Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on February 1 chaired the Government’s regular meeting to review the socio-economic situation in January, the allocation and disbursement of public investment, and the implementation of national target programmes.
At the meeting, the leader called for elaborating Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong’s recent article titted “Proud and confident under the Party's glorious flag, determined to build a Vietnam more prosperous, powerful, civilised and heroic with a fine and long-lasting culture” penned on the occasion of the 94th founding anniversary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV).
This is to consolidate national pride, tradition, patriotism, mettle and confidence, and promote the sense of responsibility in order to create new motivation to complete assigned tasks, he explained.
Chinh said it is necessary to further follow the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress, directions of the Party Central Committee, the Politburo and key leaders, along with the 2021-2030 socio-economic development strategy, the 2021-2025 plan, and resolutions and directives of the government and the PM.
The immediate task lies with ensuring that the entire population, especially remote, border, island residents and disadvantaged groups, enjoy a happy New Year, he said.
The PM urged maintaining macro-economic stability, taming inflation, ensuring major economic balances, and managing monetary policy in a flexible, timely and effective way, saying they should go in tandem with fiscal policy and others.
Apart from consolidating traditional markets, efforts are needed to seek new ones, he said, calling for more attention to controlling budget spending, overspending, public debt, government debt and foreign debt.
Ministries, agencies and localities were asked to forge growth engines, focusing on luring and disbursing social investment sources, and attracting large-scale, high-tech foreign direct investment (FDI) projects, particular those in processing, manufacturing, electronics, semiconductors and hydrogen, among others.
They were also requested to boost exports, especially of agro-forestry-aquatic products, to major and promising markets; accelerate the negotiations and signing of the comprehensive economic partnership agreement between Vietnam and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and free trade agreements with Brazil, the Southern Common Market (Mercosur - including Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay), and India; better tap the Halal market; promote the domestic market; and concertedly roll out solutions to attract domestic and foreign tourists.
The leader also touched upon attracting green finance and credit to develop renewable and new energy, and building regional and international financial centres in Vietnam.
He emphaised the need to speed up public investment disbursement and the implementation of the three national target programmes on new-style rural area building, sustainable poverty reduction and socio-economic development in ethnic minority-inhabited and mountainous areas, while pushing ahead with the ratification of planning schemes.
For projects that are facing obstacles regarding construction material supply, Chinh urged the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment to immediately amend relevant regulations.
Ministries, agencies and localities must focus on removing difficulties to production and business, and drastically streamline administrative procedures, he continued.
The leader called for greater efforts to have the European Commission (EC)’s “yellow card” on Vietnamese seafood removed and boost services and tourism, saying more heed should be paid to social welfare, environmental protection, climate change response, and national defence and security.
Other tasks assigned by the PM included stepping up the fight against corruption and other negative phenomena, and enhancing external relations and international integration.
According to a report presented at the meeting, the socio-economic situation in January continued its positive recovery trend with many remarkable results in all fields.
In particular, the macro-economy remained stable, inflation controlled, and major balances guaranteed, with the consumer price index (CPI) up 3.37% year-on-year, and exports up 37.7% to nearly 64.22 billion USD with a trade surplus of 2.92 billion USD.
The index of industrial production (IIP) rose by 18.3% over the same period last year, showing a positive trend. Total retail sales of consumer goods and services grew by 8.1% in the month.
The country welcomed over 1.5 million international visitors, an increase of 73.6% year-on-year.
The total registered FDI capital reached 2.36 billion USD, a rise of 40.2%, with 1.48 billion USD disbursed, up 9.6%.
