas so as to quickly bring about practical benefits, prioritize investment in urban infrastructure and technical infrastructure in service of production and social infrastructure, creating a driving force for development of all branches and domains.

4. To take initiative in coordinating with ministries and central branches in studying and proposing to the Prime Minister for promulgation mechanisms and policies which are suitable to the province's conditions and encourage all economic sectors to invest in developing production, business and service activities, expanding markets, ensure proactive economic integration and defense and security maintenance.

5. To carry out renewal of organizational and management work and administrative reform. To incrementally create a favorable environment for domestic and foreign investment. To vigorously promote the province's potential and strengths, incrementally bring into play positive factors and restrict negative aspects of the market economy in the development process.

6. To raise the operational effectiveness of local administrations at all levels, together with renewing the posting and rotation of key cadres, assign tasks, decentralize responsibilities and raise the responsibility of individuals and management apparatus as a whole.

Article 4.- Ministries, ministerial-level agencies and government-attached agencies shall, on the basis of their respective functions and tasks, coordinate with the People's Committee of Lai Chau province in concretizing the approved Scheme on socio-economic development in Lai Chau province till 2010 into development investment programs and projects in the province.

The Ministries of: Planning and Investment; Finance; Transport; Industry; Agriculture and Rural Development; Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs; Natural Resources and Environment; Defense and other related ministries and branches shall concentrate on solving the pressing problems in Lai Chau province as follows:

1. The Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, the Ministry of Home Affairs and other concerned ministries and branches shall further study and adopt policies which grant greater priorities to Lai Chau in training and retraining cadres, especially ethnic minority cadres from the provincial to grassroots level; mechanisms and policies to attract qualified and capable laborers to work in Lai Chau.

2. The Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the Ministry of Transport and other concerned ministries and branches shall prioritize the allocation of capital for the construction of flood avoidance roads for Son La, Lai Chau, Ban Chat and Huoi Quang hydropower projects and the border belt road of Pa Tan - Muong Te - Pac Ma to facilitate resettlement work. The Ministry of Transport shall assume the prime responsibility for, and coordinate with the province and other concerned ministries and branches in, studying and incorporating Chan Nua - Sin Ho - Nam Luong roads into the flood avoidance road for Son La hydropower project; Muong Kim - Muong La road into the flood avoidance road for Ban Chat - Huoi Quang - Son La hydropower projects, creating an interconnected road system when the hydropower reservoirs are completely constructed.

3. The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment shall assume the prime responsibility for, and coordinate with the Ministry of Industry and other concerned ministries and branches in, formulating a mechanism on decentralizing the province to manage and exploit small mines; consider and allocate funds according to regulations for the investigation, survey and mapping of mines located in the province, creating conditions for Lai Chau to take initiative in making plans on mineral exploitation, processing and export.

4. The program in implementation of Resolution No. 37-NQ/TW: Annually, to increase investment capital to assist Lai Chau province in reducing difficulties, achieving the objectives and performing the tasks in the spirit of Resolution No. 37-NQ-TW of the Political Bureau, specifically:

- To support capital for completing the construction of motorways leading to the centers of existing communes in the 2006 and 2007; border patrol roads and roads leading to border areas, fundamentally settle the rural communication issue, ensuring convenient travel in all seasons.

- To assign the Ministry of Health to assume the prime responsibility for, and coordinate with the Ministry of Planning and Investment in, considering and submitting for approval according to current regulations investment projects on the construction of a provincial general hospital and hospitals in two newly divided districts.

- To assign concerned ministries and branches to study and support investment in the construction of training establishments: a community college, a provincial politics school, a provincial vocational training center and similar centers in districts, regular education centers in the province and districts, and a provincial military school.

- To assign the Ministry of Planning and Investment to assume the prime responsibility for, and coordinate with the Ministry of Finance in, considering and submitting to the Prime Minister for decision the increase of support capital for investment in the construction of essential infrastructure in the border-gate economic zone of the province.

5. Local budget balance norms:

Regarding regular expenditures: To assign the Ministry of Finance to formulate norms on allocations to Lai Chau province on the basis of the following criteria: natural area; population density, nationality structure; number of particularly disadvantaged communes, hunger and poverty rates; mountainous and border province; strategic defense and security position; distance from big economic centers; newly divided province, and so forth, on the principle that such norms in the 2007-2010 period shall be 1.5 times higher than those in the 2004-2006 period.

Article 5.- This Decision shall take effect 15 days after its publication in "CONG BAO."

The president of the People's Committee of Lai Chau province, ministers, heads of ministerial-level agencies and heads of government-attached agencies shall have to implement this Decision.