Article 1.- To approve the master plan on socio-economic development of Cao Bang province in the 2006-2020 period with the following principal contents:

1. Development viewpoints

a/ The master plan on socio-economic development of Cao Bang province in the 2006-2020 period must be in line with the master plan on socio-economic development of the northern midland and mountainous regions and the national socio-economic development strategy;

b/ The rapid, efficient and sustainable development and economic growth must couple with social progress and justice and environmental protection;

c/ The socio-economic development is closely associated with environmental protection and improvement, ensuring the harmony between the man-made environment and the natural environment and preserving the biological diversity;

d/ The socio-economic development is based on the promotion of the province's strengths and comparative advantages, and maximal mobilization of resources (both domestic and overseas resources), especially capital sources, sciences and technologies;

e/ The socio-economic development is closely combined with the consolidation of defense and security and the firm safeguarding of national borders and sovereignty;

f/ To actively integrate with the world and regional economy; to expand economic cooperation relations with foreign countries for development.

2. Development objectives

a/ General objectives

To develop the economy at a higher growth rate, with higher quality and more sustainably than the previous period. To restructure the economy and labor force in the direction of quickly raising the ratio of service and industry and reducing that of agriculture. To accelerate the industrialization and modernization of the economy. To prioritize the development of education and training to raise the people's intellectual levels and the quality of human resources. To intensify the transfer and application of modern sciences and technologies to production and management in order to generate higher productivity, quality and efficiency. To markedly improve the material, cultural and spiritual life of ethnic minority people, especially those in border areas. To firmly maintain the political stability and social order and safety. To firmly protect the national sovereignty and security. To strive for the target that by 2020, Cao Bang will attain the above-average development level as compared with the northern midland and mountainous provinces and have a per-capita income level equal to that of the whole country.

b/ Specific objectives

- The average economic growth rate (GDP) will be 15%/year in the 2006-2010, 13%/year in the 2011-2015 period and 10%/year in the 2016-2020 period;

- Per-capita GDP will reach USD 600 by 2010 and USD 1,600 by 2020;

- The economy will be rapidly restructured in the direction of lower ratio of agriculture and higher ratios of service and industry-construction (by 2010, agriculture, forestry and fishery will account for 25.9%; industry'construction 28.4% and service 45.7%; by 2015, agriculture, forestry and fishery will account for 19.1%; industry'construction 32.1% and service 48.8%; by 2020, agriculture, forestry and fishery will account for 15%; industry'construction 35.8%, service 49.2%);

- To complete by 2008 the universalization of lower secondary education; by 2020, the province will attain the national standards on upper secondary education universalization; the percentage of trained laborers will be 26% (of whom 19% will be vocationally trained) by 2010 and 38% (of whom 31% will be vocationally trained) by 2020. On average, jobs will be created for 10,000'14,000 laborers each year;

- To strive for the target that by 2010, every 10,000 people will have 9 medical doctors and 25 patient beds; by 2020, every 10,000 people will have 12 medical doctors and 30 patient beds, 30% of communes will reach the national standards on healthcare, and the population growth rate will be 1.0%;

- To reduce the percentage of poor households to 29.5% by 2010 and under 10% by 2020; the urban unemployment rate will be under 4% by 2010; by 2010, 95% of urban population and 85% of the rural population will be supplied with hygienic water, and the radio and television broadcasting coverage will be 90%; by 2020, 100% of urban population and 90% of rural population will be supplied with hygienic water, and the radio and television broadcasting coverage will be 100%.

- To firmly construct and consolidate the defense zone in the province; to basically complete the distribution, location and settlement of population of border communes;

- To raise the forest coverage to 52% by 2010 and 60% by 2020; to well solve the issues of environmental sanitation in urban centers, border gates, industrial parks, ore mining areas, and assure food hygiene and safety.

3. Orientations for development of branches and domains

a/ Agriculture, forestry and fishery

- To develop commodity agriculture on the basis of building of raw material areas in association with processing of key agricultural products. To select cultivation plants suitable to the highland terrain conditions and of economic values with a view to raising the efficiency of agricultural production, attaching importance to poor areas, border areas and ethnic minority areas; to substantially restructure the cultivation, husbandry and service in the direction of higher values and active application of appropriate technologies to generate a large commodity value on a land area unit and assure the sustainable agricultural development;

- The growth rate will be 5.5%/year in the 2006-2010 period and 4.9%/year in the 2011-2020 period;

- To produce food in the direction of intensive farming and introduction of new varieties of high yields, quality and efficiency, focusing on the development of wet rice and hybrid maize; to attach importance to the development of crops suitable to the province's conditions and capable of turning out key commodity products in the direction of intensive farming for higher productivity, such as sugar cane, soybean and tobacco; to build a greenery belt where clean assorted vegetables and leguminous plants are grown and supplied to the provincial town and industrial parks; to concentrate on developing such fruit trees as pear, plum, grape fruit, orange, mandarin and seedless persimmon of new varieties and in association with product outlets;

- To develop husbandry which produces commodities of high economic values on the basis of taking advantage of a mountainous province; to concentrate on developing a herd of beef cows on a semi-industrial scale; to develop the farming of buffaloes, goats, lean porkers and poultry in farms and households; the ratio of husbandry in agriculture will be 40.8% by 2010 and 46.3% by 2020;

- To build the system of special-use forests and the system of headwater protective forests; to combine the planting of new forests and forest zoning for regeneration, and develop the system of production forests, including paper raw material and industrial timber forests, anise, cardamom and "bitter tea" forests; to increase the forest coverage to 52% by 2010 and over 60% by 2020;

- To exploit the existing surface water area, build more water reservoirs for irrigation combined with concentrated aquaculture for the purpose of commodity production; to build establishments producing breeding fishes to meet the demands of the locality and neighboring provinces.

b/ Industry'construction

- To create a breakthrough growth at 26% by 2010, 14.6% by 2020 and 17%/year for the whole period on average;

- Mineral exploitation and processing: To ensure that no destruction or environmental pollution is caused; to economically and efficiently use assorted minerals; to promote investment in exploitation combined with fine-processing of iron, manganese, tin and bauxite ores; to organize the management of mining and collection of minerals in small mines in the province;

- Development of hydropower: To survey, plan and step up the tapping of hydroelectric potentials of rivers and streams in the province; to adopt mechanisms and policies to attract investors to build small- and medium-sized hydroelectric plants;

- Development of production of building materials: To meet the province's greater and greater demand for building materials; to renew cement production technologies, increase the province's cement output and quality; to well organize the exploitation of available materials, for instance stone, for building and use as raw materials for cement production; to develop the production of bricks, roofing tiles, sand and gravel in the locality;

- To build De Tham industrial park, and step by step form Chu Trinh and Phuc Hoa industrial parks; to enhance domestic and foreign investment promotion for industrial development; to satellite industrial clusters, processing industry, cottage industry and handicraft for manufacturing small-sized mechanical machinery and handheld tools, or processing agricultural and forest products in service of agricultural and rural development.

- To conserve and develop handicraft production lines, and restore traditional craft villages in service of consumer goods production, tourist development and export, thereby creating jobs and increasing incomes for agricultural and rural laborers.

c/ Trade'service

- To intensify the investment in trade infrastructures in the provincial town, future cities, and border gate economic zones, giving priority to Ta Lung border-gate and general trade and service centers; to attract investment and promote goods exchange between Cao Bang and the whole country as well as the Chinese market;

- To build markets in centers of commune clusters, townships and traffic hubs, and stations for farm produce purchase, create favorable conditions for people in rural areas and highland areas to exchange their products, thereby stimulating production development, meeting the demands for essential commodities and stabilizing market prices;

- To plan the production of a number of leading export goods, thereby stabilizing export markets and goods, raising the competitiveness of those export goods and enabling them to penetrate into new markets;

- To develop cultural-historical tourism, eco-tourism and landscape tourism;

- To formulate and organize the implementation of a number of mechanisms and policies to encourage all economic sectors, domestic and foreign enterprises to invest in developing entertainment, recreation, sport, food catering, hotel, restaurant services, satisfying the requirements of tourist development;

- To revitalize and organize traditional festivities, and well carry out the introduction of historical relics to tourists;

- To encourage all economic sectors to participate in developing transport services; to strive for the target that the current transportation capacity will double by 2010 and triple by 2020;

- To plan the development of the province's postal and telecommunications service network, step up the application of information technology (including the Internet) to satisfy society's increasing requirements for higher and higher service quality; by 2010 and 2020, every 100 people will have 18 and 30 telephone sets respectively;

- To further intensify financial, banking and insurance activities, thus contributing to promoting the development of the province's production and business.

d/ Social domains

- Population development: To further step up the family planning and reproductive health care in order to raise the population quality; by 2010, the province's population will be some 540,000 with an average growth rate of 1.05%/year; by 2020, it will be 600,000 with an average growth rate of 1.0%/year; the percentage of urban population will be around 18% by 2010 and nearly 30% by 2020;

- Education and training: To step up the socialization of education and training; to attach importance to training cooperation with domestic universities and Quangxi university (China). To complete as soon as possible the building of the provincial vocational training school, establish a regional vocational training center and vocational training institutions in districts; to upgrade material foundations for the provincial boarding school, build boarding and semi-boarding schools in districts, create more favorable conditions for children of ethnic minority people to go to school; to establish Cao Bang University on the basis of the teachers' training college, the medical intermediate school and the agro-forestry intermediate school; to attach importance to training of human resources for international economic integration; to pay special attention to raising the teaching and learning quality in the new situation; to complete the lower secondary education universalization by 2008; to attain the national standards on upper secondary education universalization by 2020; the percentage of trained laborers will reach 26% by 2010 and 38% by 2020;

- Health and community healthcare: To upgrade and expand the medical network from the provincial to district and communal levels on the principle that disease prevention is better than cure; to concentrate on upgrading medical establishments at district and communal levels and in villages and hamlets; to quickly complete the upgrading of the provincial general hospital; to promptly commence the building of a general hospital in the western area (Bao Lac district). To strive for the target that every 10,000 people will have 9 medical doctors and 25 patient beds by 2010 and every 10,000 people will have 12 medical doctors and 30 patient beds and 30% of communes will attain the national healthcare standards by 2020; to ensure the environmental sanitation and food safety; to prevent, combat and repel the social evil of narcotic abuse, prevent the transmission of HIV/AIDS in the community and other dangerous diseases and epidemics;

- Culture and social affairs: To build and upgrade cultural houses of communes, villages and hamlets, with priority given to border, deep-lying and remote villages and hamlets; to build a healthy cultured lifestyle; to conserve and promote the cultural identities of various ethnic groups in the province; to expand the radio and television coverage and increase the time volume of radio and television broadcasts in ethnic minority languages; to upgrade libraries of the province, districts and towns; to consolidate communal libraries; to intensify the distribution of printed matters, books and newspapers disseminating legal, scientific and technical knowledge to farmers;

- Physical training and sports: To completely build the sport competition center of the province; to invest in development of sport technical infrastructures for districts and district capitals; to attach importance to training of athletes who show potentials to record high sport achievements, especially in traditional martial arts; to regularly launch the mass physical training and sport movement. To strive for the target that by 2010, Cao Bang will have athletes winning national sport prizes;

- Hunger eradication and poverty alleviation: To further implement Program 135, phase II, and invest in 106 communes meeting with exceptional difficulties to help them escape from poverty in the 2006'2010 period; to implement the Prime Minister's Decision No. 134/2004/QD-TTg, provide supports for people to solidify their houses, and assign production and residential land to all needy households, with special attention paid to ethnic minority households in border, deep-lying and remote areas. To further carry out well hunger eradication and poverty alleviation programs and projects; to promote the agriculture, forestry and fishery extension; to reduce the percentage of poor households to 29.5% by 2010 and under 10% by 2020; to step up the vocational training and generate new jobs and occupations in order to accelerate the transfer of laborers from agriculture to industry and service sectors; to raise the vocational training quality, meeting requirements of labor export; to strive for the target that jobs will be created for 10,000'14,000 each year.

e/ Defense and security

- To intensify the consolidation of defense and security and the maintenance of social order and safety, protect the national sovereignty and maintain political stability for socio-economic development. To build an all-people defense combined with the people's security posture. To maintain political security, social order and safety, to prevent and combat crimes detrimental to national security, repel social evils and reduce traffic accidents;

- To regularly organize combat drills and military maneuvers in the province's defense zone, prepare all conditions for readiness to cope with any circumstances so as to firmly safeguard the fatherland's border areas;

- To build a peaceful and friendship Vietnam-China borderline; to expand the diplomatic relation and economic, scientific, technical, educational and training cooperation with China for socio-economic development.

f/ Infrastructure development:

- To speed up the renovation and upgrading of national highways 3, 4A, 34 and 4C, to complete the building of a road linking national highway 3 with national highway 4A (the bypass circling Cao Bang provincial capital), and expeditiously build Ho Chi Minh road's section running through Cao Bang province. To prioritize the investment in upgrading roads leading to the border gates and tourist sites and border belt roads. To gradually upgrade the provincial roads and build some new roads in service of defense and security combined with socio-economic development. To raise the quality of inter-communal roads which are accessible all year round. To develop inter-village roads with both the state budget supports and people's contributions. To launch the movement of building village, hamlet and infield roads by the entire population with the state's material and technical supports;

- After 2010, depending on the province's actual situation and transportation needs, the study and formulation of the project on Ha Quang ' Ta Lung border-gate railway (connecting with the railway of Thuy Khau to Sung Ta (China)) and the project on Cao Bang airport will be considered and decided;

- To further invest in building the system of water supply for the provincial town, future cities and industrial parks, and works for supply of daily-life water for district township and traffic hubs with priority given to highland areas. To strive for the target that 95% of urban population and 85% of rural population by 2010 and 100% of urban population and 90% of rural population by 2020 will be supplied with hygienic water;

- To build Lang Son ' Cao Bang 110 kV transmission line; to further develop the rural power grid. The percentage of households supplied with electricity will be 85% by 2010 and 100% by 2020;

- To prioritize the building of essential infrastructures in service of planned arrangement, location and settlement of population in border communes, especially villages and hamlets close to the borderline, ensuring no uninhabited border area;

- To step up the implementation of the program on solidification of canals and ditches; to build more irrigation works, prioritize irrigation-cum-hydropower, irrigation-cum-water supply and irrigation-cum-aquaculture works, attach importance to border areas, and create conditions for people to develop their production, stabilize their life and feel secured to live in and defend the fatherland's border areas;

- To further study, survey and formulate investment projects on anti-corrosion embankments of border rivers and in urban centers, ensuring safety of the borderline and for the people's production and life.

4. Orientations for territory-based development

a/ Development of economic zones

- In plain areas (including Cao Bang provincial town and part of Hoa An district) with Cao Bang provincial town being the center: To promote the development of urban infrastructures with two industrial parks, service quarter and sub-zones for intensive farming of rice, tobacco, soy bean, peanut and maize; to grow vegetables and flowers in sub-zones in the vicinity of Cao Bang provincial town;

- In rocky mountain areas (seven districts): To build Ta Lung urban center and border-gate economic zones (Ta Lung, Tra Linh and Soc Giang) with a fairly developed infrastructure system, a mining area, an industrial cluster, a tourist site and sub-zones for cultivation of rice, soy bean and tobacco (Trung Khanh); sub-zones for sugar cane (Phuc Hoa) and protective and special-use forest sub-zones;

- In earthy mountain areas (four districts): There will be in these areas four district townships associated with the system of upgraded infrastructures, with a mining area, an industrial, cottage industry and handicraft cluster and sub-zones under production forests where truc sao (a bamboo species) and bitter tea are planted; sub-zones under headwater forests, special-use forests and sub-zones for cultivation of rice, maize, soy bean and arrowroot.

b/ Urban and rural development

- To plan the expansion and building of Cao Bang provincial town into a provincial city when conditions permit; to upgrade Ta Lung border gate into an international one and two other border gates of Tra Linh and Soc Giang into national ones. To build and develop Ta Lung township into a grade-IV city; to invest in building Dam Thuy, Truong Ha and Phia Den townships; to develop traffic hubs and border markets.

- To manage and use land, especially urban land, land areas along roads, townships, in traffic hubs, border-gate economic zones and tourist sites, under the land use planning.

5. A number of major solutions for master plan implementation

a/ Mobilization of investment capital

To mobilize to the utmost domestic and foreign capital sources for socio-economic development:

- Domestic capital sources, especially capital source from the central budget, will be decisive to the development of economic-technical infrastructures, defense and security consolidation, hunger eradication and poverty alleviation; the central budget shall provide supports for the local budget in the spirit of the Communist Party of Vietnam's Political Bureau's Resolution No. 37-NQ/TW of July 1, 2004;

- To intensify the promotion of investment in, introduction and advertisement of Cao Bang province in order to attract investment capital in domains with advantages, such as mineral exploitation and processing; development of some specialty plants and animals; and create favorable conditions for enterprises to borrow investment credits for development of their production and business according to regulations;

- To actively mobilize and attract ODA capital for development of socio-economic infrastructures, hunger eradication and poverty alleviation; to formulate and implement mechanisms and policies to attract foreign direct investment, with special attention paid to Chinese investors, for development of key high-quality commodities and export products, and construction of infrastructures of industrial parks and urban centers.

b/ Mechanisms and policies

- To continue reviewing and supplementing mechanisms and policies to make them compliant with legal provisions, and propose new policies to the Government in order to get priority development investment for Cao Bang province;

- To step up the administrative reform and apply the "one-stop shop" mechanism; to modernize working offices of administrations of all levels, especially commune administrations. To well perform the organization and personnel work; to formulate mechanisms and policies to attract talented people to work in the locality, raise the effectiveness and efficiency of the state administrative apparatus; to fight waste and corruption. To widely and efficiently apply information technology to the managerial work. To implement the democracy regulation in combination with the perfection of the regulation on state management at the grassroots level. To develop and raise the quality of human resources through training and re-training;

- To couple the decentralization with the enhanced inspection and supervision in the domains of land, mineral exploitation and processing, investment licensing, capital construction, export and import.

c/ Science and technology

- To prioritize the application of advanced technologies to industrial production, production of plant varieties and livestock breeds; to standardize the process of production of key commodities up to national and international standards, with good brand images and high competitiveness on the market;

- To attach importance to the training and improvement of qualifications of scientific and technological personnel engaged in production of plant varieties and livestock breeds or processing industry, with a view to raising the productivity and product quality and reducing production costs.

d/ Development of human resources

- To attach importance to the fostering of the province's cadres and civil servants in order to improve their professional and state management knowledge and gradually raise their foreign language and computer skills; to build up a contingent of cadres and civil servants with ethical quality and professional qualifications satisfying socio-economic development requirements of the new period;

- To further carry out the reorganization and transformation of the province's enterprises in order to further improve their management capability and operation efficiency, helping them prepare themselves for regional and international economic integration; to provide technical and managerial skill training for owners of farms and households, with a view to turning them into strong economic cells which can produce commodities of high competitiveness on the domestic and overseas markets;

- To cooperate with a number of Chinese universities, especially those in Quangxi province, in training experts with high qualifications, thereby making a breakthrough in the development of the province's human resources;

- To well carry out vocational education and intensify vocational training in order to create a skilled labor force which can satisfy requirements of the province's socio-economic domains and for export.

e/ Organization of implementation and supervision of the master plan

- To organize the announcement and dissemination of the master plan after it is approved; to concretize the master plan's objectives into five-year and annual plans for organization of implementation. To promote investment activities, introduce and advertise priority projects, and invite investors to come and invest in production and business in Cao Bang province.

- The Party Committees and administrations of all levels, all branches, mass organizations and people in the province shall supervise and implement the master plan; assess the implementation of the master plan, review and readjust the master plan when it becomes inappropriate.

Article 2.- This master plan serves as an orientation and a basis for the elaboration, submission for approval and implementation of specialized plannings and investment projects in the province according to regulations.

Article 3.- To assign the People's Committee of Cao Bang province to base itself on the province's socio-economic development objectives, tasks and orientations stated in the master plan to assume the prime responsibility for, and coordinate with concerned ministries and branches in, directing the elaboration and submission for approval at the beginning of 2007 and organizing the implementation of the following:

1. The strategic environmental impact assessment report.

2. Socio-economic development plannings of districts and provincial towns, the planning on development of urban system and population quarters, the construction planning, land use planning and plans, development plannings of branches and domains, in order to ensure the comprehensive and synchronous development.

3. To study, formulate and promulgate or submit to competent state agencies for promulgation a number of mechanisms and policies suitable to the province's development requirements and compliant with law in each period, in order to attract and mobilize resources for implementation of the master plan.

4. To work out long-, medium- and short-term plans; to formulate key development programs and specific projects for concentrated investment or rational investment priority.

5. To propose to the Prime Minister for consideration and decision timely adjustments and supplements to the master plan to make it suitable to socio-economic development situation of the province, the region and the whole country in each planning period.

Article 4.- To assign concerned ministries and branches to assist, within the ambit of their respective functions, tasks and powers, the People's Committee of Cao Bang province in studying and elaborating the above-said plans and plannings; to study, formulate and submit to competent state agencies for promulgation a number of mechanisms and policies suitable to the province's socio-economic development requirements in each period in order to mobilize and efficiently use resources, promote and attract investment, etc., for implementation of the master plan. To accelerate the investment in and execution of projects and works of regional scale and nature and important to the province's development for which investment decisions have been issued. To study and consider adjustments or supplements to branch development plannings, plans on investment in relevant projects and works eligible for investment specified in the adjusted and supplemented master plan.

Article 5.- This Decision takes effect 15 days after its publication in "CONG BAO."

Article 6.- The president of the People's Committee of Cao Bang province, ministers, heads of ministerial-level agencies and heads of government-attached agencies shall implement this Decision.