OPENING REMARKS AT 9TH ANTI-CORRUPTION DIALOGUE

By H.E. Mr. Nguyen Dinh Phach, Head of OSCAC

H.E. Mr. Tran Van Truyen, Inspector General, Government Inspectorate of Vietnam;

H.E. Mr. Staffan Herstrom, Ambassador of Sweden to Vietnam;Ambassadors, Heads of bilateral and multilateral donors.Leaders and Representatives of relevant governmental agencies of Vietnam;Distinguished guests;Ladies and Gentlemen:

Today, with the authorization of the Prime Minister, the Government Inspectorate and the Office of Steering Committee on Anti-Corruption, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Ministry of Industry and Trade, Ministry of Construction in coordination with the Embassy of Sweden holds the Dialogue with international donors on “Anti-corruption in the Extractive Industries”.

On behalf of the co-organizers of the Dialogue, I warmly welcome Mr. Tran Van Truyen - Inspector General, Mr. Chu Pham Ngoc Hien - Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, Mr. Nguyen Nam Hai - Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade.

I welcome and highly appreciate Mr. Staffan Herstrom, Ambassador of Sweden to Vietnam as well as representatives of other donors who closely coordinated with us in holding this Dialogue.

I warmly welcome international guests, colleagues from anti-corruption and other relevant agencies, media representatives and distinguished guests to this Dialogue.

Ladies and Gentlemen:In recent years, Dialogue on Anti-corruption has become a periodical event

held before Mid-term CG Meeting; With this spirit, the nineth Anti-corruption Dialogue is a preparation for Mid-term CG Meeting in Ha Tinh early next month.

In the first part of the Dialogue, relevant agencies of Vietnam will share information with donors, enterprises and the public on the progress of anti-corruption work in general and “anti-corruption in land administration and use” in particular since the eighth Dialogue.

The next part of the program will be the main topic of this Dialogue “Anti-corruption in the Extractive Industries” where anti-corruption risks, current situations and relevant solutions in this field will be discussed. At the same time,

we will learn experiences and initiatives from donor community in managing mineral resources and extract industries.

Distinguished guests,Natural mineral resources are non-regenerable resources, the Mineral

Resources Law of Vietnam defines that mineral resources are under the ownership of the entire people and incomes from extractive activities should be used for country development.

In the past years, extractive industries become more and more important in Vietnam economy; the extractive industries occupy an increasing proportion in GDP and significantly contribute to the State budget.

However, in the development process, the management policies with natural resources and extractive industries shows weaknesses and shortcomings; not meeting the demand of effectiveness and stability and sheltering loopholes for corruption and wastefulness; negatively affecting the ecological environment, living environment of the local citizens.

Vietnam has a long road to walk to a modern, stable and green extract industry meeting the domestic and export needs.

Realizing the current situation, with a view to basically surmounting the shortcomings, the General Assembly of Vietnam issued the New Mineral Law in 2010, replacing the 1996 Mineral Law (amended in 2005). The Law shall be of full force and effect as of the first of July 2011. Therefore, the discussion in this Dialogue is very practical and useful to relevant authorities of Vietnam in drafting and issuing detailed provisions for the implementation of the new law.

Due to the time limitation while we have items in the agenda, I would like you to focus on Dialogue topic; presentations, as well as comments, questions and answers should be short and not overlapped.

With the experiences of successfully holding Dialogues on Anti-corruption, with detailed and well-prepared presentations, together with good-will, cooperative and understanding spirit, I believe that our Dialogue today would be a great success.

I declare the ninth Dialogue on “Anti-corruption in the Extractive Industries” open.

Thank you very much./.