The draft political report says that Communist Party members can do business for themselves without limitation in scale, yet the Party Secretary General’s report delivered this morning didn’t mention this. Why?

The report of the Party Secretary General is not the general report that combines all documents of the Congress, it only contains reports on 4-5 briefs. The congress is yet to vote on this issue. My point of view is similar to the Congress documents. Party members must be permitted to do business without restriction. In my opinion, they can do business for themselves on condition that they obey the laws of the State and the regulations of the Party.

It means that Party members can do business for themselves and directors of private companies can become Party members?

We should not turn this into that. We should stop at what we are discussing and then see the actual situation to consider the next issue. Experience will dictate what we should do. We should not be too hasty.

Is it too late to allow Party members to enter into business now?

It is difficult to say it is too late or not. Sometimes we think back and say “if, then…we would do better”, but there is objective situation. We have discussed this policy for over ten years. We have to reach the agreement in the Party for this policy. Any policy that makes the division in the Party we should not perform.

The people pay attention to that policy because they want to know how long the private economic sector will exist.

The political report clearly states that the private economic sector exists in the long term and the life will inform us how long it will exist. The Congress also sends the message that enterprises have the right to do business.

The 10^th Party Congress takes place as the economy develops strongly. How will the Congress influence the country’s economic development?

I believe that after the Congress, if we correctly follow Congressional policies, Vietnam’s economy will enter new development steps. The year 1995 was a great landmark as our economy escaped from crisis and 2005 was another one when we defined that Vietnam will become a country of average level income by 2010, leaving its underdeveloped status. To reach that goal, the Congress sets an annual growth rate of 7.5-85. With that policy, the economy will develop more favorably.

Is Congress putting forward the policy on foreign investment to further attract investment into Vietnam?

The foreign investment policy is a consistent policy applied since 1987. Since we voted in the law on investment, we have amended it four times, and the Congress will not be discussing details of it this time around. However, Congress considers foreign investment (both direct and indirect) as an effective means of raising capital.

However, we still have problems in the management of ODA funds. How will the management mechanism change?

The Government is paying special attention to this issue. Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung directly oversees the implementation of this. Moreover, the mid-term consultative meeting will discuss this issue in mid-June. It’s right that we need to work on the ODA management mechanism, and we will be referring to opinions from international experts.

The World Bank report mentions weakness of the model for Project Management Units, how will this be dealt with?

The issue has been discussed and it will be decided after the Congress. We need to seek the most rational direction and mechanism for it, and the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Planning and Investment are working on this now.

Source: VietnamNet