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WTO action plans need work
A seminar discusses how provinces may better meet national targets
The Government's action plans for the post World Trade Organisation-era showed some shortcomings a year and a half since Vietnam became a full member, experts said at a conference.
The seminar was jointly held by the steering board providing technical support for the post-WTO period and the high-ranking consultative group last Friday.
The high-ranking consultative group included representatives of the Monetary Advisory Council, Viet Nam Institute for Trade, Viet Nam Institute for Science and Technology, Viet Nam Institute of Economics and others.
The action plan, undertaken from central to local levels, targeted to capitalise opportunities reaped from WTO accession to boost national economic development.
Development of matching provincial action plans remained at a snail's pace. Consequently, until May 5, 2008, only 54 out of 64 cities and provinces nationwide sent municipal or provincial action plans to the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
In addition, there was poor co-ordination between action plans of cities and provinces.
Nguyen Mai, one group member, pointed to one specific example where the central province of Thua Thien - Hue merely focused on tourism development in the province without considering the broader outlook - tourism development for the central region.
As well, the central highland province of Dac Lak only concentrated on coffee plantations in the province itself, rather than in the central highland region of Tay Nguyen.
Also, Mai Thanh Hai, chairman of the Viet Nam Association of Foreign-invested Enterprises, claimed that action plans of cities and provinces sometimes looked similar, and they did not clarify their competitive advantages.
"For instance, the central Quang Nam Province mapped out a development scheme like HCM City, but in reality the province has competitive advantages in agricultural development, whereas HCM City has advantages in manufacturing and services," Hai said.
Nguyen Huu Tu, director of the Economic Department of the Party Central Committee's Office, recommended that they "should classify action plans of cities and provinces because each location has various and private characteristics and different capacities for economic development."
Deputy head of the Viet Nam Institute of Economics, Tran Dinh Thien, said that there were too many steering boards and action plans, whereas capacity of the boards remained poor. Also, over the past year and a half, a series of problems had arisen, requiring quick responses.
Hoang Phuoc Hiep, a representative from the Ministry of Justice, added that integration boards for cities and provinces had been established, yet there had not been any appraisals on operational effectiveness from these boards. In addition, it was not essential to maintain operation of these integration boards in ministries.
However, experts pointed out advantages of the Government's action plans - clear orientation towards an open market and policy changes.
The steering board plans to complete a report on institutions for the implementation and supervision of the Government's action plans since the country's WTO access and will submit it to the Government as soon as possible.
VNS
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