It is a mistake to have too much planning, including planning for... tilapia.

Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Dang Huy Dong commented like that when presenting the draft Law on Planning to the National Assembly Standing Committee on the morning of September 16.

Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Dang Huy Dong said that products are decided by the market, not by administrative will through planning - Photo: LK

Mr. Dong believes that this draft law will help overcome the situation of too many low-quality, overlapping, and contradictory plans, which both waste resources and cause difficulties for development.

“Divided, local, lack of connection”

The Standing Committee of the National Assembly's Economic Committee also affirmed that "the promulgation of the Planning Law is very necessary to ensure legality, concretize the socio-economic development strategy, closely follow development needs, orient to improve the efficiency of using the country's resources and is an important tool in managing socio-economic development".

According to Chairman of the Economic Committee Vu Hong Thanh, the standing committee of this committee agreed to stipulate that the national master plan is established according to an integrated, multi-sectoral method, with orientation, forecasting and sustainable development, high legality of the national master plan, is a step to concretize the socio-economic development strategy in the entire national territory and is a bridge between strategy and plan.

“This plan ensures the unity and synchronization of the planning system nationwide, overcomes the situation of fragmented, localized management, and lack of connection between plans, while creating a unified development space, overcoming the contradiction between regional planning and provincial planning in terms of development space, goals, policy tools, resource allocation, project selection, and priority investment programs,” said Mr. Thanh.

There is even a plan for… tilapia.

Head of the People's Petition Committee Nguyen Thanh Hai asked: "As the Deputy Minister said, the recent planning has a large number, causing waste. Please explain this situation clearly."

In response, Deputy Minister Dong said we were very wrong to have too many plans, even plans for tra fish, tilapia… We live in the era of market economy, how products grow or develop is decided by the market. The output of tra fish we raise is not only determined by the domestic market, but also by the international market with many influencing factors.

“Making such a product industry plan will be unmanageable. These plans even create barriers to production and business by creating excuses for asking and giving. Therefore, the Government is highly unanimous in abolishing product industry plans in this planning law,” said Mr. Dong.

Deputy Minister Dong also affirmed that integrating planning will end overlap, conflict, and individualism in planning in recent times.

He gave the example of a suburban district in Hanoi where, after administrative boundary adjustment, people waited for 9 years but still had not been granted land for business due to planning conflicts between two departments of the city.

"The national master plan will be established based on the national development strategy, with a comprehensive and principled nature, which will end the conflict and overlap in planning," said Mr. Dong.

Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Uong Chu Luu suggested that sanctions should be stipulated in the bill to ensure the stability of the planning. "The planning is like this now, but a few years later, when a new leader comes in, it will be adjusted very gently," said Mr. Luu.

Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee Nguyen Van Giau said that planning must ensure both principles and flexibility, and be suitable for socio-economic development in each period.

“We have seen golf course planning going up and down, going here and there. Or recently the steel project in Ca Na, whether planned or not, was still a big deal in the press,” Mr. Giau gave an example.

According to Tuoi Tre