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Major sectors unveil plans for poor in 2009
The country’s major industrial and service sectors have presented their plans for the year, with the major aim of improving people’s living standards and reducing the financial burden on the poor.
Unemployment benefits have been extended and a number of reduced fees have already taken effect, including telephone charges and farmers’ irrigation fees.
Beginning January 1 the telecoms sector slashed in-country telephone calls to VND200 per minute from the former rates of VND120, VND400 and VND700 per minute. Phone subscription fees dropped from VND27,000 to VND20,000 per month.
The exemption of irrigation fees will save farmers a total of VND7trillion (US$411 million) a year.
With the new Decree on Unemployment Insurance, Vietnamese workers who have worked 12 months or more will be entitled to jobless benefits for at least three months or longer, depending on the length of their employment.
The monthly jobless benefit will be equivalent to 60 per cent of the monthly salary received during the worker’s last six months of employment.
Dang Ngoc Tung, chairman of the Viet Nam Confederation of Labour, said this year workers would be trained to provide them with better skills that could, in turn, improve quality and productivity at factories.
Laid-off workers will also be retrained to help them return to factories by the end of the year or early 2010 when a number of closed factories are expected to reopen.
Roads, tourism
Improving transport infrastructure as well as tourism services are also on the agenda.
The Ministry of Transport this year plans to disburse VND20 trillion ($1.2 billion) for development of transport infrastructure to tackle traffic jams and reduce accidents.
Most of the investment will go to upgrading existing roads, railways, HCM City’s belt roads and building of expressways, including the Lang-Hoa Lac route and HCM City-Trung Luong and HCM City-Bien Hoa expressways.
The tourist sector says it aims to attract more foreign tourists this year.
La Quoc Hoa, deputy director of the city’s Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said the industry needed to target major tourist markets, help tour companies improve travel programmes and lower tour package costs to attract both domestic and foreign tourists.
This month the industry will launch a national promotion campaign in which interesting tours and products will be advertised in the local and foreign media.
Industrial growth
In an effort to reach a GDP growth rate of 6.5 per cent in 2009, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has set a target of industrial growth of 16 per cent and an export growth of 13 per cent for the year.
To achieve the targets, the Ministry of Industry and Trade plans to invest VND153.1 trillion ($9.01 billion) in 2009, an increase of 12.3 per cent compared with last year.
Most the investment will be used for the energy sector and oil refineries, as well as for the production of coal and ingot steel, fertilisers and paper pulp.
The aim is to reduce the number of imports and control inflation in order to sustain economic growth during the global financial crisis.
VNS
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