Sustainable Development Strategy of Vietnam for 2011-2020.

This Sustainable Development Strategy of Vietnam for 2011-2020 is a nationwide multi-sectoral policy document. The general objective of the document is: Sustainable and effective growth must come along with social progress and equality, national resources and environment protection, socio political stability, firm protection of independence- sovereignty- unification and territorial integrity of the country.
The Strategy seeks to ensure food security through protecting 3.8 million hectares of rice land, food supply, nutrition demand and food accessibility of people in accordance with the Politburo’s conclusions and Government’s resolutions.
The Strategy seeks to make agriculture, forestry and fisheries more productive and sustainable. Sustainable development of rural areas must include four processes: industrialization and modernization; urbanization; population control; environmental protection. The priorities include: To enhance the effectivenness of land use, enesure the balance of land use demand among sectors and food security, develop transparent and effective system of financial and price policies in relation to land; To increase the productivity of land ecosystems and consider sustainable agriculture production as a priority, promulgate policies on poverty reduction support based on the view of climate change adaptation and biodiversity conservation, apply cultivation techniques in order to mitigate the use of fertilizer and chemical substances in agriculture production; To enhance scientific and technological research in combination with preservation of local residents’ knowledge to prevent land degradation and restore degraded land; To develop structure of crop plants and livestock in accordance with each specific region, ensure sustainable use of land resources and protect and develop forests; Protection of water environment and sustainable use of water resources; etc.
The Strategy promotes to reduce rural poverty and improve the life quality of farmers in terms of economic, cultural, social, environmental and democratic aspects. The process of urbanization and modernization of rural areas must comply with the norms of building new rural areas, lessen development gap between urban and rural areas in terms of material and spiritual aspects. Key economic zones will play as the engine to motivate mountainous, remote, bordering and island areas. In social aspect, priorities include: To accelerate poverty reduction toward sustainability; create sustainable employment; implement social progress and equality; fruitfully realize social security policies; to prioritize resources for poverty reduction and improvement of living conditions of people in most disadvantaged areas.
To enable more inclusive and efficient agricultural and food systems, the Strategy proposes the following priorities: To raise the quantity and quality of healthcare services; ensure food safety; to shift the structure of agriculture and rural areas towards industrialization, promote regional advantages; develop quality agricultural products; combine production with local and foreign market in order to lift the efficiency of using natural resources ; heighten income per hectare of cultivated land and per working day; improve farmers’ living standard; sustainablly develop craft villages,; speed up the application of scientific and technological advances in production, processing, storage, particularly the application of biotechnology in creating crop plants and domestic animals varieties and production process that yield high productivity and quality. Adjust and supplement agriculture, forestry and aquaculture planning schemes in each economic zone or interregional economic zone towards sustainable development, combine production with market, raw material zones with processing industry.
In addition, the strategic highlights climate change adaptation, reduction of impacts and prevention of natural disasters. The priorities are: To develop and enhance people’s response and resilience capacity to protect natural resources in the context of climate change and improve living standards, ensure environmental security and sustainable development; to build a system to monitor climate change and sea level rise. Modernize observation system and technology for hydrometeorological forecasting for early warnings of extreme weather events; etc.