Drafting and Amending Law on Planning

Mr Nguyen Van Trung, Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment, said Vietnam needs a law to deal with drawbacks in planning.

 

He said planning is now rampant while many plans are unrealistic. Planners do not have an official definition of planning, resulting in more problems day after day. Therefore, the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the agency responsible for drafting the Law on Planning, must answer the question “What is planning?” Then, approaches to it will be built.

 

According to Dr Nguyen Trong Hanh, the draft Law on Planning is confronting difficulties because problems arise from the process of implementation. If it runs after practical issues, it remains untouched. If it bases on scientific perspective, it will touch interest groups.

 

Currently, the lawmaking National Assembly has assigned the Government to lead and draft the Law on Planning with clear guidance on planning - existing planning in Vietnam - like regional socioeconomic development master planning, industry development master planning, construction planning and land use planning. The new law must also fix relations of other planning like urban planning and rural planning, land use planning, environmental planning in the spirit of the Resolution No. 13-NQ/TW of the Party Central Committee.

 

Dr Pham Sy Liem said Vietnam now has four different planning levels and it is a challenge to integrate all four levels. He said Vietnam does not have national planning but socioeconomic master planning which lacks correlation with space planning. While space planning and construction planning are only on the surface while economic and social planning are also superficial. Therefore, there is a need to have a national development planning to create orientation and legality.

 

He said that regional planning and local planning should integrate into one because the regional planning also includes provincial planning, leading to overlapping. In addition, all provinces and cities want their own planning to report to the public.

 

Dr Nguyen Trong Hanh also pointed out five existing problems in planning in Vietnam: (1) Lack of scientific basis for determining planning objects. Although region is the theoretical basis and object of regional planning, the regulation is arbitrary and unscientific; (2) Failing to meet functions and roles of planning: Social and economic development master planning, construction planning and land use planning for regions are narrow approaches of regional planning; thus, they fail to promote the role of macroeconomic regulation roles to the national economy; (3) Lack of consistency, institutional contradiction and overlapping of regional planning; (4) Leaving negative consequences: Unfeasible because of insufficient scientific basis, subjective voluntarism; Ineffective and impractical; Waste of money, effort and resources; Conflict of powers and responsibilities among State management; (5) Superficial, impractical planning: Many planning is built on ‘technocracy”, falls short of strategic vision and social participation, leading to idle planning.

 

To deal with these problems, Dr Bui Tat Thang, Director of the Development Strategy Institute of the Ministry of Planning and Investment, said that it is necessary to find a scientific and suitable approach and focus more on the spirit of law rather than technicality.

 

Dr Luu Bich Ho, former Director of the Development Strategy Institute, added that Vietnam, without doubt, needs an overall law on planning. The challenge is how to integrate a variety of planning. The presence of national planning will integrate master planning, construction planning and land use planning. To exercise this task, it must set up a national council on planning led by Prime Minister or Deputy Prime Minister. The council may hire foreign experts if necessary.