Ten highlights for Vietnam in 2010

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.

VietNamNet/Vietnamplus