The Vietnam
News Agency has selected ten highlights of Vietnam in 2010 which record the
country’s development over the year.

These highlights are:

1. Congresses of Party
committees at all level were convened in preparation for the 11th National
Party Congress. These were important political activities aiming to
comprehensively sum up the country’s development over the past five years,
and define directions and tasks for sectors and localities in the 2011-2015
period. Draft documents to be presented to the National Congress were first
shown to the public for discussion and comments.

2. Vietnam successfully
completed its term as ASEAN Chair. Through the hosting of more than 100
conferences and important ASEAN political events, Vietnam proved itself a
dynamic, active and responsible ASEAN Chair, diligently achieving the
association’s targets for 2010. The country’s success helped strengthen
solidarity and accelerate construction of the ASEAN Community, and at the
same time raised the country’s prestige on the world stage.

3. The celebrations of Thang
Long-Hanoi millennium anniversary were organised solemnly. Hundreds of
activities to celebrate the capital city’s 1,000 th birthday were held in
and outside the country, and more than 60 projects to welcome the grand
festival were inaugurated in 2010. These activities expressed the younger
generations’ respect, traditional patriotism, and love of origin to
predecessors who sacrificed their lives for Vietnam to become a country of
peace, stability and prosperity.

4. The economy recovered, and
GDP increased by 6.7 percent in the context where the world economy was
facing instability after global recession. The country saw 16 out of 21
socio-economic yearly targets fulfilled or exceeded. However, high increases
in consumer price index due to complex market fluctuations affected
production and people’s living standards.

5. Two key national projects
were inaugurated. On Dec. 17, the first turbine group of the 2,400 MW Son La
Hydro-electric Power Plant was connected to the national grid, two years
ahead of schedule. The 3 billion USD Dung Quat Oil Refinery, with a capacity
of 6.5 million tonnes of products per year, or one third of domestic demand,
produced 6.75 million tonnes of products, and sold more than 6.66 million
tonnes of petroleum in its first year of operation.

6. Vietnam was recognised by the
United Nations as one of leaders in performing the Millennium Development
Goals (MDGs). At the UN Summit to review 10 years of the implementation of
MDGs in New York in September 2010, Vietnam was praised as an example in its
early completion of five out of 8 MDGs, with the country expected to
complete all MDGs by 2015. The two most successful goals were poverty
reduction and universal education.

7. Many of Vietnam ’s heritages
won recognition of UNESCO. In 2010, Vietnam had four more UNESCO-recognised
world heritages. The Thang Long Royal Citadel relic was officially
recognised as a world cultural heritage, 82 doctor laureate steles in Van
Mieu (Temple of Literature) in Hanoi became a historical documentary
heritage in the list of UNESCO’s Global Memory of the World Programme, the
Saint Giong Festival was listed as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of
Humanity, and the Dong Van Stone Plateau joined the Global Network of
National Geoparks.

8. Professor Ngo Bao Chau, 38,
was awarded with the Fields medal. Chau was the first Vietnamese to receive
the award – comparable to a Nobel prize – for mathematicians under the age
of 40. The award was the world mathematical community’s recognition of his
proof of the Langlands Fundamental Lemma.

9. Biggest ever rains and floods
in 100 years hit the central region. Consecutive floods ravaged the central
region in October and November, claiming 198 lives, with 35 missing and 197
injured. The total loss was estimated at over 13.5 trillion VND.

10. The biggest ship builder,
Vietnam Shipbuilding Industry Group (VINASHIN), was restructured. The
group’s serious wrongdoings were dealt with and the Government decided to
restructure the group in order to continue a determination to build and
develop the shipbuilding industry into a spearhead industry of the maritime
economy, and to carry out the Vietnam Marine Strategy.