FULL TEXT: Resolution No. 31-NQ/TW of the Politburo of Vietnam on the development of Ho Chi Minh City

General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong signed the promulgation of Resolution No. 31-NQ/TW of the Politburo of Vietnam on directions and tasks for the development of Ho Chi Minh City until 2030, with a vision to 2045.

I - Situation

After 10 years of implementing Resolution No. 16-NQ/TW of the 11th Party Central Committee's Politburo, the Communist Party, government, and people of Ho Chi Minh City have made great efforts to achieve significant achievements in various fields. The city continues to be the driver, the leader, guiding in the role of a major center for economy, finance, commerce, culture, science - technology, innovation, and education - training within the Southern key economic region and the whole country, acting as a crucial gateway connecting to the region and the world. The economic structure continues to shift positively associated with the renewal of the growth model, gradually developing in-depth based on the application of science - technology and innovation. The scale of the economy in 2020 compared to 2010 has increased 2.7 times, with the per capita GRDP doubling. Achievements in education - training, public health care, cultural, and social development have been significant; the material and spiritual lives of the people continue to improve. Foreign relations and international cooperation have been enhanced and expanded; national defense, security, order, and social safety continue to be maintained. The work of building and rectifying the Communist Party and the political system has achieved important results, creating positive changes. The leadership mode of the Communist Party, government management, and operation of the Vietnam Fatherland Front, and socio-political organizations have continuously innovated; the great national unity bloc has been strengthened. The development achievements of Ho Chi Minh City over time have significantly contributed to the overall achievements of the country, confirming the particularly important position and role of the City in the cause of building and defending the Fatherland.

However, the city's potential and advantages have not been effectively exploited. The city's exceptionalism, dynamism, creativity, and leading role and driving force for the region and the whole country tend to decline. Economic growth is slow, with international competitiveness still low. Unsolved limitations and shortcomings, combined with new challenges, have become bottlenecks hindering the City's development. Socio-economic infrastructure development is slow and lacks synchronization; urban planning, management, and land use still have many limitations and weaknesses; traffic congestion and overload; increased tidal flooding and environmental pollution; housing, hospitals, schools, and social welfare systems do not meet the needs of the people. The situation of political security, order, and social safety still has potential instability. The work of building, rectifying the Communist Party, and the political system, state management have some limitations and weaknesses.

The above-mentioned limitations and weaknesses mainly stem from: Leadership, direction, organization of implementing the Resolution, the dynamism, creativity, thinking ability, sense of responsibility for the common interest of some City party committees and governments, and some officials and Party members are still low; not actively cooperating with central agencies in organizing the implementation of the Resolution, Conclusions of the Politburo, and the National Assembly's Resolution on the City's development. Some central committees, ministries, and authorities have not really paid adequate attention, providing timely support for the City, leading to delayed or incomplete implementation of some policies, and slow resolution of many difficulties and obstacles.

II - Viewpoints and Goals

1. Viewpoints

- Building and developing a civilized, modern Ho Chi Minh City is an important political task of the entire Communist Party, the entire people, the entire army, and the entire political system, especially the City's Party Committee, government, and people with the motto: "Ho Chi Minh City for the whole country, the whole country for Ho Chi Minh City".

- Focus on prioritizing the completion of institutions, policies, and favorable conditions to create breakthroughs in mobilizing comprehensive strength, effectively exploiting potentials, advantages, and the City's strategic position, promoting fast and sustainable development. The City must continue to maintain its role as a major center for economy, culture, education - training, science - technology, with an important political position in the country, spreading influence, promoting the development of the Southeastern region and the Southern key economic region; soon become a center for economy, finance, services, culture, education - training, science - technology, and innovation of Southeast Asia and Asia, with global competitiveness.

- Combining economic - social development closely with cultural development, environmental protection, climate change adaptation, ensuring national defense, security, and foreign relations. Building a cohesive, exemplary, clean, strong Communist Party Committee and political system in the City; building a team of officials with firm political qualities, pure morality, high level, dynamic, creative, thinking ability, daring to act for the common good; promoting democracy, social consensus, self-reliance, the strong revolutionary tradition, unity, and compassion of the City's Party Committee and people.

2. Goals and Vision

- Goals by 2030: Ho Chi Minh City will become a civilized, modern, compassionate, dynamic, and creative city with high-quality human resources; a modern service - industrial city, leading in the digital economy, digital society, a center for economy, finance, commerce, culture, education, science - technology of the country, deeply integrating internationally, with a prominent position in Southeast Asia. The average growth rate will reach about 8 - 8.5%/year; per capita GRDP will reach about $14,500 USD; the digital economy will contribute 40% to GRDP.

- Vision by 2045: Ho Chi Minh City will develop on par with major cities worldwide, becoming a center for economy, finance, services in Asia; a globally attractive destination; with a distinctive economic and cultural development; residents will have a high quality of life; becoming the core of the Ho Chi Minh City region and the Southeastern region, a growth pole of the whole country; attracting financial institutions and international economic corporations.

III- Major Tasks and Solutions

1. Focus on rapid and sustainable economic development based on innovation in the growth model, economic restructuring, improving productivity, quality, efficiency, and international competitiveness, mobilizing, and efficiently using all resources

- Overhaul the overall economic structure linked to renewing the growth model based on the knowledge economy, applying science - technology, innovation and high labor productivity. Planning and transforming high-tech zones, industrial zones, export processing zones towards high technology, innovation, digital economy, green economy, circular economy; selecting high value-added products and processes to participate in regional and global value chains. Restructure and enhance agricultural production efficiency leveraging the City's potential and advantages, developing urban and ecological agriculture; building comprehensive, sustainable rural development linked to urbanization. Develop Thu Duc City into a new growth pole, an innovative, highly interactive urban core driving the socio-economic growth of Ho Chi Minh City.

- Focus on turning the City into a major service center of both the country and the region with high-end, modern services; forming an international exhibition center; establishing mechanisms, policies, and appropriate technical infrastructure to successfully build the International Financial Center of Ho Chi Minh City; supporting the development of synchronous markets; promoting the knowledge economy, digital technology in services such as finance, banking, securities, real estate, e-commerce, tourism, culture, sports, high-quality education, healthcare... Develop industry in-depth, prioritizing industries and products applying modern, environmentally friendly technology.

- Develop the economic sectors in synchronization; perfect the state capital management model at enterprises; continue reorganizing, innovating, privatizing, enhancing quality, efficiency, and promoting the role of state enterprises in implementing key City tasks; supporting collective economic sectors, reorganizing new cooperative models; strongly promoting private economic sectors; establishing national and global level enterprises.

- Attract selective foreign investment prioritizing high technology projects, modern management with broad impact, closely connecting with the domestic economy; developing supportive industries linking Vietnamese enterprises with FDI enterprises. Promote the dynamic, guiding role of public investment, combining with unlocking capital from the private sector, foreign investment, donors, and international financial organizations. Effectively implement public-private partnerships to mobilize social capital and invest in developing industrial and service infrastructure. Manage and effectively use resource capital, especially land, to create investment capital.

- Arrange, restructure scientific and technological research establishments; establish and develop national-level innovation centers, strongly promoting research, development, and technology transfer, especially core technologies, with the nucleus being Quang Trung Software City, the Hi-Tech Park, research institutes, and universities. Strongly develop the science - technology market; have breakthrough mechanisms and policies to attract talents, experts, top scientists domestically and internationally; attract multinational corporations to establish research and innovation centers in the City.

- Invest in developing human resources, especially high-quality human resources meeting labor market demands, achieving international standards in priority fields.

2. Improve the quality of planning, management, and planning implementation; promote sustainable urban development, climate change adaptation; accelerate synchronized, modern infrastructure construction

- Enhance planning quality with breakthrough thinking, long-term vision to harness potential, advantages, creating new, stable, long-term development space and momentum for the City, focusing on planning Ho Chi Minh City for the 2021 - 2030 period, vision to 2050; adjust the overall construction planning of the City to 2040, vision to 2060; synchronize planning on underground space, green space, water space, cultural space, especially the central urban area, new urban areas, around Metro stations following the urban development model linked with public transport (TOD). Strictly enforce planning discipline, management, and architectural planning management. Integrate planning coherently with land provision, urban finance, transportation development, housing policy, water resource management, and flood control.

- Develop Ho Chi Minh City urban areas towards multi-center, regional connectivity, green, smart urban development, balancing rural and urban areas. Focus on building breakthroughs in urban infrastructure systems; harmonizing urban renovation with new urban development, ensuring harmonious architecture, preserving and promoting unique cultural elements; reorganizing residential life to improve living quality during urban renovation and development. Attract economic sectors to participate in developing social housing, worker housing, renovating housing along canals, old apartments. Continue relocating industrial sites, universities, hospitals as per planning outside the inner city; effectively using the land fund for public works and social welfare.

- Develop construction, design, and construction industries with modern technology, new materials, green, renewable, environmentally friendly energy. Implement synchronous and effective solutions to improve air quality, waste treatment, wastewater treatment. Promote development of urban green spaces. Invest in completing water supply, drainage, flood control, waste treatment systems; strictly manage underground water exploitation and usage; strengthen coastal dike systems, tidal gates, river embankments for flood control, fundamentally solving waterlogging, effectively responding to climate change, sea level rise; prevent water resource degradation and ensure water security; protect the mangrove ecosystem and Can Gio Biosphere Reserve.

- Focus on investing in developing and upgrading the City's socio-economic infrastructure systems ensuring totality, synchronicity, and modernity; especially allocate reasonable budget, combining with mobilize social resources for technical infrastructure projects, especially public-private partnerships (PPP). Prioritize developing transportation, energy infrastructure, synchronized, modern telecommunications; complete national highways and regional connection roads as planned; accelerate major national projects, especially ring roads 3 and 4, highways, Ho Chi Minh City - Can Tho railway; upgrade Tan Son Nhat International Airport. Promote investment in Can Gio International Transshipment Port, regional railway network connecting Ho Chi Minh City region. Continue developing high-capacity public transport systems, exploiting rail, sea, and river routes effectively, ensuring seamless connection with Southeast, Mekong Delta, South Central, and Central Highlands provinces.

- Proactively promoting regional linkages, harnessing the core, leading role of the City in regional development linkage to realize strategic breakthroughs in transportation infrastructure, digital infrastructure, human resources improvement, creating new development momentum and space for the Southeast region, Mekong Delta, and areas across the country.

- Enhance investment in logistics infrastructure, increase port handling and storage capacity, anticipating supply chains; form a regional-scale logistics service center.

3. Strongly develop culture, society, education, and training, healthcare, improving people's quality of life, building Ho Chi Minh City's civilized, modern, compassionate people, worthy of the City named after Leader Ho Chi Minh

- Raise awareness and responsibility of all levels of Party committees, governments, Vietnam Fatherland Front, socio-political organizations, and the people on cultural development, human building in the new phase; building the City into a large cultural center with widespread influence, contributing to the country's sustainable development. Focus on renovating cultural space, cultural works ensuring a clean, green, beautiful City; preserving, promoting tangible and intangible cultural heritage values; investing in comprehensive, modern cultural and sports facilities. Develop cultural industries, build markets for cultural, sport, and tourism products of international caliber; focus on high-performance cultural and sports activities along with extensive cultural and sports public movements.

- Continue investing in building the City into a large education and training center, focusing on training high-quality human resources, approaching international standards, adapting to digital transformation, innovation, and integration. Prioritize budget investment and have mechanisms, policies to mobilize and use resources efficiently to protect, care for, and improve people's health. Build an advanced, modern healthcare system, applying high technology, developing some fields at world technology level, aiming to be an ASEAN regional healthcare center. Ensure the number and improve the quality of healthcare human resources; strengthen preventive, primary, high-tech, specialized healthcare; proactively effectively respond to various diseases; enhance state management in food safety.

- Develop a comprehensive social security system, covering the population with the principle "State and People work together". Resolve to build sustainable employment, progressive labor relations. Implement synchronous policies to care for meritorious people, improving the living standards of policy families; improve sustainable poverty reduction quality, raise the City's poverty threshold to twice the national standard. Enhance the role, position, capacity of self-reliance, comprehensive improvement in the material and spiritual life of rural residents; focus on developing social housing, especially for workers and poor laborers.

4. Ensure National Defense, Security; Enhance the Effectiveness of Foreign Affairs and International Integration

- Continue researching, adjusting, and arranging the strategic positioning of the defense area to ensure an integrated and solid network, tightly combining economic-social development with national defense and security in accordance with the overall planning of the national defense network; concentrate on building a strong political-economic-defense potential. Strengthen leadership and enhance the effectiveness of state management in national defense and security; build a regular, elite, and modern army and police force; research and plan the development of several dual-use industries and facilities, producing modern equipment for training and combat; promote industrial mobilization ready to serve military, national defense, and security tasks.

- Ensure the building of an increasingly solid all-people national defense and people’s security posture, ensuring the maintenance of political security, order, and social safety in all situations. Proactively grasp the situation, promptly detect, combat, and neutralize plots, activities of hostile forces, especially in cyberspace; be ready with plans to respond to non-traditional security threats.

- Implement comprehensive solutions for social prevention, improve the quality and effectiveness of the "All People Protect National Security" movement; leverage the combined strength of the political system and the people in crime prevention, control, and suppression, especially criminal, economic, environmental, drug-related crimes, organized and transnational crime, high-tech crime to ensure security and safety for all people and tourists to the City.

- Enhance the effectiveness of foreign affairs and international integration activities; proactively seize opportunities from new generation trade agreements; strengthen traditional relationships, expand cooperation with cities worldwide; increase people-to-people diplomacy, work with overseas Vietnamese, creating a favorable international environment for development.

5. Strengthen the Building and Rectification of the Communist Party and a Clean, Strong Political System

- Strengthen and resolutely, persistently undertake the building and rectification of the Communist Party and political system in all aspects; combat, prevent, and push back the deterioration of political ideology, morality, lifestyle, "self-evolution", "self-transformation" within; intensify the fight against corruption and negativity; emphasize the responsibility to set an example of the leaders at all levels; build Party grassroots organizations suitable for urban models; focus on developing Party members and improving their quality; regularly review, screen, and resolutely remove unqualified Party members from the Communist Party.

- Continue building a streamlined, effective political system; renew the content and methods of leadership and management of Party committees and authorities; build a team of officials and public employees, especially leaders and managers at all levels, with sufficient qualities, capacities, and tasks. Focus on planning, training, developing the successor cadre team; create a favorable environment, encourage, and protect dynamic, creative officials who dare to think, dare to do for the common good.

- Improve the quality and effectiveness of the supervision of the People’s Council. Strengthen the coordination between the National Assembly delegation and the People’s Council with the Communist Party, the Fatherland Front, political-social organizations, and the people’s supervision. Focus on the work of inspection, examination, and power control; vigorously reform administrative procedures, build an electronic government, digital government, creating a fundamental change in improving the investment environment, returning the city to the leading group in provincial competitiveness indices.

- Renew and enhance awareness and effectiveness of mass mobilization in the new situation; properly implement religious and ethnic policies. Focus on resolving prolonged, complex complaints and denunciations; pay attention to public reception, promptly and properly address the legitimate aspirations of the people, especially the pressing issues of public concern to create consensus, unity, and contribute to consolidating the trust of cadres, Party members, and the people in the Communist Party and policies.

6. Issue Outstanding Policies and Laws, Promote Decentralization, and Devolution, Leverage the Dynamism and Creativity for the Common Good of City Cadres, Meeting Development Requirements in the New Period

Based on summarizing, supplementing, amending, and promptly issuing outstanding policies and laws, create the most favorable conditions for Ho Chi Minh City to effectively exploit its potential and strengths, mobilize all resources to meet the requirements of rapid and sustainable development:

- Effectively implement decentralization and devolution to the People’s Council and the City People’s Committee to enhance autonomy and accountability in state management in several fields: Investment management; finance-budget; urban, resource, and environmental management; culture, social order management; organization, apparatus, and officials and public employees, laborers.

- Pilot breakthrough policies so the City can proactively mobilize financial resources for development. Maintain the current budget adjustment rate of the City until the end of 2025 and continue to maintain it at no less than this level in subsequent years, providing resources for key tasks and strategic breakthroughs, investing in key infrastructure projects, and improving public welfare, increasing income for officials and public employees, laborers.

- Issue policies to promote the formation and development of Ho Chi Minh City International Financial Center; allow for controlled test mechanisms in the financial sector and preferential policies to attract strategic investors to the International Financial Center.

- Build breakthrough policies to attract investment resources for development and promote socialization in fields: Health, education, and training, culture, sports; improve the effectiveness of various investment linkage models in these fields. Pilot investor selection through the public-private partnership method to implement investment projects in culture, sports, and science-technology.

- Implement necessary mechanisms to handle long-standing investment projects and works stuck due to procedural and regulatory issues.

- Summarize the urban government model implementation, continue to perfect the streamlined, modern, effective, and efficient city government apparatus; allow the City People’s Council to decide on assigning some tasks according to the law regulations, under the functions of provincial departments and specialized authorities to the Thu Duc City People’s Committee, the Chairman of the Thu Duc City People’s Committee within Thu Duc City; decide the organizational apparatus under Thu Duc City, job positions, personnel structure of officials, non-specialized personnel in wards, communes, commune-level towns based on economic activities, population scale, and local characteristics.

IV- Implementation Organization

1. The Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee promptly builds an action program to implement the Politburo’s Resolution, identifying very specific tasks and solutions, closely linked to the implementation of Resolution No. 24-NQ/TW of the Politburo on economic-social development, ensuring national defense and security in the Southeast region until 2030, with a vision to 2045, and the Party Congress resolutions of the City Party Committee. Conduct extensive political activities within the entire Party committee and the people to thoroughly grasp, raise awareness of the position, role, goals, and tasks of City development, foster pride in the revolutionary tradition, heroic history, leading reform, dynamism, and creativity.

Direct the City authorities to closely coordinate with ministries and central authorities to promptly build and complete the Scheme to issue a new Resolution to replace Resolution No. 54/2017/QH14 to submit to the National Assembly at the earliest.

2. The Communist Party’s National Assembly delegation leads the issuance of the National Assembly’s Resolution (replacing Resolution No. 54/2017/QH14) to allow the piloting of superior mechanisms and policies for the development of Ho Chi Minh City; build mechanisms to concretize the implementation of Conclusion No. 14-KL/TW, dated September 22, 2021, of the Politburo; consider perfecting institutions and policies regarding special urban areas, urban government; amend and supplement relevant laws and resolutions to ensure uniformity, synchronization, and create a legal basis for the implementation and supervision of the new Resolution.

3. The Party Committee of the Government of Vietnam leads:

- Issuing an action program to implement the Resolution; Scheme to deploy the implementation of Conclusion No. 14-KL/TW, dated September 22, 2021, of the Politburo, selecting Ho Chi Minh City as a pilot; annually and as needed work with Ho Chi Minh City to remove obstacles and difficulties, creating favorable conditions for City development. Prioritize allocating resources for implementing transportation infrastructure investment projects according to national planning and ensured by the central budget.

- Direct ministries and central authorities to cooperate with the City to complete the Scheme to issue a new Resolution on piloting superior mechanisms and policies for Ho Chi Minh City development to submit to the National Assembly; issue the Government’s Decree specifying the organization of implementing the National Assembly’s Resolution; cooperate with the City to deploy the piloting of some superior mechanisms and policies; implement decentralization and devolution to the City in several fields according to the Government’s action program; propose research to perfect the legal framework on special urban areas and amend relevant laws and decrees.

4. Central Party committees, Party committees, Party cadres, Party memberships, and Party organizations regularly pay attention, cooperate, support, and create favorable conditions for the development of Ho Chi Minh City as per the Resolution.

5. Provincial and City Party Committees nationwide, especially the Southeast region, Mekong Delta, South Central Coast, and Central Highlands, reinforce linkage and cooperative relationships with Ho Chi Minh City.

6. The Central Propaganda Department presides, cooperates with the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee, and relevant organizations guide the propaganda and thorough grasp of the Resolution.

7. The Central Economic Committee presides, cooperates with relevant agencies to regularly monitor, supervise, inspect, and urge the implementation of the Resolution; cooperate with the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee to periodically review, summarize, and report to the Politburo, Secretariat.

According to the Government of Vietnam Portal

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