VietNamNet Bridge – The National Assembly continued its question-and-answer session yesterday between deputies and the ministers of education, industry and trade, health - and the Governor of the State Bank. The session was chaired by NA Chairman Nguyen Phu Trong.

Students at Gia Lai Province’s Ha Tay high school, which was built with funds from the 135 Programme.

Deputy Nguyen Lan Dung from Dak Lak Province opened the session by talking about the stability of the fundamental education programme and textbooks.

Nhan said that the ministry had collected suggestions from many agencies including 20,000 schools nationwide. Most agencies agreed that the programme and textbooks had followed the targets set by the 2001-10 education development strategy, ensuring they meet regional standards.

However, there were still shortcomings existing in the vocabulary of maths, physics and chemistry which proved difficult to understand; and some content of some textbooks had yet to match the personality of students.

“The ministry has conducted checks and readjustments. This issue will be resolved soon,” said Nhan.

Answering the questions of deputy Ha Quoc Dung from Binh Dinh Province that many non-State universities and colleges were established, but some had yet to meet standards set for teachers and facilities, Nhan admitted this to be true.

The number of non-State universities had increased to 200 in 2007 from 110 in 1997. This increase was to meet the society’s demand, he said. However, this rapid development had created many problems as the universities had too few lecturers, lack of management from localities, and many universities had failed to publicly announce the number of students.

To solve this problem, Nhan said the ministry had asked the Prime Minister not to open any more new universities until necessary standards for the university’s establishment had been met. The universities which failed the annual review would be punished.

At present, the ministry is pushing a project of training 20,000 doctors from now to 2020, which was expected to help non-State universities increase awareness about the importance of improving the quality of the lecturers.

The ministry also directed non-State universities to make public information on training quality, financial collection and expenditure on the ministry’s website.

Deputy Le Van Cuong from Thanh Hoa Province queried the ministry’s interest in remote training as pre-school education had yet to receive proper attention.

The minister said that he was interested in pre-school education but the country’s capacity was still limited. From 1975 to 2000, the ministry spent 32 per cent of its budget on universal education for primary level. The ministry then spent more than 20 per cent of its budget on universal education for junior secondary level from 2000 to now. Therefore, the ministry was unable to focus on pre-school education.

Nhan said the ministry had set targets this year to universalise education for five-year-old children before entering the first grade. In mountain areas, semi-public kindergartens would be changed to State schools to attract children.

Dealing with questions from many deputies including Hoang Thi Binh from Cao Bang Province about ways to raise the education quality in mountain areas, the minister said the State’s interest in mountain areas was clear by the fact that expenditure in those areas was always two or three times higher than the country’s average; and priority and foreign funded projects were given to upgrading schools and classrooms.

The ministry this year focused on the rotation of teachers and increasing the rate of teachers who were ethnic minority people to teach in highland areas. Highland teachers would receive a subsidy of 50 per cent of minimum salary this year.

Regarding the questions of Deputy Tran Hoang Tham from HCM City about methods to maintain the education’s development, Nhan said the number of students achieving national and international awards had increased and more developed countries were receiving Vietnamese postgraduates. This showed that the student’s quality had improved.

However, there were still limits in teaching programmes. The designing of programmes and curricula were still backward, and teaching and management capacity was weak.

To solve this problem, the ministry would establish a compiling council, use a number of foreign education programmes and standardise the training of doctors.

This was the second time Nhan had taken part in the question-and-answer session and he reported on the progress of projects he promised to undertake at the first session: job for students after graduating, rotation of teachers, encouraging the private sector to build schools and easing the burden of the learning programme.

Central bank policies

“The monetary, exchange rate and interest rate policies of the State Bank of Viet Nam are aimed at bolstering exports, economic growth, sustainable development while preventing negative impacts of the ongoing global economic crisis,” said Governor Nguyen Van Giau yesterday.

Twelve questions were sent to the Government both in written form and at yesterday’s question and answer session.

Several deputies challenged the Governor about the so-called “sudden” tightening of monetary policy and high lending interest rates, which have been blamed for the short-capital situation suffered recently by small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs).

During the recent period or very high consumer prices, the central bank withdrew money out of circulation to control inflation. All in all, the central bank has withdrawn about VND35 trillion ($2.07 billion) out of circulation since late May last year.

But those policies were not sudden, Giau said. Credit institutions had at least 45 days to prepare before implementing regulations. Giau sympathised with the difficulties faced by SMEs, but he also noted that the entire economy was undergoing similar difficulties.

The country currently has 349,000 SMEs, less than two thirds of which are paying tax worth VND18 trillion ($1.05 billion). Total bank loans to this sector are currently about VND263 trillion ($15.5 billion), according to the Governor.

Regarding the exchange rate, Deputy Nguyen Thi Nguyet Huong from Ha Noi challenged the Governor about this responsibility in managing the exchange rate policy and future plans.

Governor Giau responded that the central bank set up and managed the exchange rate based on supply-demand ties for exports. Last year, when many foreign currencies depreciated, creating big pressure on the Vietnamese dong, Viet Nam tried to keep the dong unchanged in order to prop up exports. So far this year, the dong has depreciated about 6 per cent.

The Governor added that the Central Bank always kept its eyes on market changes and adjusted the exchange rate accordingly. Deputy Governor Nguyen Van Binh was appointed to work daily with a Deputy Minister of Trade and the ministry on the issue. Giau noted that the economic crisis was undergoing very complicated turbulence, so every adjustment had to be considered thoroughly.

For the bank investment, Deputy Dang Thi My Huong from Ninh Thuan Province asked the Governor to clarify the unreasonable investment of banks in risky sectors like property and securities while capital provision for production was still limited.

The Governor confessed that in May last year, outstanding loans for securities investment was rather large, about VND25.2 trillion (US$1.49 billion). But the central bank has applied strong measures to reduce the figure. Until now, the outstanding loans for securities investment is about VND6 trillion ($355.2 million).

So far this year, total lending capital for the property sector is about VND15 trillion ($6.8 billion), accounting for 15 per cent of total outstanding loans of the whole banking system. Most lending capital for the property sector prioritises demand on buying or repairing houses, building offices for lease and living quarters.

At the session, the Governor also emphasised that year on year credit growth of the banking system through the end of October was 19.6 per cent, down from 37 per cent last year, while deposits growth rate was 34 per cent, up from 31 per cent last year.

Medical waste concern

In yesterday’s Q&A session with Health Minister Nguyen Quoc Trieu, deputies focused their attention to the pressing issues of environment pollution due to medical waste; and cooking safety and hygiene management activities.

Deputy Nguyen Thi Bach Mai from Tay Ninh Province worried about fruits imported to Viet Nam’s market after a recent report of the Organisation that harmful preservatives were used on over 24 per cent of imported fruits in the market. She suggested that the country need more discussion between ministries and sectors in food safety and hygiene management, and the health ministry should take the brunt of responsibility for the people’s health.

Trieu answered that there was a need of closely collaborative activities between many ministries, branches and sectors in managing imported fruits as well as the consequences in humans after long time use.

“The Ministry of Health is willing to take on the role of maestro in collaborating with related ministries and sectors to deal with the issue and help the Government to implement appropriate policies and guidelines in the future,” said Trieu.

Mai also asked Trieu about the issue of medical waste treatment because there was no funding for 60 to 70 per cent of the work in the country.

According to minister Trieu, at present the ministry manages 35 central hospitals and the other 1016 hospitals are controlled by provinces and cities themselves. About 40 per cent of poisonous medical waste is disposed of by burning in standard incinerators, another 33 per cent is burnt by handmade incinerators in poor areas and the remaining 27 per cent are either burnt in open-air or buried.

In the near future, the health ministry aims to draw an overall plan and guide provinces to collaborate with provincial environment and urban companies to treat medical waste in a standard way.

The ministry also estimates that there is a need for US$120-150 million investment for the country’s medical waste treatment system.

Deputy Ha Minh Hue city from Binh Thuan Province asked the minister to comment on why Viet Nam is good in epidemic control but still weak in epidemic prevention activities.

According to Trieu, Viet Nam is a developing countries with a GDP of under $1,000 per capita. The country has faced a lot of challenges in environment pollution as well as epidemic and disease prevention. However, the Party and Government have paid a lot of attention to people’s health care, especially the poor. More than 15 million poor people were provided with free health insurance cards while children under the age of six were also covered free of charge.

“All successes in health care activities are efforts of the Government though there are still evident difficulties and challenges in epidemic prevention. The country should target goals corresponding to socio-economic potential,” said Trieu.

NA Chairman Nguyen Phu Trong also suggested the health sector focus more on epidemic prevention.

Deputies also asked the health minister about issues relating to human resources and socialisation policies in healthcare activities.

According to Trieu, the Government encourages health socialisation activities with an aim of mobilising more financial resources from the private sector for investment in people’s healthcare activities. From now to 2010, 621 district level hospitals will be upgraded by State Bond resources.

The state health sector now owns 97 per cent of total hospital beds and only 3 per cent of total hospital beds belong to the private health sector. The country will create more favourable conditions for private health sector development.

From now to 2010, doctors or medical staffs have the right to work for both state hospitals and private hospitals outside working hours. In the coming time, the health sector plans to train more staff to meet the country demand.

(Source: Viet Nam News)