DECISION

APPROVING THE STRATEGY FOR CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT TILL 2020

THE PRIME MINISTER

Pursuant to the December 25, 2001 Law on Organization of the Government;
Pursuant to the Political Bureau's conclusions on the Strategy for cultural development till 2020 in Communiqué No. 170-TB/TW of August 2,2008;
At the proposal of the Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism,

DECIDES:

Article 1. To approve the Strategy for cultural development till 2020, promulgated together with this Decision.

Article 2. Assignment of materialization of the Strategy:

1. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism shall assume the prime responsibility for, and coordinate with the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the Ministry of Finance, concerned ministries and branches, and the People's Committees of provinces and centrally run cities in, organizing the materialization of the Strategy for cultural development till 2020; formulating and organizing the implementation of five-year and annual cultural plans in conformity with the Strategy for cultural development and socio­economic development plans; guiding, examining, supervising and summing up and periodically reporting on the implementation to the Prime Minister; organizing preliminary review of the implementation of the Strategy in 2015 and final review in early 2021.

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3. The Ministry of Planning and Investment shall direct branches and localities to incorporate cultural development plans into their respective periodical plans; assume the prime responsibility for. and coordinate with the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Culture. Sports and Tourism in. mobilizing financial supports at home and abroad for cultural development.

4. The Ministry of Finance shall assume the prime responsibility for. and coordinate with the Ministry of Planning and Investment and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in. determining the proportion of annual budget for culture, ensuring the materialization of the Strategy for cultural development till 2020; finalize financial mechanisms and policies and financial management mechanisms in the field of culture and arts for the efficient use of financial sources invested in culture: and formulate policies to encourage all economic sectors to invest in culture.

5. The Ministry of Home Affairs shall assume the prime responsibility for. and coordinate with the Ministry of Culture. Sports and Tourism in. carrying out administrative reform in cultural management; determining the state payroll of. and formulating regimes and policies towards, cultural officials, intellectuals, literalists and artists as well as towards collectives and individuals participating in the socialization of cultural activities.

6. The Ministry of Information and Communication shall assume the prime responsibility for, and coordinate with the Ministry of Culture. Sports and Tourism and concerned ministries and branches in. formulating mechanisms and policies to properly develop and manage cultural, literary and artistic publications; net culture; and managing foreign films and musical performances broadcast on television.

7. Ministries, ministerial-level agencies and government-attached agencies shall, within the ambit of their respective functions and tasks, organize and direct the materialization of the Strategy for cultural development till 2020; and coordinate with the Ministry of Culture. Sports and Tourism and other ministries and agencies in performing the tasks of cultural development throughout the country.

8. Provincial-level Peoples Committees are responsible for cultural development in their respective localities according to their competence; elaborate, and direct the implementation of. five-year and annual plans in conformity to the Strategy for cultural development till 2020 and local socio­economic development plans in the same period.

Article 3. This Decision takes effect on the date of its signing.

Article 4. Ministers, heads of ministerial-level agencies, heads of government-attached agencies and presidents of provincial-level People's Committees shall implement this Decision.

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FOR THE PRIME MINISTER
DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER




Nguyen Thien Nhan

STRATEGY FOR CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT TILL 2020
(Promulgated together with the Prime Minister's Decision No. 581/QD-TTg of May 6, 2009)

PREFACE

In recent years, our Party has promulgated man)' documents, setting the orientations for the building and development of culture, of which the most important were the Resolution of the 5th plenum of the Party Central Committee (the VIIIth Congress) on "building and developing an advanced Vietnamese culture deeply imbued with national identity" (the Resolution of the 5th plenum of the Party Central Committee (the VIIIth Congress); the Conclusions of the 10"' plenum of the Party Central Committee (the IXth Congress) on furtherance of the Resolution of the 5th plenum of the Party Central Committee (the VIIIth Congress) in the coming years, and the Resolution of the Xth National Party Congress. Of late, the Political Bureau issued the Directive on launching the campaign to "learn from and follow the moral examples of Ho Chi Minh" within the Party and the society; the Resolution on "further building and developing literature and arts in the new period" and "building the contingent of intellectuals in the period of accelerated national industrialization and modernization." The Party's guidelines and policies arc of special importance, which, on the one hand, address immediate urgent issues and. on the other hand, spell out long-term strategic orientations for the building and development of Vietnamese culture.

The formulation of the Strategy for cultural development till 2020 aims to concretize and institutionalize the Party's viewpoints and line on cultural development by setting major objectives, tasks and solutions, which will serve as a basis for formulating planning and plans in order to incrementally build an advanced Vietnamese culture deeply imbued with national identity in the period of national industrialization and modernization and international integration.

Culture is a very broad category. Stemming from Marxism-Leninism's viewpoints and Ho Chi Minh Thoughts on culture and based on the present requirements and tasks of building and developing our country's culture, the Resolution of the 5th plenum of the Party Central Committee (the VIII"1 Congress) has concretized the scope of culture into 8 major areas, namely: Ideology, morality and lifestyle; cultural heritage; education and training; science and technology: literature and arts; public information; cultural exchange with the world; and cultural regulations and institutions.

Based on the functions and tasks of concerned ministries and branches, separate strategies on education development, science and technology, information, physical training and sports, tourism and building of Vietnamese family will be formulated. In the Strategy for cultural development, these areas are presented as important components close!) associated with culture, create conditions for joint development and create an integrated strength for culture to play its role as a spiritual foundation and motive for sustainable socio-economic development. Hence, the scope of the Strategy for cultural development covers the following major areas:

- Ideology, morality, lifestyle and cultural life;

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- Literature and arts:

- Cultural exchange with the world.

- Cultural regulations and institutions.

1. The actual situation of Vietnamese culture at present

a/ Achievements

- Ideology, morality, lifestyle and cultural life arc key areas, which have witnessed important improvements. Many values of the nation's traditional culture have been heightened and promoted.

Having developed Marxism- Leninism and Ho Chi Minh Thoughts, our Party has set a platform for national construction in the new period, creating an unanimity within the Party and consensus in the entire society and recording great achievements of historic significance through 20 years of national renewal. Positive ideology constitutes a prevailing trend, creating the spiritual strength of the nation in the period of industrialization and modernization People's dynamism, creativeness and social activeness have been initially brought into play; democracy in various aspects of the social life has been broadened. People's active and voluntary participation in cultural activities has resulted in initial improvements. Progresses in cultural values and moral standards have incrementally taken shape. The young generations have accepted new knowledge and have the will to train themselves into persons of virtue and build up their careers, and build and defend the Fatherland.

Practical deeds of returning to the roots, showing gratitude towards people with meritorious services to the nation, charity and humanitarian activities to assist people in distress, hunger elimination and poverty reduction, study promotion, encouragement of talents, and the campaigns of "Young volunteers" and "Youth building their careers" have become mass movements.

The "All people unite to build a cultured life" campaign to canvass people to participate in building a healthy cultural environment is being extensively and intensively developed, bringing about practical results. Attention has been paid to raising the quality of building cultured villages and hamlets. The movement of building cultured families has contributed to boosting economic development, heightening ethical values and promoting the fine traditions of Vietnamese family.

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- Awareness of the values of cultural heritage and cultural traditions has been constantly raised, creating social consensus and resources in the protection and promotion of cultural heritage and the preservation of national cultural identities.

Tangible and intangible cultural heritages constitute a foundation to temper the cultural identities and value system of national culture and a resource for development. Positive change has been seen in the awareness of leading officials at all levels and of people about the conservation and promotion of values of the nation's cultural heritages. Thousands of relics have been renovated and embellished against degradation.Vietnames museums in which a great quantity of valuable historical and cultural heritages are kept and displayed have been initially renewed, attracting more and more visitors and contributing to the education of national traditions and socio-economic development. The preservation and conservation of the quintessence of national culture, especially the cultures of ethnic groups, has developed extensively and intensively. Many big projects on the search for and documentation of cultural heritages have been carried out.

- New developments have been seen in the fields of literature and arts, with profound changes and great achievements, positively contributing to the process of social democratization to enrich and diversify cultural life.

Literary and art creation has furthered the fine traditions of literature and arts in the period of revolutionary wars; has stuck to and tried to truthfully reflect the life, enriching and deepening the humanitarian nature of Vietnamese literature and arts; has boldly criticized the evils and manifestations of degeneration in personality, morality and lifestyle, contributing to warning against and preventing negative trends in social life. New contents of reflection have been searched for. modes and forms of expression have been experimented to diversify art genres and products. Many traditional arts have been preserved and promoted even under the market mechanism. Traditional culture has been restored and promoted. Numerous valuable documents from the treasure of Vietnamese folk culture and scholarly culture have been searched for, documented and publicized. In addition to the promotion of traditional arts of various forms, the development of modem arts of various types has been made; a number of fine-art, photographic, musical and cinematographic works have won high national and international prizes. Urban and rural architecture has seen a new face: the quality and aesthetical values of many works have been raised. The awareness about the protection of copyright and related rights under law has been initially heightened, with the emergence of an organization for protection of copyright and authors's benefits.

Literatures and arts of ethnic minority groups have witnessed a considerable development, making important contributions to most fields of literature and arts.

The mass literary and art movement has widely, diversely and qualitatively developed. Many literary and art clubs have emerged, mobilizing and encouraging people to create, exploit and popularize traditional art values and enjoy literature and arts, raising their spiritual life.

Theoretical studies and criticism have been crowned with positive results, creating initial renewal of perceptions and methods of theoretical studies, literary and art criticism; the subjectivity of literalists and artists has been treasured. Many foreign theoretical works and schools of literary and art studies have been introduced.

The most striking characteristics in the recent years include the vigorous, fast and updated development of the modes of using and popularizing literary and art products via television, exhibitions and art performances in various forms, the publication and distribution of cultural products.... forming a culture market and services on literary and art products in the country; and the introduction of quality literary and art works to foreign countries, contributing to the affirmation that Vietnam is an address for international cultural exchange in the new period.

Literary and art societies at central and local levels have continued to firmly maintain the political orientations, trying to rally their members and step up activities of creation. Many literalists and artists have, in spite of their old ages, wholeheartedly devoted to the cause of creation. Literalists and artists, both old and young, have made great endeavors in the search for novelties and self-motivated and independent work, bringing to the literature and arts a new prospect of development in the period of national industrialization and modernization and international integration.

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In recent years, we have had more opportunities to know about world cultures and to select and absorb the cultural quintessence of mankind while introducing to other peoples the fine and peculiar values of Vietnamese culture. Many activities of international cultural cooperation and exchange on a large scale have been organized in Vietnam and overseas, producing echoes and making good impressions in the hearts of foreign friends on the traditional culture and arts of Vietnam. Cultural and artistic activities have been initially organized overseas to advertise Vietnamese tourism and promote trade and investment cooperation.

Culturists and artists in the overseas Vietnamese community have had good researches and literary and art works turning to the Fatherland. Many overseas Vietnamese artists have returned home for performance, filming or activities in various cultural fields, contributing to the cultural and art life of the nation.

- The building of cultural institutions has attached importance to the requirements of the new period, basically ensuring Party leadership and state management, bringing into full play the creative potential of intellectuals, literalists and artists as well as the people for cultural development.

Since the country embarked on "doi moi" (renewal), shifting the economy to operate under a socialist-oriented market mechanism, the State has promulgated many legal documents to adjust and create a legal corridor for cultural activities to suit the new situation; and introduce many special mechanisms and policies for cultural development.

In spite of initial confusion upon the shift to the new mechanism, central and local cultural institutions have renewed their organization and operation and improved their material foundations; a number of large-sized cultural works with beautiful architecture have been built.

The training of a contingent of culturists and artists has developed in scale, networks, forms, quantity and qualification, covering almost all trades and crafts necessary for cultural, creation, performance, literary and art theoretical and criticism activities, forming a system of cultural and art schools from the central to local levels; in recent years, postgraduate training to create human resources of high qualifications has been carried out with initial encouraging results.

b/ Weaknesses and major causes

- Weaknesses

+ The achievements and progresses in the cultural domain remain incommensurate and unstable, not strong enough to exert effective impacts on various aspects of social life, especially ideology, morality and lifestyle. The quality of building a cultured life still sees numerous limitations.

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In face of complicated political evolutions in the world, confusion has been seen in ideological perception, which seems to lag behind the practical development.

Degradation in morality and lifestyle in a section of society has exerted negative impacts on the spiritual life and healthy cultural environment. Phenomena of causing social disorder, disrespecting law. causing social insecurity, domestic violence and violence in football stadiums: showing uncultured behaviors at public places; using substandard languages in daily communication which greatly harm the clarity of Vietnamese language; the disease of "indifference" to human sufferings; corruption, bribery, harassment, disunity among a section of cadres and Party members are triggering public condemnations.

Besides fairly stirring and complicated religious and belief activities, superstition, abuse of beliefs, spirits and telepathy for self-seeking purposes, widely spreading bad customs and practices, particularly in wedding parties, funerals and festivals, tend to rise.

Many printing and advertising establishments bars, karaoke parlors, restaurants and dance halls have been opened without planning, merely running after profits, conducting disguised operations with many negative practices. A number of cultural, literary and art products of poor quality have been published and disseminated; not a few foreign products contrary to the national morality and culture, or even harmful and reactionary, have been brought into the country, degrading the morality and lifestyle and adversely affecting the cultural traditions and fine customs of the nation.

The restoration and promotion of traditional culture, particularly the organization of festivals ami rituals, have been carried out in .1 spontaneous and unselective manner; the peculiarities, specific identities and fine values of traditional culture have not yet been fully tapped and brought into play while attention has not yet been paid to promoting the people's dynamism and importance not yet attached to the role of communities as cultural subjects, which has affected the quality of conservation and promotion of cultural identities of various ethnic groups.

Formalism and excessive pursuit of achievements remain very common in cultural activities, including reporting on results of building a cultural life. The movement on building cultured families, villages, hamlets and street quarters has not yet been deeply and fully understood in localities, hence the integrated strength of all social forces have not yet been promoted; the movement's quality has not yet been maintained; and the participation registration and commendation has not been earned out in a regular and timely manner.

In many rural areas, particularly deep-lying, far-flung and ethnic minority areas, former revolutionary and resistance bases and border and island areas, cultural activities remain poor and the cultural enjoyment gap between these areas and urban centers remains big.

+ Cultural heritages are facing numerous challenges, with the relationship between conservation and development not yet properly addressed.

The conservation of cultural heritages has been carried out in a passive manner without long-term planning. There is no synchronous coordination between relics conservation planning and socio­economic development planning and projects of various branches in the same locality; hence, quality and comprehensive material foundations and cultural and ecological environments have not yet been created at relic sites. Confusion has been observed in the harmonious combination between conservation and development. The illegal occupation of relic land, commercialism in festival and ritual activities at relic sites, illegal search for and trading of antiques... remain rampant and have not yet been settled due to lack of resolute measures. The contingent of conservation workers nationwide remains inadequate and professionally incapable, who are perplexed in handling complicated matters in reality, which has affected the conservation and embellishment of relics or even distorted or deformed their origins.

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+ Literary and art activities still see mishaps.

In creation, performance and popularization activities, not a few literary and art works still fail to express the advancedness and identities of the nation. Literary and art works have appeared in greater and greater number, but few have reached the peak commensurate to the nation's great revolutionary cause and achievements of the renewal cause. In a number of works, the social ideal and aesthetics remain unclear. Some works contain biased ideological contents, inclined to exploit negative aspects or even negating the nation's magnanimous past and distorting the historical truths. Not a few works still run after the mediocre tastes of a section of the public. A section of literalists and artists are confused in approaching and perceiving the changes and new matters arising in modem life, thus being slanted in their creation or performance; a number of works and products are nothing but imitation or run after new forms and methods, failing to reflect the national cultural identities. The aesthetic education and orientations for young people have not yet received due attention. Amateurism in professional literary and art activities tends to rise. Architectural creation has not been clearly oriented for a long time and is unable to express the traditional traits in modem architectural works in Vietnam, thus forming a poorly mixed and disorderly architecture in present urban areas.

Literary and art theory activities are somehow underdeveloped in recent years, failing to tackle many questions in daily life and deflecting from the reality. Marxist theories on literature, arts and aesthetics have not yet been studied and promoted correspondingly to their role and values. Literary and art criticism seems to lag behind requirements, failing to fulfill its creation-guiding, -regulating and -accompanying functions. The scientific quality and professionalism of criticism has been slighted; criticism through feeling has appeared without a system of reliable criteria to evaluate authors and works. The contingent of theorists and critics is currently inadequate, lacking young ones, and unevenly distributed among art branches. There are no orientations and specific criteria for the selection, inheritance and promotion of the values of traditional culture, and the selection and absorption of the cultural quintessence of the mankind.

The contingent of literature and art managers, which remains inadequate at the macro- and grassroots level, fails to keep pace with the requirements of constantly diverse and complicated literary and art activities; their leading and managerial effectiveness remains low.

A number of literary and art societies are slow in renewing their operation both in content and mode and perplexed in rallying and promoting the potential of their members. Noteworthy is the lack of close coordination between literature and art management agencies of the Party and the State and literary and an societies in realizing the Party's guidelines and the State's policies on literary and art development.

+ Cultural exchange remains inactive and fails to create resources for expanded cooperation and exchange.

Due to lax management and incomprehensive and irregular coordination, the number of baneful products introduced into our country is fairly large, while not much cultural quintessence of Vietnam has been introduced overseas. The propagation and introduction of Vietnamese culture and socio­economic achievements in the cause of national renewal fails to meet the development requirements. Meanwhile, the import and introduction of foreign films and musical programs on television is excessive and unselective, adversely affecting the young people's ideology, morality and lifestyle.

The management and introduction of foreign cultures in Vietnam remains inconsistent among specialized management agencies and between the central government and local administrations; there still lack regulations of high legal validity on management and regulation of the introduction of foreign cultures in Vietnam. The management of overseas and homebound performance and creation tours by artists is lax, without clear decentralization of responsibility, which has led to loopholes in the management of some activities causing public discontent.

+ The formulation of cultural institutions has not yet received due attention and is slow to renew.

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A number of cultural and art areas have not yet been governed by any law. Many policies towards literalists and artists are outmoded but late to be revised.

The contingent of culture managers, particularly in localities and establishments, has seen constant changes. The lax management and lack of mechanisms for coordination in the management of the business in cultural products, particularly pirated tapes and discs, internet, karaoke, show business, exhibition... have prolonged. The training of leading and managerial officials in the cultural field fails to meet the requirements, lacking cultural officials for key positions.

The training networks have developed fast but unevenly in quality. Highly qualified lecturers at various schools account for a small percentage as many of them, who were trained overseas, have retired. There still lack long-term and basic policies as well as peculiar mechanisms for the training of art talents.

Institutions and material foundations for cultural activities have become generally degraded and incomprehensive and been inefficiently used. There are not many big cultural works and entertainment areas. State budget investment in culture remains low. The mobilization of other capital sources for investment in culture is extremely limited due to the lack of specific and practical policies

- Major causes

Objectively:

+ Great achievements and fast and complicated developments in all aspects of socio-economic life are. on the one hand, the inspiring sources for creation, and raise, on the other land, quite new matters with multi-dimensional impacts, thus causing confusion to cultural and art activists.

+ Hostile forces have feverishly opposed Vietnam in the ideological and cultural battlefields, abusing the advantages in information technology and economic globalization to impose cultural values for realizing their "peaceful evolution" plot in culture. Meanwhile, the side effects of the market mechanism and globalization have exerted negative impacts on the ideological consciousness, morality and lifestyle of a section of population, particularly young people, and on the cultural and art life.

+ The information and communication boom accompanied by waves of cultural exchange and importation involving many new cultural elements brought in positive impacts and also not a few negative ones, while the qualifications of personnel and technical means for management of these new matters remain limited, leading to confusion and passiveness in the implementation.

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+ While concentrating efforts on economic tasks, many leading officials at various levels and in different branches are not fully aware of the position and role of culture: fail to clearly realize the close association between economy, culture and politics; fail to pay attention to associating economic development, branch and domain development with cultural development; and fail to consider cultural development a responsibility of the entire society.

+ In face of fast, diverse and complicated developments of the cultural and art life in the market economy, the direction by authorities at central and local levels shows weaknesses and limitations: the mode of leadership is slow to renew and the complexities and adverse impacts of the market economy have not yet been fully foreseen; relevant legal documents are slow to promulgate or revise; solutions are passive and circumstantial; there have appeared relaxation of management, rightist deviationalism, subjective imposition and the lack of far-sightedness. Theoretical studies fail to spell out forecasts and orientations; to clarify cultural matters in the socialist-oriented market economy, in determining the traditional as well as new values which need to be fostered, and in handling the relationship between tradition and modernity, the nation and the world, conservation and development, and culture and economy. In the process of formulation, the cultural market remains unable to bring into full play the creative capability of intellectuals, literalists and artists.

+ Investment in social affairs in general and culture in particular has not yet met the new requirements. There are not sufficient specific mechanisms and policies to bring into play the people's internal resources.

2. Context, opportunities for. and challenges to, the development of Vietnamese culture

a/ International context

- Cultural development trends:

+ To treasure culture and associate it with development, consider culture a factor to ensure sustainable socio-economic development.

The process of economic globalization threatens to lead to conflict with the conservation of cultural identities and diversity worldwide while appearing to closely tie the economic process with the cultural one. Economy cannot be developed in a sustainable manner unless (he question of culture is included in each economic activity.

- Nations have further and further heightened their respective cultural peculiarities and identities, treasure the preservation and promotion of values of cultural heritages, struggle against the trend of cultural homogenization while selectively absorbing the cultural quintessence of the mankind.

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+ Cultural development in relation to the building of people.

The cultural resource is composed of 3 elements: Cultural asset, human resources and mechanisms and policies to increase resources, of which the central resource for cultural development is human beings. Culture means creation while human beings are a subject of cultural creation and also a cultural product. Culture has become a motive and a regulator of socio-economic development, with the development of human resources being a central objective. Hence, close association between cultural development and human resource development has become a trend of the time.

+ Fast development of the "cultural industry".

Nowadays, people speak much about the cinematographic, audio and visual industry: radio and television industry: and entertainment and recreation industry, etc. Developing the "cultural industry" is currently a great and important trend in cultural policies of nations around the world.

+ Information explosion (including public information, telecommunications and internet) has aligned every family and the entire society to a common process.

The convergence of information, telecommuni-cations and informatics has become a trend, exerting strong impacts on the cultural domain. The development of information technology creates conditions for everyone to organize contact with the society; internet and intranet help people access a huge volume of information of the mankind and each nation; the appearance of" online literature” and blogs, which give rise to a new mode of social connection, are posing new questions in the management of culture and information.

+ Efficient use of idle time of individuals and communities

Nowadays, the efficient use of idle time becomes a social demand. This tendency poses new requirements on the formulation of planning, plans and cultural development projects as well as modes of approach and cultural activities suitable to the increasingly high social demand for cultural enjoyment.

+ Changes in the individual-community relationship and social democracy, diversification of tastes and methods of approach

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- The globalization and international integration

Globalization and international integration is an objective and inevitable trend, a process of cooperation for development and also a process of struggle to protect national interests. The means of communications, telecommunications networks and internet create conditions for exchange and absorption of the mankind's cultural quintessence while a fierce struggle to conserve national cultural identities also occurs. Besides, hostile forces continue intensifying their "peaceful evolution" schemes and ploy in order to foment complicated development in the fields of ideology, culture, morality and lifestyle within our country,

b/ Domestic context

- The achievements recorded in the cause of renewal and national industrialization and modernization constitute an important basis for promoting cultural development in spite of many trials.

After more than 20 years of renewal, the country has recorded important achievements. The process of national renewal has created new and very important prerequisites for cultural development.

The process of industrialization and modernization makes the Vietnamese society deeply and comprehensively change, leading to a process of fierce and complicated struggle between the backward and the advanced, the good and the bad, and inert and conservative thinking and renewal. This is truly a fertile soil for cultural, literary and art creation. Urbanization has greatly changed the population structure, leading to changes in living habits, lifestyle and custom, etc. This requires specific solutions to preserving and promoting the nation's line traditions and cultural heritages while developing the cultural life suitable to the period of national industrialization and modernization.

- Cultural development in a socialist-oriented market economy.

The market mechanism spurs social activeness with cultural activities and cultural services becoming more dynamic, diverse and richer but latent with risks and complexities. The negative side of the market mechanism exerts impacts on every family, social relations and community relations, which requires renewal of the management and organization of cultural activities and creation of a legal framework for cultural development according to the set orientations in the market mechanism.

- Religions still swim with a tendency of adjustment, adaptation and influence expansion; religious developments remain complicated.

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Religions tend to attract more followers while some exotic religions infiltrate into our country. Most religions activities and believers well observe the Party's and Suite's undertakings and policies. However, a small section ol religious dignitaries carried out activities contrary lu the nation'scultural traditions (doing away with national rituals, getting rid of traditional cultural activities...), illegally preaching, abusing religion to create "hot spots", reclaiming land or worshiping places... All these require a synchronous coordination of propagation about the Party's guidelines and the State's policies on religions and beliefs, struggling for the protection of the nation's cultural traditions and against the abuse of religions and beliefs to undermine the great national unity bloc, drive a wedge between religions, foment public disorder and break the law.

c/ Opportunities and challenges

Our Party and State always attach importance to cultural building and development, defining the role and importance of culture as the objective and also the motive of accelerated socio-economic development.

In the period of accelerated industrialization and modernization and active international integration, which require great efforts to take our country out of the status of underdevelopment and make it basically a modern industrial country by 2020, the Vietnamese culture is confronted with many great opportunities as well as fierce challenges.

Vietnam has a long history with glorious pages in the struggles for national construction and defense as well as national independence, which were greatly admired by the world. The success of the renewal cause and great a chievements of the socio-economic development and the political stability of the nation have heightened its profile on the international arena. Vietnam also has a diverse, rich and humane culture; each cultural asset, which is latent with high values in both culture and economic potential, is still preserved with peculiar identities of the Vietnamese culture and of great attraction. All these elements have created great potential and advantages in the building and development of an advanced Vietnamese culture deeply imbued with national identity in the period of industrialization, modernization and international integration.

Over the past several decades, thanks to the Party's and Stale's concern, a large contingent of intellectuals, writers, artists and administrators has been built up, in close attachment to the revolutionary cause of the Party and people and rich in their creation capability and are a valuable asset If a correct strategy for human resource development is worked our this human resource can be brought into full play for a "knowledge-based economy", "knowledge in the service of development," satisfying the requirements of cultural development in the new period.

In the context of economic globalization, with the policy of multilateralization and diversification of international relations. Vietnam's culture sees great opportunities for absorption of knowledge, resources and advanced managerial experience as well as cultural quintessence of the mankind, and for the creation of new cultural values. The strong impacts of various trends and new styles can give rise to big changes in all aspects, characteristics and types of Vietnamese culture, literature and arts but also pose fierce challenges.

The market mechanism has, on the one hand, mobilized the participation of all economic sectors in the production and dissemination of cultural products; stimulated the appearance of a number of production and business branches in the cultural field; opened up opportunities for employment and higher incomes, created prerequisites for the development of a "cultural industry" in Vietnam, and, on the other hand, given rise to commercialism in cultural activities. Baneful cultural products, which tend to increase due to smuggling and illegal production, and a pragmatic lifestyle in pursuit of money... have impacted the development of personality of individuals, especially young people, and adversely affected the cultural traditions of the nation.

Due to some powerhouses' attempts to impose their cultural values on other nations, based on the strength of information technology, the danger of homogenization of cultural values is threatening and restricting the creation capability and the diversity of various cultures; the propagation of violent, immoral and anarchic lifestyles, giving prominence to lust and individualism, has confronted us with big challenges-.

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a/ Viewpoints on cultural building and development

Now as in the past, our Party has always affirmed the position and importance of culture in the national liberation revolution and the socialist revolution, particularly in the period of renewal since the VI* National Party Congress. Especially in the Resolution of the 5Ul plenum of the Party Central Committee (the VIIrh Congress), the Party identified five basic guidelines for the cause of building and developing Vietnam's culture:

- Culture constitutes the spiritual foundation of the society, which is the objective and also the motive for accelerated socio-economic development.

- The culture we have been building is an advanced culture deeply imbued with national identity.

- The Vietnamese culture is a culture which is unified but diverse in the community of Vietnamese nationalities.

- Building and developing culture is the Party-led cause of the entire people, in which the contingent of intellectuals plays an important role.

- Culture constitutes a battle front; building and developing culture is a protracted revolutionary cause requiring revolutionary will and patience as well as caution.

The Resolution of the 5th plenum of the Party Central Committee (the VIIIth Congress) not only pointed out immediate urgent tasks but also bore strategic significance for building and developing our national culture in the period of industrialization and modernization. Those five basic guiding viewpoints, together with the viewpoints on the association between the task of economic development as the center and the task of Party building and consolidation as the key with the constant heightening of culture - the spiritual foundation of the society, which were stated in the Conclusions of the 10Ih plenum of the Party Central Committee (the IXth Congress) and the Resolution of the Xth National Party Congress constitutes the guiding viewpoints, which have been thoroughly dwelt on in the Strategy for cultural development till 2020. In the course of organizing the materialization of the Strategy, further studies should be carried out to profoundly understand, apply and concretize these important viewpoints in the practical building and development of culture in the new period.

b/ Objectives of cultural development till 2020 In the period from now till 2020, the to be-attained key objectives of the Strategy for cultural development are:

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Second, to further step up the conservation, inheritance and promotion of fine values of the national culture, strongly promoting the diversity and peculiarities of the cultures of fraternal nationalities while persistently consolidating and increasing the uniformity in diversity of the Vietnamese culture, concentrating on building new cultural values in parallel with the active expansion of international exchange, selectively absorbing the quintessence of world culture, further enriching the national culture and catching up with the development of the time.

Third, to vigorously liberate the creative capability and potential of everyone, promoting to the utmost the creativeness of intellectuals, literalists and artists; to train cultural and art talents; to formulate mechanisms and policies and create material foundations for more high-quality cultural and art products commensurate to the national and epochal magnitude; to carry out comprehensive and systematic theoretical and practical studies of the building and development of an advanced Vietnamese culture deeply imbued with national identity in a socialist-oriented market economy and in the period of industrialization, modernization and international integration

Fourth, to create all conditions for raising the people's cultural enjoyment and creation; striving to gradually narrow- the gap in cultural and art enjoyment between urban centers and the countryside and between the delta' and mountainous, ethnic minority, deep-lying, remote, border and island regions.

Fifth, in couple with increased investment by the State, to step up the socialization of cultural activities, mobilizing all resources for cultural development, considering investment in culture investment in human beings and investment in sustainable development, associating economic development with cultural development, thus making culture actively participate in the attainment of the national target of "prosperous people, strong country and equitable, democratic and civilized society."

c/ Central tasks

- To build cultured people and lifestyle

Developing an all-sided man with full qualifications (in terms of ideology, morality, lifestyle and cultured personality) meeting the requirements of the national industrialization and modernization and international integration constitutes a primary, important, regular, basic, urgent and also long-term task of the cause of developing the Vietnamese culture.

Developing the Vietnamese man in the new revolutionary period with the following qualities:

+ Possessing the spirit of patriotism, national self-strengthening and promotion of internal resources and the will to take the country out of poverty, backwardness and lagging behind.

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+ Constantly raising his/her knowledge by lifetime learning; having independent thinking and taking self-responsibility, being cooperative and working effectively in organizations and professional groups; being open to novelties and bold to confront challenges: being dynamic and creative; trying to approach and apply the world's most advanced scientific and technological knowledge to national construction; doing physical exercise and raising his/her physical strength; striving for self-improvement and fostering in knowledge, job skills and morality.

+ Building his/her family of unity, harmony, equality, happiness, discipline and with stable economic life; inheriting and promoting the fine traditional values of Vietnamese families, selectively absorbing advanced values of families in a developed society so that each Vietnamese family will become a sweet home of every member and a healthy cell of society; promoting the spirit of mutual affection and assistance, voluntariness, self-management, democracy and mastery capability in communal activities, building a healthy social environment and protecting the ecological environment.

- To build a cultured life and cultural environment

Building a cultured life and a healthy social environment is an important task closely associated with the development of all-sided people and the building of cultured families; promoting personal dynamism and social dynamism, form a "social asset" decisive to social progress. To build a cultured life and healthy socio- cultural environment, it is a must to establish, first of all. grassroots democracy institutions, encouraging and creating conditions for every citizen to organize and participate in communal cultural activities, forming the tradition of a learning society; educating in community health and lifestyle friendly to the natural environment and ecological environment; strictly observing law, combating corruption, preventing and suppressing crimes, social evils and law offenses, and preserving discipline and peaceful life of people.

To closely link the building of a cultured life with socio-economic development suitable to different areas (urban centers, rural areas, industrial parks...), different regions, ethnic groups and religions. To attach importance to the peculiarity in building a cultured life in different ethnic minority areas and different religious areas. Cultural activities must practically contribute to the maintenance of social security and order; to consolidate the great national unity bloc; educating in cultured personality; raising the level of the people's cultural enjoyment, particularly in deep-lying and ethnic minority areas; to heighten people's intellectual level and provide them with interesting experience and good ways of building a cultured life, eliminating hunger and reducing poverty, emulating to get rich lawfully, restructuring the economy..., contributing to the attainment of the objective of "prosperous people, strong country and equitable, democratic and civilized society."

To raise the quality of the movement for building cultured families, villages (hamlets), living quarters and street wards; to step up the campaign for building agencies, public offices, schools, hospitals and enterprises up to set cultural standards with civilized ways of living.

To attach importance to and heighten the leading and managing culture.

To concentrate on properly carrying out the movement "All people unite to build a cultured life" as a central task of the Strategy: to intensively develop it into a social movement with practical results.

- To conserve and promote national cultural heritages.

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To investigate, collect and build a "data bank" on typical tangible and intangible cultures.

To invest in modem technical equipment for long-term preservation and archive of documents and exhibits at museums and central and local agencies archiving historical, cultural and art documents.

To honor typical artists and artisans in various forms and adopt mechanisms and policies for artisans to disseminate and pass traditional crafts down to young generations.

- To conserve and promote the cultures of ethnic minorities.

Cultures of ethnic minority groups are valuable assets that enrich and diversify but unify the Vietnamese culture. Preserving the traits and diversity of ethnic cultures is an issue of great socio­political significance in the era of globalization. It can be said that the ethnic question is, in essence, the question of culture.

To attach importance to, and organize the implementation of programs on conservation and promotion of fine traditional values and building and development of new values in culture, literature and arts, especially support for development of ethnic minority languages and scripts. To adopt specific policies and solutions for building a contingent of ethnic minority intellectuals; to detect, foster and organize forces for the creation of, search for, and research into, cultures, literatures and arts of ethnic minority groups. To prioritize financial assistance for talented ethnic minority authors to create works on ethnic issues and mountainous regions

To step up activities of conserving and promoting the cultural identities of ethnic minorities via well-organized and well-managed cultural and tourist activities, contributing to raise the spiritual life, creating jobs, eliminating hunger and reducing poverty for people in ethnic minority and mountainous regions.

- To develop literature and arts.

Literature and arts are very important and especially subtle domains of culture. The central task of literature and arts in the coming period is to create many literary and art works of high ideological and artistic values which are imbued with humanitarianism and democracy, having deep impacts on human development. On the one hand, importance will be attached to themes on national traditions, revolution and resistance wars and. on the other hand, the present practical life so as to have great works of high values reflecting the period of industrialization, modernization and international integration. To use good works to encourage and educate the people and society through healthy entertainment; to condemn and criticize uncompromisingly negative phenomena which are hindering the development of the Vietnamese nation and its people; to ward off immoral and outmoded literary and art works deviating from national cultural identities.

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To conserve and protect the quintessence of traditional arts and folk culture and effectively promote them in the modern social life.

To further study, renew and develop modem Marxist theories on literature and aesthetics; to raise scientism and persuasiveness therein, contributing to guiding and regulating literary and art creation and criticism. To research into and selectively accept the fruits of literary and art theories of our ancestors and the world, creatively applying them to further enrich modem Vietnamese literary and art theories; to clarify the question of national identity in architecture. To formulate mechanisms for consultancy, social counter-argument and evaluation of literary, art and architectural works in support of Party leadership and state management; to highly value public comments and criticisms on works. To heighten ethics of critics, debating culture and sense of responsibility of critics before the public as well as literary, art and architectural history; to create a favorable environment and conditions for literary and art criticism activities; to bring into play the important role of literary, art and architectural theories and criticism in evaluating and orienting creation, guiding social opinions and cultural and art tastes of the public. To formulate management mechanisms and measures to prevent and handle activities of creating and popularizing literary and art works of poor ideological and artistic values, badly affecting the society. To select Vietnamese and foreign works of high ideological and artistic values and create conditions for their publication. To raise the quality and effectiveness of the overseas introduction of Vietnamese literary and art works; to formulate mechanisms for appraisal and selection of foreign works for introduction into Vietnam.

To promote, tap and vigorously liberate the creative capability and potential of the contingent of literalists and artists with a view to creating more works of high ideological and artistic values. To practice democracy, respect and promote ideological freedom in cultural, literary and art research and creation while heightening the sense of civic responsibility of intellectuals, literalists and artists. To put intellectuals, literalists and artists in important positions based on the correct assessment of their qualities, capabilities and fruitful devotion; to adopt special policies towards national talents. To encourage innovations, affirm and protect new values enriching and diversifying the cultural, literary and art life.

To review, supplement and formulate regimes and policies on literary and art activities, such as those on wages, royalties, preferential treatment of talents, allowances for professional work, and retirement benefits for typical intellectuals, literalists and artists.

To intensify measures for building and developing mass literature and arts, guiding and encouraging people to participate in the creation, conservation, teaching and promotion of values of national traditional culture, literature and arts.

To consolidate and renew the operations of literary and art associations at the central and local levels, aiming to raise their capability to rally forces, promote the creativity and develop the contingent of their members.

- To promote the fine cultural and ethical values of religions and beliefs.

The State holds the view that citizens have the right to freedom of beliefs and religions, following or not following any religion. Religions are equal before law. Religious people constitute an important part of the great national unity bloc.

To bring into play positive factors in religious ethics and culture; to encourage healthy, kind-hearted, humanitarian and progressive values. To create conditions for religious and belief activities to be carried out in conformity with the national culture and common national interests; to build up a cultural environment for properly fulfilling the civic responsibility towards the Fatherland; to struggle against abuse of religions and beliefs for evil political attempts.

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- To intensify public information activities.

The public information system has played an increasingly important role in the national culture. Public information have become a vehicle for conveying cultural values to the public while constituting a peculiar cultural form, exerting strong and profound impacts on the public.

The boom of mass media (television, radio, press, publication, internet...) should be managed strictly in principle but openly in form so as to satisfy the people's increasingly demands for information.

To develop and modernize the mass media networks and raise the quality of information products; to use languages and scripts of ethnic groups having scripts on the mass media in areas inhabited by ethnic minority people; to vigorously renew verbal communication, considering it an important and effective channel of communication.

To intensify and raise the quality of external information activities; to further increase the time volume of radio, television and online news broadcasting overseas, bringing more information and cultural products of good content to overseas Vietnamese and foreign friends.

- To intensify proactive international cultural cooperation and exchange.

In the present context of international relations, cultural diplomacy occupies an important position in external policies of many nations. The trend for expansion and intensification of Vietnam's cultural exchange and cooperation with the rest of the world is inevitable. Nowadays, cultural exchange and cooperation are not merely for the purpose of cultural development but also for expansion of cooperation in other fields. It is necessary to take advantage of development opportunities and surmount all trials with our national stuffs in order to preserve the nation's cultural identities, contributing to diversifying and enriching the world culture while absorbing the cultural quintessence of mankind and further enriching the Vietnamese culture to catch up with the time. To actively prevent and get rid of negative impacts and side effects of globalization on Vietnamese culture.

To intensively, actively and stably develop Vietnam's already established cultural relations while expanding relations with other nations, territories and international cultural institutions.

To formulate mechanisms for coordinating the organization of cultural diplomacy activities.

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To cooperate with other countries on training of cultural and an talents and training of highly qualified professionals

To bring into play the talents and devotion of overseas Vietnamese intellectuals and artists for the development of the national culture, literature and arts. To create conditions for the overseas Vietnamese communities to receive information and healthy cultural products from Vietnam; to contribute to national construction and preservation and promotion of Vietnam's cultural traditions in families and activities of overseas Vietnamese communities.

To establish a number of cultural centers and establishments in some key regions in I he world for expansion of exchange and cooperation in the field of culture and arts.

- To improve the system of cultural regulations and institutions.

To comprehensively and synchronously improve the system of legal documents on mechanisms and policies on culture and arts in all aspect of cultural life in conformity with the Party's guidelines and the State's laws; to adjust and supplement existing policies to suit the practical national development and international commitments; to eliminate mechanisms and policies which are no longer appropriate and hinder development.

To synchronously carry out administrative reform in order to create marked improvements, adjust and renew working styles and methods; to modernize offices and apply information technology to activities of the Ministry of Culture, Spoils and Tourism; to specifically decentralize cultural management responsibility to localities. To promulgate professional criteria and standards of public employees of the Ministry and heads of professional bodies of branches or domains under provincial-level People's Committees.

To comprehensively build community-based cultural establishments and raise the quality and efficiency of their operations; to strive for the targets that by 2015.100% of provinces and centrally run cities will have adequate cultural establishments; and by 2015-2020. 90-100% of rural and urban districts and towns will have cultural houses and libraries; ISO-90% of communes and townships will have cultural houses; and 60-70%; of villages and hamlets will have cultural houses. To build a number of cultural works of epochal magnitude in Hanoi capital. Ho Chi Minh City and some big cities throughout the country.

To intensively invest in modem equipment and technologies in order to raise the quality of cultural products, satisfying domestic and export demands; to standardize and widely apply national and international standards via higher and higher technologies to cultural activities and products for increasing their quality.

d/ Orientations for development of specialized cultural and art branches

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To develop performing arts in the direction of prioritizing investment in the preservation and promotion of traditional forms of performing arts; to search for, restore and develop some types of traditional arts being in danger of disappearance. To invest in building and developing some types of world classical arts suitable to Vietnamese conditions; to invest in selectively staging on Vietnamese theatres a number of world classics of high ideological and artistic value. To attach importance to the orientations in the creation and performance by literalists and artists; to educate young generations in taste and love for national traditional arts, which is a constant and permanent task.

To raise the quality of arts, trying to create more top-class works; to make investment for more scripts and plays of high ideological and artistic values. To formulate programs on art performances to serve people in deep-lying, remote, ethnic minority, border and island regions.

Alongside the building of state-run art units strictly under the standards on organization, artistic quality, artistic orientations and performers, the establishment of non-public art troupes will be encouraged and given favorable conditions. To quantitatively and qualitatively develop mass art troupes at grassroots level.

To attach importance to. and make satisfactory investment in. training art talents at home and abroad. To build a number of typical facilities for art performance, modem training establishments and equipment for art troupes according to the planning on development of performing arts.

- Cinematography

To consolidate and develop the Vietnamese cinematography into a modern one deeply imbued with national identity; to modernize the cinematographic industry. To strive for greater quantity and higher quality of Vietnamese films through assorted products: feature (36-40 celluloid feature films produced annually); documentary, scientific and cartoon films {2-3 films produced monthly for each type); and television series. To introduce many Vietnamese cinematographic works to other countries. To comprehensively manage cinematographic activities in all three aspects: film production, distribution and dissemination. To enhance the management of films screened on television and the internet. To invest in equipment and facilities and adopt incentive policies for mobile film projection teams in difficulty-hit areas, deep-lying, remote, ethnic minority, border areas and islands. To invest in special-use synchronous professional and technical equipment, ensuring conditions for film production by modern technologies up to international audiovisual standards.

To equitize state-run film firms; to encourage and facilitate the establishment of private film firms, film production and distribution associations for mutual support in film production, distribution and dissemination.

To apply the regimes of order placement and bidding for slate-funded film production.

- Fine-arts, photography and exhibition

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To study schools, trends and ways of expression of contemporary fine arts, aiming to affirm and promote the national identity in Vietnamese fine arts and selectively absorb achievements of the contemporary world fine arts and further enrich the national fine arts.

The State will invest in and support the creation of fine-art works so as to have great and high-quality ones and organize the display and popularization of fine-art and photographic works through state awards under the creation orientations of the Party. To periodically organize national exhibitions on paintings, graphics, sculpture, applied fine-arts and photography. To encourage non-governmental organizations to organize fine-art activities of socialized nature.

To step up grassroots fine-arts movements

To closely coordinate with the Ministry of Education and Training in teaching music and painting in primary and secondary schools throughout the country.

To attach importance to applied fine-arts, especially in industry, handicraft, consumer products, interior and exterior decoration and fashion.

- Publishing, printing and distribution of publications

The State will adopt policies and create conditions for building the publishing industry into a comprehensively developed techno-economic branch; place orders for theoretical and political publications, publications for youngsters, ethnic minority people, visually handicapped persons and publications needed to be widely popularized in the service of important political and social tasks and external information, and implement policies on purchase of manuscripts and copyright purchase and publication freight subsidies.

To invest in the formulation of national programs on books for publishing typical works selected from the mankind's and the country's knowledge treasures, aiming to create knowledge bases for development in the period of national industrialization and modernization. To compile and publish encyclopedias on specialized fields.

To modernize the book- publishing technology from the stage of formulation of topical plans to the stage of dissemination and distribution of publications. To step up the application of information technology to publishing activities. To raise the quality of publications in terms of content, form and printing technique; to step by step publish electronic books; to formulate mechanisms and policies for developing and managing the dissemination of publications on internet; to build and direct the development of, and manage, internet culture.

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- Library

The combination between traditional libraries and electronic/digital libraries will become an organizational model and operation mode of Vietnamese libraries, in which the use of computers to store and exploit information and the building of digital libraries constitute the most important trend in the development of library automation. To strive for the targets of 0.8-1 book title/inhabitant in public libraries and 50-70% of valuable and rare documents in provincial libraries to be computerized by 2015 and 2020.

To make appropriate investment in libraries, attaching importance to regional ones: Hanoi. Thai Nguyen. Hue. Da Nang. Khanh Hoa, Ho Chi Minh City, Can Tho, Lam Dong. To form 3 regional preservation centers in Hanoi, Hue and Ho Chi Minh City; to proceed to organize a wide, flexible and suitable network of public libraries nationwide: to consolidate and build libraries in urban and rural districts and towns; to step up the development of communal-level libraries and reading rooms in communes and wards, cultural or postal-cultural centers in communes in highland, border, island, deep-lying, remote and ethnic minority regions. To build, consolidate and modernize libraries at scientific research centers, schools, armed forces units, socio-political organizations, socio-professional organizations, economic organizations and non-business units.

To step up the socialization of library activities, encouraging private libraries to operate in the service of communities under law.

To renew the mode of library operations to serve readers towards application of information technology in order to automate and modernize library operations, creating the transferability among libraries in the online environment in order to exploit the rich and diversified sources of library documents. To regard serving the cause of national industrialization and modernization as an objective for the selection of books and building of sources of library documents for timely supply to readers. To build up a book-reading movement in the society, contributing to effectively building future generations of readers.

- Museums, relics and intangible culture.

+ Museums:

All museum activities must be based on collections of original exhibits of typically historic, cultural and scientific values; new documents and exhibits shall be regularly added to museums by different methods, including purchase of exhibits, valuable and rare documents; to reasonably and efficiently apply scientific and technical achievements and new technologies to the display and preservation of museum documents and exhibits; to apply information technology to the management of museum documents and information; to connect online museums from central to local levels. To attach importance to the scientism and systematism in building a "data bank" on museum documents and exhibits. To strive for the targets that 50-70% of valuable and rare documents and exhibits in provincial museums and 70-100% of valuable and rare documents and exhibits in national museums will be computerized by 2015 and 2020.

To establish 2 museum document- and exhibit-preserving centers in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

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To encourage the establishment of private museums and building of private collections.

To organize the display and introduction of Vietnamese cultural heritages overseas and cooperate on introduction of collections of typical exhibits of foreign countries at Vietnamese museums.

Based on the international convention against illegal transportation of cultural assets, to inquire into, study and proceed to accept via diplomatic channels and bilateral agreements the return of valuable Vietnamese historical and cultural documents and exhibits which have been brought abroad.

+ Relics:

To synchronously invest in the conservation and embellishment of typical historical-cultural relics into heritages of high quality in conservation science and cultural environment in service of education in traditions and tourism development.

To realize the detailed planning on relics for reasonable, sustainable and harmonious combination between the cultural heritage conservation and promotion and the socio­economic development requirements.

The State will prioritize investment in the conservation of special national relics (by 2015. 100% of these relics will be repaired and embellished), national relics (70% by 2015 and 80% by 2020) and villages and hamlets with typical cultural characteristics. To step up the socialization of relic conservation activities; and to formulate mechanisms for mobilizing resources for relic maintenance, embellishment and promotion.

To stop the illegal occupation of relic land, distortion of relic environment and landscape and stealing of antiques; to create a healthy cultural environment at relic sites.

To further select typical Vietnamese historical-cultural relics and scenic places of globally striking value for compilation of dossiers to be submitted to UNESCO for inclusion in the World Heritage List.

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To further comprehensive investigation and search for the values of the nation's typical intangible culture. To select typical intangible-culture values and submit them to UNESCO for consideration and inclusion in the List of Representative Intangible Cultural Heritages of Mankind. To strive for the target that 50-70% of the nation's representative intangible cultural heritages are scientifically inventoried. To educate in and widely popularize intangible culture.

To basically complete the survey, investigation, search, storage, preservation, translation and introduction of documents in Han-Nom (Chinese-transcribed Vietnamese script), to apply information to the archive of documents, introducing "chu Nom" (transcribed Vietnamese script) in the international standard code table.

To formulate policies to encourage research into, search for, archive, passage and introduction of intangible cultural heritages of the community of Vietnamese nationalities. To honor and adopt preferential policies towards artisans and artists who firmly grasp and have merits in teaching and disseminating intangible culture.

- Grassroots culture

To widely develop the movement "All people unite to build a cultured life", considering it a central and long-term task, linking it with the campaign to build clean, firm and strong Party cells and administrations and taking the target of building cultured families, villages, hamlets, communes and wards as its core. To step up the materialization of the Strategy for building Vietnamese families in the 2005-2010 period and the 2011-2020 period, honoring typical cultured families, villages and hamlets. To strive for the targets that 70-80% of families will reach the standards of cultured family and 65-70% of villages, hamlets and street quarters will reach the standards of cultured village, hamlet or street quarter.

To raise the standards of people's cultural enjoyment, attaching importance to highland, deep-lying and remote regions, the Central Highlands, southwestern Vietnam, northern mountainous region and Central Vietnam. To pay attention to introducing literary and art products and art performance programs to the grassroots; to ensure that people may participate in creating cultural values and organize by themselves cultural activities of community nature.

To build cultured lifestyles in residential quarters, offices and units; to follow civilized lifestyles in organizing weddings, funerals and rituals while combating superstition, backward customs and other social vices.

To build, complete and consolidate the system of cultural establishments from the central to local levels; to attach importance to renewing the operation of cultural houses to properly well satisfy people's demands for cultural enjoyment. To organize the managerial and operational apparatus of a cultural establishment on the principle of professionalization of all of its structural sections.

- Scientific research in culture and arts

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To attach importance to training and fostering scientific workers and top specialists in order to avoid succession interruption upon generation transfer. To mobilize the intellect and experience of scientists and culturists who have retired or are working inside or outside the cultural sector, encouraging them to continue with their research or creation, and participate in training and instructing young cadres.

To incrementally link the principal incomes of researchers to the outcomes of their scientific research projects; to encourage young cadres to participate in scientific research.

- Copyright and related rights

To raise the awareness, knowledge and sense of observance of the law on copyright and related rights in communities, especially for organizations and individuals with related rights and obligations. To build a system of databases on copyright on publications, press and internet.

To consolidate and enhance the capability and operational efficiency of central and local agencies managing and enforcing copyright; to inspect and strictly handle infringements; to perfect the legal system on copyright and related rights, ensuring the full and effective protection in conformity with international standards. To incrementally form a system of collective management of copyright; to try to establish the law-prescribed order on copyright and related rights in a number of fields in which serious infringements are seen.

4. Major solutions

To build and develop an advanced Vietnamese culture deeply imbued with national identity in the period of industrialization and modernization and to attain the objectives of cultural development till 2020. efforts should be concentrated on the implementation of the following major solutions:

a/ Heightening the ideological consciousness and building men

- Studying and thoroughly understanding Ho Chi Minh Thoughts on culture; learning and following Ho Chi Minh morality examples.

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* Culture has a humanity nature, on the one hand, and a profound national nature, on the other hand, "the Vietnamese culture is created through the mixture of oriental culture and western culture. "To develop the Vietnamese culture, the quintessence of the national culture must be brought into play, on the one hand, and the quintessence of mankind's culture be absorbed, on the other hand.

* “Culture must shine the way for the nation": culture is the cause of the masses, which must enter social life and express the national characters; to protect and promote national cultural heritages, traditional culture and modem culture; to get rid of backward and outmoded vestiges and add new values.

* Humans are. on the one hand, subjects of cultural creation, and, on the other hand, cultural products; hence, cultural development must be associated with the development of humans, caring for the cause of "man planting."

+ To firmly grasp the perception of the role of education in Marxism- Leninism and Ho Chi Minh Thoughts as the ideological foundation of the building and development of Vietnamese culture into an advanced one deeply imbued with national identity. To link the tasks of culture building with the tasks of Party building and consolidation via the campaign: "Study and follow the exemplary morals of Ho Chi Minh," creating a step of actual improvement in action. Each organization, agency, unit and population quarter should formulate regulations and rules setting forth specific, practical and feasible norms for studying and following the exemplary morals of Ho Chi Minh.

+ To study the compilation of documents, to elaborate and implement plans for propagation and study of Ho Chi Minh Thoughts on culture; to educate in and supply knowledge and skills on cultured manners in families, offices, schools, hospitals, enterprises, public places and holy places.... To mobilize the mass media, mobile information teams, lively and diverse forms of propaganda and education suitable to different target groups for the implementation of this campaign to achieve practical results.

- Man building

The Resolution of the IXth National Party Congress affirmed that humans constitute an internal resource for socio-economic development. Development of culture means the promotion of human resources - the largest and most decisive resource for socio-economic development.

+ To raise the quality and effectiveness of the building of Vietnamese man, meeting the requirements of the period of national industrialization and modernization. Through man building, to foster patriotism, capability, intellect, sentiment, personality and sense of responsibility for society construction; to harmoniously combine personal activeness with social activeness, promoting the dynamism and creativeness of every citizen. To educate in. and raise the political stuff and cultural personality for everyone based on the Party's viewpoints on building and development of culture; to closely associate the objectives of man building with practical activities and widespread patriotic emulation movements of the masses.

+ Based on the five qualities of the Vietnamese man. which should be developed, as identified in the Resolution of the 5th plenum of the Party Central Committee (the VIIIth Congress), and the new requirements on development of Vietnamese man in the period of industrialization, modernization and international integration, as mentioned in the Strategy, organizations, agencies, units and residential quarters shall work out specific norms suitable to different target groups and different domains and areas of operation

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To determine cultural work as an important and regular task of Party committees and administrations at all levels. To actively incorporate cultural development planning and plans into the socio-economic development plans of the nation, each level, branch, domain or locality; to institutionalize the Party's and State's guidelines and policies on culture. Party organizations and state agencies shall work out plans and measures to step up the building of culture in their organizations and agencies, setting examples for the society and people to perform this task.

b/ To renew and raise the capability of leadership and state management

This is a solution of especially important significance in the building and development of culture.

- To raise the state management effect and efficacy.

+ To basically complete the institutionalization of the Party's viewpoints, guidelines and orientations on culture, literature and arts in the period of accelerated industrialization, modernization and international integration. Due to the peculiarity and sensitiveness of this domain, the principle of Party leadership, state management and democratization of management must be firmly upheld in the management of this domain; to combine branch-based management with territory-based management and the principle of socialist legality. The viewpoint on management is to perform two functions of "building" and "combating" of which "building" is basic. The important objective of culture management is to create conditions for conservation, promotion and development of cultural resources. The state management of culture must be performed through elaboration of planning and plans and formulation of laws, mechanisms and policies.

+ To apply synchronous measures for actively preventing and combating baneful culture and cultural imposition by powerhouses and opposing "peaceful evolution" in the cultural domain in our country. To intensify interdisciplinary coordination in the management of the cultural product market; management of the use of internet and electronic information on internet (websites, blogs and portals) in Vietnam. To actively struggle against macaronic and anti-cultural manifestations, contributing to the protection of national cultural identities and diversity in uniformity of the Vietnamese culture.

+ To enhance the effect of state inspection of culture

- To renew the management organization, contents and mechanisms.

The stormy development of the mass media (television, internet, post and telecommuni­cations...), the emergence and development of new forms of cultural and art expression (such as game online, blog, online literature...), the development of socialization of cultural activities, the expansion and multi-lateralization of cultural and art exchange as well as international cooperation require renewal of cultural management organization, contents and mechanisms.

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+ Renewal of the management and provision of public services, aiming to raise the state management responsibility and effectiveness, to bring into play all social resources for higher quality and efficiency of public cultural services, and to ensure social justice and better satisfy people's higher demands for cultural enjoyment; scrutinizing and reorganizing non-business organizations and units in the cultural sector into non-business public-service units suitable to the characteristics and nature of each type of public services, each category of cultural enjoyment subjects and each area; formulating mechanisms for non-profit operation of each type of public-service providers; applying the regime of autonomy and self-responsibility for task performance, apparatus organization, payroll and finance to public non-business units; reorganizing professional art units nationwide into public non-business units in the direction that each province will have one public art unit, with traditional arts as the core of its activities, while other art troupes will be established in the form of non-public units. Particularly, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City may each set up a number of public art units as the core. Concentrating on building a number of typical traditional and modem art units of the central administration. Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.

+ For research institutes, investment should be made to upgrade the Vietnam Institute of Culture and Arts to be worthy of a center for cultural development strategy research; to expand and raise the quality of post graduate training in culture and arts; to combine training with scientific research: cultural and art schools with research institutes; to conduct training under assigned quotas to meet the society's demands.

- To improve, formulate and finalize policies for cultural development

To review the formulation and implementation of policies in the groups of solutions set forth in the Resolution of the 5th plenum of the Party Central Committee (the VIIIth Congress).

Cultural policies should be formulated in the direction:

+ Policies applicable to non-business cultural and art units and enterprises in economic activities.

* Cultural non-business units will shift to operate under the autonomy and self-responsibility mechanism for task performance, apparatus organization, payroll and finance under law. Apart from the tasks assigned by the State, they will be entitled to organize service activities suitable to their own professionals: to align with organizations and individuals for service activities to meet the society's demands, which are suitable to their capability and compilable with law.

Public non-business units are encouraged to shift to form non-public units operating on the principle of self-financing and enjoying equal treatment by the State and society like public units in terms of products and services.

* To step up the reorganization of enterprises in the culture, sports and tourism sector, renewing their production and business activities for higher efficiency, toward converting a number of enterprises into one-member limited liability companies while equitizing the remainder through appropriate steps.

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* To apply the regime of order placement with orientations for creation of literary and art works, film scripts and film production, publication, freight support for books and papers transported overseas.

+ Policies to combine socio-economic development with cultural development

* The formulation of economic objectives and solutions in five-year and annual socio-economic development plans of various levels, branches and localities must be associated with cultural objectives and solutions.

* To practice civilization in trade and culture in business.

* The planning on construction of residential quarters, industrial parks, new urban centers... must set aside land funds suitable and convenient for the construction of cultural facilities (cultural houses, spoil facilities, entertainment and recreation zones, cinemas, libraries or reading rooms, fine-art and sculptural works...).

* To formulate and promulgate policies to encourage various economic sectors and social organizations to participate in creation, production, dissemination and business activities in the field of culture and arts. To promulgate regulations on tax exemption or reduction for investments and contributions of enterprises for the conservation of national cultural heritages and construction of cultural works, sponsoring of literary and art works of ideological and artistic values, cultural activities in highland, deep-lying and remote regions, and contributions to cultural development.

+ Policies on socialization of cultural activities.

Policies on socialization of cultural activities constitute an important solution to involve the entire society and various economic sectors in the creation, supply and dissemination of cultural products, establish the responsibility of the entire society for cultural development, create conditions for cultural activities to develop and gradually raise the standards of people's cultural enjoyment.

Due to its peculiarity and political as well as ideological sensitiveness, the socialization of cultural activities requires appropriate steps for each type of activities, each region or zone.

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* The State adopts mechanisms and policies to encourage the establishment of non-public art troupes and culture and art schools...; to encourage various economic sectors to invest in the construction of cultural establishments and organize business under the state management in the construction of cinemas, theaters, museums and libraries; organization of art performances and video tape agents; distribution of films and papers; fine art exhibitions; teaching of dancing, music and painting; joint ventures between domestic and foreign investors in a number of printing processes.

* To work out mechanisms to encourage enterprises, organizations and individuals to finance cultural and information activities and the preservation of national cultural heritages, for which the State will acknowledge their merits in appropriate forms.

+ Policies to encourage creation

* To create a favorable environment and conditions for activities of intellectuals, literalists and artists. To promulgate regulations on democracy in cultural and art activities; to supplement and improve mechanisms and policies to create conditions for intellectuals, literalists and artists to develop, devote and be honored by society.

* To further the policies of encouraging creation. Annually, the State shall earmark a regular funding amount in support of creation activities and dissemination of literary, art. architectural and press works; collection and dissemination of the folk culture treasure under the mechanism of state supports and order placement; to encourage enterprises to contribute funds to the making of art works.

* To launch contests for literary and art creation in order to have many works of high ideological and artistic values to meet the society's demands.

* To diversify financial sources (the State, aid. donations...) in the establishment and raising of cultural funds in support of creation activities.

* To protect copyright and related rights; to implement the regimes of royalties and copyright associated with revenues from works. To further apply various forms of commendation, awards presented to typical works and cultural and art projects; to apply mechanisms to encourage creation.

c/ To increase resources and material-technical foundations for cultural development

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+ To formulate criteria and mechanisms for selection and arrangement of leading, managerial cadres and advisers in culture and arts, who are fully capable, professionally and qualitatively qualified for their jobs.

+ To build a contingent of cadres, civil servants and senior experts in culture and arts, who are ideologically and politically steady and professionally skilled; to build a contingent of highly qualified intellectuals, earmark and artists who incrementally advance to the level of advanced countries in the region and the world. To implement the policies of putting talents in important positions and granting preferential treatment to earmark and artists who have rendered a long process of service or have good works with positive influence in the society.

+ To formulate a national plan on cultural and an training, closely link cultural and art training with trainee needs and society's demands. To consolidate and raise the training quality of culture and art schools; to consolidate and upgrade culture and art colleges of northwestern, Viet Bac (Northern) and Central Highlands regions and provincial intermediate culture and art schools, creating conditions for them to be fully capable of training cultural and art personnel. To form three cultural and art training centers of national standards in Hanoi. Ho Chi Minh City and Thua Thien- Hue. To establish a culture and art university in the Central Highlands and a culture and arts university in Can Tho. To build Vietnam National Conservatoire, Vietnam Fine Arts University and a number of other culture and art schools up to the level of advanced countries in the region.

+ To complete the systems of curricula, syllabuses and reference documents for various disciplines and levels of cultural and art training (creation, research, theory, criticism, performance, conduction, direction....), quickly approaching the international standards while preserving the national cultural and art traits and cultural and art peculiarities of various areas and regions for uniform use in schools nationwide. To add a number of traditional art subjects to the training program. To open a number of new graduate training disciplines (familiology, art direction, cultural and art marketing; art audio and light; fashion designing, festival direction, stuntmen. master of ceremony...). To expand and develop the training of skilled workers in some technical domains.

+ To intensify the training and retraining of teachers who are fully qualified in profession, foreign language and qualities to fulfill their training tasks. To implement programs for raising teachers' qualifications via various forms of postgraduate training at home and abroad, joint training, invitation of foreign experts to lecture at culture and art schools; to combine training with scientific research; to renew leaching and learning methods.

To send pupils and students with good morals and prospective talents in culture and arts for training in developed countries.

+ To attach importance to the training of music and painting teachers in order to ensure sources of lecturers for culture and art schools as well as general education schools at central and local levels, contributing to raising the aesthetic level for general education pupils.

+ To prioritize the training of ethnic minority cultural intellectuals, ensuring preferential regimes for them to return to work in their localities, to implement the policies on tuition exemption and reduction for students of traditional arts.

+ To formulate regimes and policies suitable to the professional peculiarities of art teachers and students in order to encourage art creation and encourage artists and artisans to participate in teaching peculiar arts. To adopt mechanisms and policies to mobilize top cultural intellectuals and talented literalists and artists to directly care for and conduct the training of their successors.

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+ To encourage and facilitate the socialization of training activities; to couple the raising of the quality of cultural and art training with the diversification of its forms, ensuring the targets of raising people's intellectual levels, training human resources and fostering talents for the Party and the State.

- To build material and technical foundations

+ To increase investment in culture, literature and arts, ensuring funds for big cultural target programs and for creation activities of literary and art associations. To upgrade, renovate or build a number of high-quality, big and modem theaters, cinemas, cultural and art exhibition centers, museums and libraries in various economic, political and cultural centers of the country and big cultural works to mark Thang Long- Hanoi's millennium.

-Thee State adopts policies of prioritizing investment in key cultural and art fields which play an important role in political, ideological, ethical, aesthetic orientations and social values; invest in the construction of a synchronous system of public cultural establishments; encourage various economic sectors to invest in the construction of material and technical foundations and organize business under the state management and guidance in some types of cultural and art services.

+ Agencies, public offices, schools, industrial parks and enterprises shall all plan the construction of cultural establishments (libraries, cultural houses, sport clubs...) in service of the spiritual life of officials, workers and public employees.

+ To apply scientific achievements and new technologies to the production and archive of films, preservation of museum documents and exhibits, conservation of historical-cultural relics, preservation and promotion of intangible cultural heritages, publication, libraries....

- To coordinate for integrated strength of the culture, sports and tourism sector for economic, cultural and social development

Culture, sports and tourism are closely interrelated, creating conditions for mutual development. Culture constitutes a foundation and an important condition for the development of sports and tourism while sport and tourism development creates conditions for culture to develop and preserve its role as a motive force for sustainable socio-economic development. The increased professionalism, quality and cultural manner of sports and tourist activities, the development of cultural tourism, the collection and exploitation of traditional folk games and introduction of national spoils into annual sports festivals and tournaments... will further enrich the cultural life and be an opportunity to introduce and honor the Vietnamese culture. The establishment of a relaxed and easy cultural space for everyone, the development of entertainment sports... will open up new opportunities and possibilities for development of tourist culture The close and synchronous coordination among these activities will bring about integrated strength for fast, comprehensive and efficient development, contributing to the promotion of the image of the Vietnamese land and its people as well as cultural identity to the world.

d/ To bring into full play the integrated strength, dynamics and creativeness of Party and state agencies, Fatherland Front organizations, mass organizations, literary and art associations, information and press agencies and the entire society for the cause of cultural development

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- To devise mechanisms for coordination between the Ministry of Culture. Sports and Tourism and the Party Central Committee's Propaganda and Education Commission, the Vietnam Fatherland Front Central Committee, the Central Council for Literary and Art Theories, the National Committee of the Union of Vietnam Literary and Art Associations in directing and coordinating the materialization of the Strategy for cultural development.

- To enhance the coordination between the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and concerned ministries and branches in organizing the materialization of the Strategy for cultural development:

+ Coordination with the Education and Training sector in introducing the education contents of history, culture, arts and family education into schools in lively, attractive and appropriate forms; organizing extracurricular activities for pupils and students to visit museums, historical relics, revolutionary relics, traditional-art performances and rituals: organizing singing festivals and contests in schools, quizzes on history and culture....

+ Coordination with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in carrying out cultural diplomacy activities.

+ Coordination with the Ministry of Information and Communication in formulating mechanisms and policies for development and good management of cultural and art publications, online culture; for management of foreign films, photos and musical programs on television.

+ Coordination with the Nationalities Committee in carrying out activities related to ethnic minority cultures.

+ Coordination with the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union Central Committee in stepping up cultural, sport and tourist activities among youths and young pioneers.

+ Coordination with the Border Guard Command in organizing cultural and information activities along the borderlines and coast.

+ Coordination with radio and television stations in widely introducing cultural activities, art programs and diverse cultural and art activities of communities.

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socio-professional organizations, particularly literary and an associations, in mobilizing and organizing the masses and intelligentsia to perform cultural tasks for cultural creation, educating in and orienting healthy cultural enjoyment for the youth; providing consultancy, social counter-arguments and examination of policies and programs for cultural development.

- To formulate and implement programs on education in culture, aesthetics, ways of living and cultured conducts in public offices, schools and hospitals; enterprise and business culture; culture in traffic, in cultural, art, sport and tourist activities, in community activities....

Culture-related propaganda and education activities must be associated with the management of society by law, the promotion of the strength of social opinion must be associated with mass movements for action. To bring into play people's voluntarism, self-management and mastery in organizing cultural activities and creation; to create favorable conditions for the formation and development of professional organizations, cultural and an clubs.

5. Organization of the implementation of the Strategy

The implementation of the Strategy for cultural development is divided into two periods:

a/From now till 2015: The central tasks of this period will be:

- To direct all cultural activities to the building of comprehensively developed Vietnamese man, meeting the requirements of the period of industrialization, modernization and international integration; and the building of a healthy cultural environment.

- To supplement and complete the system of cultural development policies: conservation and promotion of cultural heritage values; vigorous promotion of the creation capability and potential of intellectuals, literalists, artists and artisans; special regimes for artists as well as pupils, students and teachers of art schools; policies towards non-­business cultural and art units, policies on association of socio-economic development with cultural development and socialization of cultural activities.

- To work out mechanisms, policies and solutions for higher cultural enjoyment and activities of people in deep-lying, remote, border, island and ethnic minority regions.

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- To heighten the state management capacity and renew the management and organization of cultural activities; to formulate mechanisms for coordination with various branches, levels, political organizations, professional and mass organizations in building and developing culture.

- Legislative program:

+ The Advertisement Law;

+ The Library Law;

+ The Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Cinematography Law;

+ The Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Cultural Heritage Law;

+ The Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Intellectual Property Law:

+ The Ordinance on Performing Arts; + The Fine Art-Photography Ordinance.

- Branch planning:

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+ Planning on development of the fine-art sector;

+ Planning on development of the exhibition industry;

+ Planning on construction of monuments;

+ Planning on entertainment and recreation areas for children;

+ Planning on the system of cultural and art training schools.

- To further the national target program on culture, with three targets:

+ Conservation and promotion of typical cultural heritages of the nation;

+ Building and development of grassroots cultural life;

+ Support for cinematographic development.

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- Major schemes and projects:

+ To formulate and implement a program on studying and thoroughly understanding of Ho Chi Minh Thoughts on building of culture;

+ To improve mechanisms and policies for promotion of literary and art creation;

+ To formulate and realize a master scheme on introduction of cultural and art programs and activities to deep-lying, remote, border, island and ethnic minority regions;

+ To formulate and realize a scheme to honor outstanding artisans of the nation;

+ To finalize special mechanisms and policies applicable to artists, pupils, students and teachers of art schools;

+ To work out mechanisms for coordination in the direction of the materialization of the Strategy for cultural development between the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Party Central Committee's Propaganda and Education Commission, the Vietnam Fatherland Front Central Committee; the Central Council for Literary and Art Theories, the National Committee of the Union of Vietnamese Literary and Art Associations;

+ To formulate and realize a scheme on coordination in the creation of the integrated strength of the culture, sport and tourism sector for economic, cultural and social development;

+ To formulate and realize a scheme on development of Vietnam's "cultural industry";

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+ To complete and commission the National Center for Exhibitions and Trade Fairs;

+ To complete and commission the National History Museum;

+ The complete the projects on: Vietnam Singing, Dancing and Musical Theater, the Cultural-Tourism Village of Vietnamese Nationalities and the National Cinema Center.

b/ From 2015 to 2020:

The central tasks of this period will be:

+ To extensively and intensively develop the building of Vietnamese man, an advanced Vietnamese culture deeply imbued with national identity in the context that Vietnam has become an industrial country toward modernization.

+ To further adjust, supplement and complete the system of policies for cultural development in a synchronous and advanced manner.

+ To raise the level and quality of cultural and art training on par with the regional level.

+ To basically complete the construction of cultural establishments from central to local levels.

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+ The Law on Performing Arts;

+ The Fine Art- Photography Law.

- Major projects:

+ Vietnam Nature Museum;

+ Science-Technology Museum;

+ Co Loa film studio;

+ National Image Archive;

+ Large multi-function theaters in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and a number of other localities.

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Quyết định 581/QĐ-TTg năm 2009 phê duyệt chiến lược phát triển văn hóa đến năm 2020 do Thủ tướng Chính phủ ban hành