A NOI — While integrating into the global economy, the nation must not ignore investment in the rural and agricultural sectors, said the general director of the Institute of Policy and Strategy of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dang Kim Son, at a conference here yesterday.
The conference was held to review the first annual work plan of the Beyond WTO Programme's second phase. Participants addressed the societal consequences of economic integration for rural areas and discussed ways to strengthen the institutions of the market economy overall.
Farmers were the most vulnerable group when markets fluctuated as they were outside the social safety net, Son said, urging the Government to adopt policies to support the incomes of farmers, especially in times of crisis.
The domestic and international economic environment has changed considerably since Viet Nam joined the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the head of the Beyond WTO Programme's steering committee, Nguyen Van Long, told the conference.
Under the circumstances of global crisis, it was necessary to build strong national institutions to maximise the benefits of integration and minimise the side effects of globalisation, Long said. To deal with difficulties, the Vietnamese Government has focused its policies on stabilising the economy and improving its competitiveness, he added.
"While building a market economy, we have to reposition the role of the State and the role of the market," said the head of the legal department of the Viet Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Tran Huu Huynh.
In a recessionary period, the State needed to interfere into the market more deeply but still needed to ensure healthy operation of the market economy, Huynh said.
He suggested that the Viet Nam Competition Authority and the Market Management Department no longer be placed under the authority of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, which was the ministry which also managed production sectors.
Trinh Anh Tuan, head of the International Co-operation Board under the Viet Nam Competition Authority, agreed, saying that the independence of the authority needed to be ensured in light of the ministry's management of State-owned enterprises which held a large share of the market in production sectors and which remained one of the major obstacles in the process of persuading other countries to recognise Viet Nam's market economy.
The Beyond WTO Programme was developed in response to a request from the Vietnamese Government for donor support to help with managing economic integration into the global economy and the transition to a market economy in the period following Viet Nam's accession to the WTO.
The second phase of the programme, launched in September 2009, has focused on capacity building for management and co-ordination of integration; support implementation for provincial action plans; and management of the multi-donor trust fund (MDTF).
The programme has been funded by the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) and the UK Department for International Development (DFID). — VNS
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