Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has urged ministries, sectors and localities to take more drastic measures to enhance the country’s management in the remaining months of the year in order to achieve the 2016 socio-economic development targets.
During the Government’s monthly meeting on October 29, which focused on ways to promote exports and accelerate the disbursement of public investment capital, the PM said that in order to ensure a growth rate of 6.3-6.5 percent for the whole 2016, growth in the fourth quarter must register 7.3 percent.
He also underlined the need to continue ensuring macro-economic stability and implementing financial tools to keep the year’s inflation within 5 percent. He said relevant agencies must keep close watch on changes of domestic prices and take measures to manage them, especially those of essential commodities, to avoid goods hoarding and rising prices at the end of the year.
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| Customers choose fruit at the Aeon Mall in Hanoi__Photo: Doan Tung/VNA |
The consumer price index (CPI) in October increased by 0.83 percent from the previous month, a year-on-year rise of 4.09 percent. The CPI and economic growth for the year are set to reach 4.7-5 percent and 6.3 percent, respectively.
Attention should also be paid to reforming credit and supporting enterprises in accessing capital, and consideration should be given to lowering interest rates, the PM stressed.
The PM asked ministries, sectors and localities to speed up disbursement of loans and investments and to promote tax collection, speed up administrative reform in terms of tax and customs, and reduce expenditures.
He urged stronger efforts to promote agricultural development and new-style rural area building, effectively overcoming the consequences of natural disasters, and to respond to others like saline intrusion and drought in the future.
He noted that the agriculture sector would need to effectively control food security and prevent the use of banned substances in animal breeding and of counterfeit plant-protection substances.
Appropriate solutions should be devised to address difficulties facing enterprises, foster start-ups and accelerate restructuring of State-owned enterprises, he said.
The PM called for strengthened investment promotion by boosting links between global groups and Vietnamese enterprises.
The enforcement of the Vietnam- Eurasia Economic Union Free Trade Agreement in October opened opportunities for Vietnamese exports from now to the end of the year, said Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh.
Vietnam recently climbed to 82nd place among 190 economies in the World Bank’s Doing Business 2017 report, up nine notches from the 91st place last year. That was an encouraging progress, he said.
Though many sub-indexes increased significantly, some others declined from the previous report, including dealing with construction permits, getting credit, starting a business and registering property.
The PM requested ministries and sectors to find out the causes of these problems and work out countermeasures.
He highlighted the rising number of new businesses, at 92,000 at present, and predicted it would likely surpass 100,000 this year. More than 20,000 companies resumed operations since the beginning of 2016, also illustrating confidence in the market and the steering of the Government.
However, the Prime Minister warned that ministries would have to make preparations from now so that economic growth in Q1 of 2017 would not slow down as it had for many years.
He stressed Vietnam aimed to have its investment climate comparable to that of the four other ASEAN countries of Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines in 2017.
During the meeting, the cabinet members proposed numerous measures to expand the export of agro and fishery products in the remaining months of 2016 and the first months of 2017, stressing the need to focus on potential markets.
They also suggested improving competitiveness of rubber, coffee and garment-textile enterprises.- (VNS/VLLF)
