- Beef up administrative reform, improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the State apparatus: Streamline administrative procedures and process of handling administrative procedures, review and quickly abolish outdated procedures; accelerate the development of e-government and public service centers in order to build an open, transparent and stable business environment; reduce time required for State agencies’ decision-making process; make public all policies, management mechanisms, procedures; prevent failure to perform public duties as prescribed by law, combat harassments, and create favorable conditions for business and citizens to supervise the implementation process.

- Improve the competitiveness of the national economy, enterprises, and products; strive to develop trade marks of international prestige; mobilize and improve the effectiveness of resources to speed up the development of energy, information and transport infrastructure; pursue sustainable urban development; develop and use human resource effectively; improve competitiveness of enterprises, including State-owned, private and foreign-invested ones. Apply international supervision norms in these fields; develop and deploy a catch-up roadmap to attain the average level of ASEAN-6 and ASEAN-4 countries in terms of these norms.

- Well handle environmental issues in the socio-economic development course; improve and raise the efficiency of the legal system on natural resources and environment; continue proper application of international regulations on environmental standards in Viet Nam; speed up the engagement of the society in environmental protection, enhance dissemination of information and laws on natural resources and environment.

2. Keep on improving business environment to attract foreign investment, combine investment attraction with supervision of the implementation process to ensure economic security and socio-economic and environmental effectiveness. Accelerate the restructuring process of public investment, encourage private investment and public-private partnership. Improve the effectiveness of investment capital; strictly manage public debt, including foreign debt.

- Improve the socio-economic-environmental efficiency of foreign investment to support economic restructuring, growth model transformation, and improvement of efficiency and competitiveness of the economy; develop auxiliary industries and heighten Viet Nam’s position in global production network and value chain.

- Develop and deploy the strategy to lure foreign investment through 2030, especially high-quality foreign direct investment; comprehensively implement measures to attract multinational groups to Viet Nam; review and consolidate the legal and supervision systems in accordance with international standards in order to protect interests of investors, especially minority investors.

- Increase the attractiveness of business environment to the average level of ASEAN-6 countries. Continue simplification of business startup procedures; enhance the efficiency of protecting rights and interests of investors; speed up information technology application in local-level governance to create open and transparent business environment, etc, strive to catch up and surpass ASEAN-4 countries in some of business environment indexes.

- Deploy public investment restructuring plans; raise the leading role of public investment in socio-economic development while encouraging and creating favorable conditions for private investment. Improve legal background to make private investment truly a key driving force for development investment.

- Improve effectiveness of using investment capital, apply set of norms and methods to evaluate the effectiveness of capital use in accordance with international standards; develop a roadmap to raise the efficiency of investment capital to narrow gap towards surpassing the average level of ASEAN-4 countries. Strictly mange public debt, especially new loans, and maintain national financial safety.

- Create equal competition environment, allocate resources properly to capable subjects. The objective of the period 2016-2030 is to make domestic products prevail in the local market while raising market share abroad, especially for high value-added sectors, services and to attain higher positions in the regional and global supply-value chain.

3. Increase connectivity among provinces, regions; uphold strengths of each locality; encourage and create favorable conditions for localities to actively integrate into global community. Enhance the degree of connectivity among sectors.

- Ensure the design and implementation of development strategies, planning schemes, and plans of localities, regions; particularly, national infrastructure development and urban development must be in line with general strategies towards raising the level of connectivity with surrounding localities, major centers of regions.

- Create mechanisms and policies to help localities promote their relative strengths in correlation with others inside and outside the country, including the attraction of domestic and foreign resources.

- Provide guidelines, encourage and create favorable conditions for localities to actively join international integration to realize their socio-economic development tasks; accelerate cross-border cooperation.

- Speed up inter-sector linkages to improve Viet Nam’s position in specific area, for example linkages among stakeholders in farming; support businesses to join sectoral linkages; improve structural organization and operation mechanisms of business associations, promote the linking role between enterprises and State management agencies; support enterprises in market development, information, workforce training; represent and provide support for businesses in trade dispute settlement.

4. Effectively implement international economic commitments. Develop and implement a strategy to join free trade areas with major economic-trade partners with a proper roadmap. Proactively and actively engage in forming common rules.

- Speed up codification of international commitments; comply with implementation roadmap, fully satisfy content and degree of commitments on the basis of optimizing interests of the country, organizations and individuals.

- Improve the effectiveness of implementing codified commitments; focus on disseminating information, unifying awareness, issuing guidelines for implementation, inspection, and supervision.

- Speed up and improve the effectiveness of economic cooperation with partners, especially major partners that are important to national security and development; increase interdependence levels; strictly follow the guideline of multi-lateralization and diversification in economic relations.

- Step up multi-lateral trade system within free trade agreements. Continue full implementation of commitments to the World Trade Organization and active participation in the Doha talks round as well as next multi-lateral talks rounds;

- Sign and deploy free trade agreements towards full exploitation of opportunities and interests and mitigation of negative impacts of such agreements like TPP, RCEP, and agreements with Japan, the Republic of Korea, the European Union, and the Eurasia Economic Union.

- Enhance economic integration within in ASEAN; review, assess and deploy measures to increase adaptability of Viet Nam’s law in the process of participating the ASEAN Community; promote the central role of ASEAN in the regional economic integration process, link multi-lateral and bilateral frameworks to maximize benefits to the economy; enhance businesses’ understanding and awareness of the opportunities brought by the ASEAN Economic Community and deal with challenges.

- Proactively and actively improve the effectiveness of participation and enhance contributions to cooperation mechanisms within the frameworks of APEC, ASEM, the Greater Mekong Sub-region, the Ayeyawady-Chao Phraya-Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy (ACMECS), the Mekong River Commission (MRC); actively design proper responses to newly-emerged initiatives.

- Review signed free trade agreements to evaluate the effectiveness of integration; design and deploy a strategy on free trade agreement negotiations with new partners, which takes into account of the two-way trade, market potentials, capital capacity, science and technology capacity, politic relations and other proper criteria. From now to 2020, mull over the talks on formation of free trade areas with potential partners in different regions.

- Apart from improving the effectiveness of international integration through 2030, select key regions and markets for cooperation expansion; reduce dependence on some highly risky markets; develop a roadmap on participation in economic organizations in the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America, create opportunities to enhance firmer niches in potential markets in the regions, including the Gulf Cooperation Council, the South Africa Customs Unions, the Common Market of the South (MERCOSUR), and Pacific Alliance.

-  Proactively and actively participate in adjusting and building rules and laws at the organizations and forums to which Viet Nam is a member, especially the World Trade Organization.

5. Protect legitimate interests of the Vietnamese State, businesses and consumers in economic, trade and investment disputes.

- Develop and implement preventive trade measures to protect legitimate rights and interests of domestic businesses; make the best of international regulations on geographical indications, origins, copyright and trademark registration to protect Vietnamese businesses and products; strategies on joining cooperation organizations and mechanisms must be designed and implemented in accordance with real capacity and conditions of businesses.

- Improve structural organizations, and operation mechanisms and improve the capacity of the authorities in charge of competition management, anti-subsidy, anti-dumping, and international trade dispute settlement.

- Regularly review and assess international commitments on investment as well as policies applicable to foreign investors in order to put forward measures to prevent and reduce international trade disputes.

- Reform public duty and civil servant regime in the face of international integration to contribute to the development of workforce capable of international economic integration; give priority to training staffs in charge of trade negotiations; produce contingent of lawyers knowledgeable about international law, good at foreign languages, and capable of participating in international proceedings; train the line-up of consultants, accountants, auditors, corporate managers of international levels.

- Promote the role of representative agencies, trade offices, and trade promotion centers abroad in supporting the protection of Vietnamese businesses’ rights and interests in trade dispute cases; provide information regarding new technical barriers of partners against Vietnamese exports, especially key commodities.

6. Deploy activities regarding financial-monetary integration in accordance with requirements and development level of the country, contributing to the mobilization of financial resources and consolidation of domestic financial-monetary system which is strong enough to counter external impacts.

- Proactively and actively pursue economic integration in the banking sector under a roadmap with proper steps in line with the capacity of the Vietnamese banking system, focus on improving competitiveness of credit organizations and management and control capacity of the State Bank of Viet Nam; create favorable conditions for credit organizations to expand operations abroad through bilateral and multi-lateral cooperation exchanges.

- Speed up the exploitation and use of resources under the forms of technical and financial assistance, policy consultation, training assistance provided by bilateral and multi-lateral partners in order to improve the quality of the workforce, technical and technological infrastructure of the banking-finance sector.

- Continue the establishment and consolidation of bilateral dialogue mechanisms on banking and finance between Viet Nam and strategic partners and other major ones; proactively and actively participate in activities aimed at enhancing the voice and position of Viet Nam at regional and international economic, finance-monetary institutions like IMF, WB, ADB, AIIB, IOSCO as well as at regional and international forums on monetary, finance, banking, securities, insurance domains within ASEAN, ASEAN+3, and APEC; actively grasp opportunities and join new financial institutions in accordance with our interests.

- Accelerate the application of new standards on finance-banking supervision; actively participate in the mechanisms in charge of building international finance rules and regulations, especially the Bank for International Settlements; mull over the participation in macroeconomic warning mechanisms, financial-banking cooperation and policy coordination forums, capital market cooperation mechanisms; focus on implementing the signed integration commitments related to tax, financial services, and other relevant fields; further expand financial integration in priority areas, gradually access to the common standards and international practices.

II. POLITICAL, DEFENSE AND SECURITY INTEGRATION

1. Further accelerate and deepen relations with partners, especially partners having strategic importance to national development and security; deepen the established relation frameworks in a practical manner, create bonds of interests between Viet Nam and partners.

- Improve the bonds of interests between Viet Nam and partners, especially strategic partners, comprehensive partners; increase interdependence in all aspects, including defense and security.

- Regularly review the operation of cooperation mechanisms; improve the effectiveness of the existing cooperation mechanisms between Viet Nam and partners to accelerate relations, prevent and address emerging issues. Establish new cooperation mechanisms to meet the development requirements of the relations. Strive to have mechanisms strong enough to deal with emerging issues, especially in the field of defense and security, by 2030.

- Build and improve trust between Viet Nam and partners, firstly neighboring countries, big countries. Enhance policy and strategic dialogue mechanisms; strengthen information exchanges; proactively make public policies and mechanisms for deployment of policies to avoid misunderstanding. Fully implement our country’s commitments reached between Viet Nam and partners.

- Diversify types of strategic partnership and comprehensive partnership. Regularly review the relations between Viet Nam and partners. Upgrade relations to strategic level, and comprehensive level between Viet Nam and potential and key partners in different regions.

- Effectively exploit relations with all partners, especially strategic partners and comprehensive partners in service of national development and protection of the socialist Fatherland.

2. Speed up and improve multi-lateral diplomacy; proactively and actively participate in multi-lateral institutions to contribute to shaping rules and buiding a political and economic order which is equal, democratic, war-freed, conflict-free, as well as consolidation of peace and acceleration of cooperation for mutual benefits.

- Develop and deploy a strategy to participate in multi-lateral institutions through 2030; a strategy to beef up and improve the effectiveness of multi-lateral diplomacy through 2030. Promote Viet Nam’s role in the organizations, forums and mechanisms to which Viet Nam is a member. Proactively and actively participate in building rules, regulations, and new cooperation mechanisms.

- Proactively and actively use ASEAN-led forums and mechanisms to create favorable conditions for partners to participate in and make contributions to the maintenance of peace, stability, security and safety of navigation and aviation in the East Sea (DOC), formation of a Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC); coordinate measures for trust building and preventive diplomacy in the region.

- Attach special attention to building the ASEAN Community, deploying the ASEAN Community Vision 2025; promote Viet Nam’s role in establishing rules and regulations in ASEAN and ASEAN-led mechanisms and forums in order to enhance solidarity, intra-ASEAN connectivity and consolidate cooperation with dialogue partners of ASEAN, push the trend of peace, cooperation and development in the region. Improve the effectiveness of ASEAN-led cooperation mechanisms, especially East Asia Summit, ASEAN Defense Ministers’ Meeting Plus, and ASEAN Regional Forum.

- Fully implement commitments to international institutions; develop and deploy a plan to run for a seat at multi-lateral mechanisms within the United Nations through 2030; selectively participate in multi-lateral functional and professional mechanisms in charge of coping with global security and development issues.

- Proactively accelerate the signing of international conventions and agreements; participate in international organizations, including those in charge of international dispute settlement; proactively develop model international cooperation agreements in various fields in order to enhance activeness in the process of signing, accessing to relevant international treaties and agreements.

- Implement a scheme to appoint Vietnamese representatives in international organizations. Proactively prepare nominees for election to governing bodies of international organizations, firstly United Nations agencies. By 2030, it is expected that Vietnamese people will work at several agencies of international organizations.

3. Deploy a strategy on defense and security integration in accordance with the new thought of the Fatherland and national security protection, effectively exploit external resources and the country’s position in support of firm protection of the socialist Fatherland; at the same time, create favorable conditions for international integration in economic and other areas.

- Speed up bilateral cooperation activities in defense and security with neighboring countries, ASEAN countries, big countries, traditional friends; gradually deepen defense and security cooperation in an effective manner.

- Accelerate defense and security cooperation with neighboring countries; step by step improve bond of interests in terms of defense and security towards strengthening awareness and cooperation on issues of common concern; expand exchanges and cooperation between military zones in border areas, naval forces, border guard, maritime police and the correlative forces of neighboring countries, thus enhancing joint patrol mechanisms, establishing hot lines, conducting joint exercises to prevent conflicts and strengthen the capacity to cope with emerging threats in the region.

- Consolidate and vigorously renovate the contents and forms of defense and security cooperation with Laos and Cambodia; increase the level of defense and security interdependence; ceaselessly increase the effectiveness of strategic, defense-security policy dialogues, and exchange experience of organizing and developing military forces and of military art; effectively deploy agreements on defense and security cooperation; satisfy the requirements of training, cultivation and capacity improvement for Cambodian and Lao staffs working in the field of defense and security to the fullest level.

- Develop and deploy a roadmap to enhance and upgrade defense and security relations with partners, firstly strategic and comprehensive partners to satisfy the requirements of national security protection and facilitate international integration in economic and other fields. Deploy seriously and consistently the agreements and programs on defense and security cooperation with big countries like Russia, India, Japan, and some other potential partners like Australia and Israel. Gradually expand the content of defense and security cooperation, increase ground activities, including joint patrol activities, joint exercises within ASEAN, working towards joint exercises between ASEAN and partners.

4. Proactively prevent, detect and paralyze all hostile forces’ plots and activities aimed at encroaching the country’s security and order.

- Enhance the capacity of situation research, supervision and evaluation, early detect and take plans to cope with hostile forces’ plots and activities aimed at encroaching on national security.

- Regularly consolidate and strictly implement regulations on secrecy protection; take measures to deal with new trickeries that may be used by hostile forces to undermine Viet Nam’s process of increasingly deep and wide integration into the region and the world.

- Enhance the capacity of relevant functional agencies, improve the effectiveness of inter-sector coordination mechanisms for early detection and effective response to plots and trickeries carried out by internal and external hostile forces.

- Effectively take full advantage of international regulations and laws, and cooperation mechanisms to protect the national security. Speed up relations with foreign security, intelligence and polices agencies, firstly neighboring countries and big countries; proactively and actively participate in cooperation mechanisms against trans-national crime, cyber and maritime security threats, and other non-traditional security threats.

5. Proactively and actively participate in multi-lateral mechanisms on defense and security that Viet Nam is a member to, firstly the mechanisms within or led by ASEAN.

- Proactively and actively beef up defense and security cooperation activities within the ASEAN Defense Ministerial Meeting and the ASEAN Defense Ministerial Meeting Plus; upgrade other defense and security forums and conferences; strengthen information exchanges, put forth coordination initiatives at other conferences like the ASEAN Chief of Multilateral Meeting (ACAMM), the ASEAN Navy Chiefs Meeting (ANCM), and the ASEAN Air Chiefs Conference (AACC); continue to attach special importance to strengthening the capacity of air forces, towards participating in joint patrols in the East Sea, search and rescue work in the region; participate in joint exercises within ASEAN, and then between ASEAN and partners; mull over the participation in peace and security-keeping operations in the region, giving priority to less sensitive issues.

- Proactively and actively participate in multi-lateral cooperation mechanisms on trans-national crime combat and non-traditional security threat response; promote the role and responsibility at multi-lateral mechanisms like the ASEAN Ministerial Meeting on Transnational Crime, ASEAN Police, INTERPOL, forum on defense cooperation and trans-national crime combat among ASEAN countries, and meeting of chiefs of ASEAN Security Agencies.

- Accelerate the implementation of initiatives, programs and projects of ASEAN; continue integration of programs, activities and priority fields (enshrined in the ASEAN Politic-Security Community Blueprint and post-2015 ASEAN political-security documents)  into national-level development programs and plans, including such issues like human rights protection, maritime non-traditional security, search and rescue at sea.

6. Develop and deploy a plan to join other multi-lateral mechanisms, including deeper participation in: UN peace-keeping operations, non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, joint exercises, and other activities to meet the requirements of the Fatherland protection and contribute to deepening relations between Viet Nam and partners in sustainable and stable manner.

- Develop and deploy a plan to join other multi-lateral defense and security mechanisms. Make active contributions to the formation of security architecture in East Asia and Asia-Pacific.

- Develop and deploy a plan to participate in the United Nations peace-keeping forces through 2030 in the direction of gradually expanding to other fields and scope with specified targets in each period and make full use of the positive effects from joining peace-keeping operations to support national defense and security and heighten the country’s position in the region and the world.

- Develop and deploy a plan to participate in ground defense and security cooperation activities such as rescue, joint patrols, joint exercises; by 2030, participate in all activities joined by other ASEAN countries.

III. INTEGRATION IN CULTURE, ETHNOLOGY, EDUCATION-TRAINING, SCIENCE-TECHNOLOGY AND OTHER AREAS

1. Combine international integration activities in the process of forming and deploying a strategy for cultural, labor, social, healthcare, education-training, scientific and technological development and others.

- Attach importance to international integration activities in all steps from planning to implementation of strategies and plans; synchronously apply regional and international criteria and standards in all fields, firstly in education-training, healthcare, labor, social security, science-technology, measurement, quality, and intellectual property, etc.

- Apply the regional and international common evaluation approaches, standards and norms in designing and implementing different social development strategies. Apply regional standards (for examples, standards of the ASEAN Cultural-Social Community) and international standards (for example, standards of the International Labor Organization) in designing policies and programs on labor, employment and social security system development; continue regarding the ASEAN Cultural-Social Community Blueprint and post-2015ASEAN cultural-social documents as the reference sets to develop programs, policies and strategies at national, ministerial levels; integrate targets, viewpoints and actions and implementation measures into the aforesaid programs, projects, policies, and strategies.

- Actively participate in education quality control activities in accordance with the standard set of the ASEAN University Network (AUN); the Asia-Pacific Quality Network (APQN), and the International Network for Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education (INQAAHE); regularly participate in the international assessment of higher education quality.

- Increase the rate of harmonization of Vietnamese Standards System, national technical standards with those of the region and the world through participation in and cooperation with international standard-measurement-quality organizations like the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the International Electro-technical Commission (IEC), and the International Organization of Legal Metrology (OIML); review the national standards, technical standards and the process for evaluating the compatibility of domestic legal documents with international treaties and agreements on standard-measurement-quality to which Viet Nam is signatory for proper amendments; perfect infrastructure system for these domains to facilitate Viet Nam’s trade.

- Develop and apply quality management standards suitable for Vietnamese hospitals, gradually apply regional and international standards in medical checks, treatment and drug production. Perfect the system of healthcare statistics indicators comparable to international indicators, effectively implement international commitments in healthcare. Ensure drug production businesses to meet the good manufacturing practice (GMP) of the World Health Organization; drug testing units to meet the good laboratory practice (GLP) of the World Health Organization, large-scale drug import and distribution businesses to meet the good storage practice (GSP).

2. Speed up bilateral cooperation in culture, labor, society, healthcare, education-training, science and technology and others.

- Enhance bilateral cooperation through negotiating and signing international agreements to lay foundation to cultural exchanges and cooperation; proactively mobilize sponsored sources for the realization of the strategic objectives and tasks in labor and social fields in the period 2016-2020 and towards 2030; enhance international cooperation to increase funding and experience in designing and deploying social security policies.

- Develop and deploy national plans for science and technology cooperation between Viet Nam and strategic partners; lure foreign experts and scientists and overseas Vietnamese to join programs and projects on research and staff training; deploy the program on bilateral and multilateral science and technology cooperation and the program on seeking and transferring technologies from abroad; sign new agreements and memorandums of understanding on bilateral cooperation in intellectual property, atomic energy, business start-up, science and technology business development, innovation and commercialization of technologies, etc with major partners like the US, China, Japan, France, and the Republic of Korea.