HA NOI, 17 September 2012 – A new collaboration on providing capacity support for the General Statistics Office (GSO) and other relevant partners at national and sub-national levels in the implementation of the Viet Nam Statistical Development Strategy (VSDS) 2011-2020 is being signed today at an official ceremony in Ha Noi attended by representatives of Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI), GSO, Ministry of Construction (MoC), other line ministries, representatives from provinces, research institutes and the United Nations agencies in Viet Nam.Addressing the ceremony, the leader of the Ministry of Planning and Investment said: "Over the past 20 years, from 1993 to 2012, Viet Nam has achieved annual GDP growth rate of more than 7 percent. The country officially graduated to a Middle-Income Country status in 2010 and is on the way to achieve most of the MDGs at the national level".

The One Plan 2012-2016 between the Government of Viet Nam and the United Nations (UN), signed in March 2012, will help address the challenges ahead and to ensure balanced, equitable and sustainable development. In this context, the project "Support for the implementation of the Viet Nam Statistical Development Strategy in the period 2011-2020 and utilization of population information in development planning and programming" will be co-implemented by GSO; Department of Labour, Cultural, and Social Affairs; and Development Strategy Institute, Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) and Department of Urban Development, Ministry of Construction (MoC) and with technical assistance from the United Nations (UN) in Viet Nam including UNFPA and UN-HABITAT. It will contribute to the Focus Area One of the One Plan: Achieve inclusive, equitable and sustainable growth.

"We hope this project, through multi-sectoral coordination, will play a key role in strengthening the capacity of GSO and relevant partners in collecting, analyzing, and disseminating information/data on population, reproductive health and gender, housing, water and sanitation, contributing to the implementation of the VSDS as well as in integrating population and urbanization issues for the development, monitoring and evaluation of socio-economic strategies and plans," said Mr. Bruce Campbell, UNFPA Representative in Viet Nam. Mr. Campbell also added that this collaboration will significantly contribute to the achievement of the One Plan Output 1.1.1 in partnership with other UN agencies and with coordinated UN-donor support for the implementation of the VSDS.

The UN-HABITAT Programme Manager, Mr. Nguyen Quang said that the project, which includes integration of urban indicator data set into the national statistical indicator system and improve capacity and support central and local management agencies on designing a more appropriate urban policy/strategy, will contribute to improvement in quality of life of Vietnamese urban dwellers and sustainable urban development.

It was emphasized that this project through a remarkable joint effort by a range of stakeholders including Government ministries and agencies, provinces and the international development partners working together and under the effective coordination of the GSO, will contribute to Viet Nam's MDG achievement and human development as a vibrant and competitive Middle-Income Country and support Viet Nam to effectively implement the VSDS 2011-2020 and vision 2030.