It's a mistake to have too many plans, including a plan for... tilapia farming.

Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Dang Huy Dong made this comment 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 stated that product quality is determined by the market, not by administrative will through planning - Photo: LK

Mr. Dong believes that this draft law will help address the problem of too many low-quality, overlapping, and contradictory planning documents, which waste resources and hinder development.

"Fragmented, localized, and lacking in cohesion"

The Standing Committee of the National Assembly's Economic Committee also affirmed that "the promulgation of the Planning Law is essential to ensure legality, concretize the socio-economic development strategy, closely follow development needs, guide the improvement of the efficiency of resource utilization of the country, and is an important tool in managing socio-economic development."

According to Vu Hong Thanh, Chairman of the Economic Committee, the Standing Committee agreed that the national master plan should be developed using an integrated, multi-sectoral approach, with a focus on orientation, forecasting, and sustainable development. The high legal standing of the national master plan is a concrete step in implementing the socio-economic development strategy across the entire national territory and serves as a bridge between strategy and plan.

"This approach ensures the uniformity and consistency of the planning system nationwide, overcoming the situation of fragmented, localized management and lack of linkage between plans, while creating a unified development space and resolving conflicts between regional and provincial planning regarding development space, objectives, policy tools, resource allocation, and selection of priority investment projects and programs," Mr. Thanh said.

There's even a plan… for tilapia farming.

Head of the People's Petition Committee Nguyen Thanh Hai asked: "As the Deputy Minister said, the recent planning has resulted in a large number of projects, causing waste. I request a clear explanation of this situation."

In response, Deputy Minister Dong said we made a big mistake by having too many plans, even plans for catfish and tilapia... We live in a market economy era, and how a product grows or develops is determined by the market. The production of our catfish depends not only on the domestic market but also on the international market with many influencing factors.

"Creating such product sector planning will lead to ineffective management. These plans even create barriers to production and business by providing pretexts for favoritism and corruption. Therefore, in this planning law, the Government unanimously agrees to abolish product sector planning," Mr. Dong said.

Deputy Minister Dong also affirmed that integrating planning would put an end to the overlapping, conflicting, and uncoordinated planning practices that have prevailed in the past.

He cited the example of a suburban district in Hanoi where, after administrative boundary adjustments, residents waited for nine years without receiving land for business purposes due to conflicting planning decisions between two city departments.

"The national master plan will be developed, based on the national development strategy, with a holistic and principled approach, and will put an end to the conflicts and overlaps in planning," Mr. Dong said.

Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly Uong Chu Luu suggested that sanctions should be stipulated in the draft law to ensure the stability of planning. "Now the plan is like this, but a few years later, when a new leader comes in, adjustments can be made very easily," Mr. Luu said.

Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee Nguyen Van Giau stated that planning must ensure both principled principles and flexibility, adapting to the socio-economic development of each period.

"We've seen golf course planning go back and forth, shifting from one place to another. Or recently, the steel project in Ca Na, whether it had a plan or not, caused a huge uproar in the press," Mr. Giau cited as an example.

According to Tuoi Tre newspaper