Permanent Deputy Prime Minister Truong Hoa Binh delivered a keynote speech at a high-level session of the 10th Regional Conference of the Anti-Corruption Initiative for Asia-Pacific, themed “Preventing and Combating Corruption in Infrastructure Projects in Asia-Pacific”, in Hanoi on December 6.

In his speech, Binh said Vietnam considers infrastructure building as one of the three strategic breakthroughs to turn itself into a modern-oriented industrialised nation. 

To such end, he said Vietnam will focus on four tasks, including fine-tuning laws and policies, effectively using resources for infrastructure development, especially in land, construction, investment, construction, investment, bidding; pooling non-State resources for infrastructure development, especially in the form of public-private partnership; prioritising investment in national defence-security or projects that fail to call for investment; and building a supervision mechanism for the process.

According to the Deputy PM, Vietnam has taken drastic actions to build a constructive and action-oriented government in the spirit of “leaving no one behind”.

Over the past years, Vietnamese ministries and agencies have cut over 3,400 out of nearly 6,200 business requirements, saved 893.9 billion VND (38.86 million USD) each year, Binh said.

He assigned the Vietnamese Government Inspectorate, ministries, agencies to continue working closely with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and member countries and territories of the Anti-Corruption Initiative for Asia-Pacific to collect suggestions at the event, towards improving investment efficiency, and dealing with corruption and bribery in infrastructure projects.

Earlier, the business integrity meeting, the third meeting of the Public Integrity Network, and the 23rd meeting of the initiative’s executive board were also held.

The four-day conference, co-organised by the Vietnamese Government Inspectorate, OECD and ADB, also wrapped up the same day.