VINACHEM

HCM CITY — Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung approved last Friday a 10-year national programme to increase productivity and quality of Vietnamese goods and services.

The programme will establish and apply a criteria system, norms, management systems, models and tools for improving productivity and quality, and develop resources to achieve these aims.

That goal is to increase the competitiveness of domestic firms and give a fillip to socio-economic development.

In the 2010-15 period, the programme will strive to establish 4,000 new national criteria and ensure that 45 per cent of national criteria are in sync with regional and international standards.

All goods and services that cause environmental pollution will be managed under the new national norms. A network of organisations will be formed to assess the national norms on a regular basis.

A productivity and quality improvement initiative will be implemented in 40 provinces and cities across the country. For this, a pool of experts and consultants will be established to dispense advice and know-how to those in need.

Forty thousand enterprises will be guided to apply advanced science and technology innovations.

Forty per cent of these enterprises will be producers of major goods and services.

(Source: VNS)