New Cabinet To Meet Challenges in Boosting Economic Reform

The newly-elected new cabinet of Vietnam led by active economic reformer Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung will likely be facing challenges in boosting the national economic development on the way to an industrialized country by 2020 and medium income earner by 2010, state media and local observers said on August 3.

 

By selecting two young deputy prime ministers Hoang Trung Hai, 48, and Nguyen Thien Nhan, 54, and 10 new ministers of the 22 ministries, PM Nguyen Tan Dung will have to solve various thorny challenges, ranging from maintaining stable macro economy with the set high GDP growth rate, preventing, fighting widespread new epidemics, rooting out rampant corruption and bureaucracy and improving the quality of human resources in the country, state media said.

 

The new cabinet will also have to balance impacts from the powerhouses China and the US by properly dealing with outstanding and sensitive issues regarding disputed waters of Paracels and Spratlys where huge reserves of oil are believed to be soon found, observers noted.

 

In the text delivered before the national assembly, Dung vowed to make synchronized efforts to boost a comprehensive administrative and economic reform, pushing back bureaucracy and corruption, to create more favorable conditions for the country to escape the underdevelopment status in the next decade.

 

Not like challenges facing by his predecessor Phan Van Khai, this time Dung and his cabinet are seeing new problems which are resulted from Vietnam’s post-WTO integration, and the stock market which has undergone ups and downs in recent months, observers said.

 

The government will have to revise its share-selling plans in state-owned companies in the coming months to avoid the failure which was seen in Russia’s privatization, where most of the state assets went to private owners but not workers, they said.

 

The cabinet will also have to deal with unprecedented natural disasters and complicated development of epidemics among livestock and poultries, which are seen as catalyst to push consumer price indexes to rise.

 

To attract more foreign investment, Vietnam should boost infrastructure development, building more ports, IPs, EPZs and new power generation sources to ease the country’s thirsty for power.

 

The youngest deputy prime minister Hoang Trung Hai who will be in charge of the sectoral economy noted his top priority will be placed on infrastructure development and adopting measures to boosting competitiveness of local businesses in the post-WTO era.

 

Most notably, the new government needs to focus on training high-quality workforce to meet the country’s growing demand for high-qualified human resources.

 

Newly-elected Minister of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs, Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan will make her best in training high-teach laborforce serving the country’s industrialization and modernization. At present, 50 per cent of Vietnam’s population is young laborers aged less than 35 years old, Ngan said.

 

Meanwhile, Justice Minster Ha Hung Cuong emphasized that his ministry will concentrate on completing legal framework for the market economy. (Local sources, Government’s website)