Government regular meeting October 2012

In the regular meeting in October 2012, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung requested ministries, branches and localities to be proactive, flexible, closely follow developments, strive to achieve the highest socio-economic goals in 2012, creating a premise for development in 2013 and the following years.
Socio-economic report

Overview of the meeting. Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac

Under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, on October 28, the Government held its regular meeting for October 2012.

Positive signals of the economy

Discussing the socio-economic situation, Government members stated that the socio-economic situation in October and the past 10 months continued to have positive changes and was in line with the set goals.

Solutions to curb inflation and stabilize the macro-economy continued to be effective; exports continued to maintain growth momentum higher than the planned target and higher than the import growth rate, the trade deficit decreased sharply; agricultural production developed stably, achieving good results; industrial production continued to recover; inventory index gradually decreased; difficulties in production and business were gradually resolved; social security and welfare were ensured; national defense and security were strengthened; foreign affairs continued to receive attention and promotion.

Specifically, regarding the implementation of the priority goal of curbing inflation and stabilizing the macro economy. The CPI growth rate in October decreased compared to the growth rate of the previous month. CPI in October increased by 0.85% compared to the previous month; increased by 6.02% compared to December 2011 and increased by 7% compared to the same period last year, much lower than the consumer price growth rate of previous years.

In October, export turnover was estimated at 9.9 billion USD, up 4.4% compared to September; import turnover was estimated at 10.4 billion USD, up over 11.7%; trade deficit was 500 million USD. In the first 10 months of 2012, total export turnover was estimated at 93.45 billion USD, up 18.4% compared to the same period last year; total import turnover was estimated at over 93.8 billion USD, up 6.8% compared to the same period last year. Trade deficit in the first 10 months was about 357 million USD, equal to 0.4% of total export turnover.

Despite the difficult situation, industrial production continued to show improvement. The industrial production index (IIP) in October increased by 5.8% compared to the previous month and by 5.7% compared to the same period in 2011. Agricultural, forestry and fishery production developed steadily, achieving good results. The estimated rice output for the whole year of 2012 will increase by about 0.7 million tons compared to the previous year.

The service sector continued to develop well. In the first 10 months of the year, total retail sales and consumer service revenue increased by about 17.1% compared to the same period in 2011; international visitors to Vietnam increased by 11.2%. Other service sectors developed steadily, meeting the production and living needs of the people.

In addition, social security, health care, culture, education and other social fields continue to receive attention and achieve positive results. Regarding labor and employment, in the first 10 months of 2012, the country is estimated to have created jobs for about 1,195 thousand workers, reaching over 78.7% of the annual plan, of which about 64.8 thousand workers were exported, reaching 72% of the annual plan.

All levels and sectors continue to actively deploy and effectively implement social security policies, such as effectively deploying measures to prevent and combat storms, floods, and droughts, urgently restoring production, stabilizing people's lives; supporting rapid and sustainable poverty reduction for poor districts; supporting famine relief and social assistance; training, vocational training and job placement; implementing social insurance and compulsory insurance policies for workers...

However, Government members also said that the socio-economic situation still faces many difficulties and challenges, notably the fact that the macro-economy is not really stable; there is still the potential for high inflation; economic growth is slower than the set target; production and business activities still face many difficulties; the number of dissolved and inactive enterprises is still large, affecting the employment and income of workers as well as economic growth; industrial production increases slowly; the lives of a segment of the population, especially unemployed workers and ethnic minorities, still face many difficulties.

Focus on removing "bottlenecks" for the economy

According to many Government members, the key task for the last months of 2012 and the coming time is to continue to give high priority to maintaining the goal of controlling inflation and stabilizing the macro economy.

Minister of Industry and Trade Vu Huy Hoang stated that, with the CPI increase rate of the past 10 months and the forecast for the remaining 2 months of 2012, the target of keeping the CPI for the whole year of 2012 at around 8% is feasible and well-founded. However, Minister Vu Huy Hoang also stated that in order to achieve the target of controlling inflation for the whole year of 2012, ministries, sectors and localities need to continue to coordinate closely in managing and operating the supply and demand of goods and the market; ensuring adequate supply of food, foodstuffs and essential goods for life in the last months of the year; avoiding imbalances in supply and demand, which would adversely impact the target of controlling inflation.

After analyzing the stagnation and difficulties of the real estate market, Minister of Construction Trinh Dinh Dung stated that it is necessary to remove difficulties for this market, because if the real estate market is difficult, it will not only affect real estate enterprises but also affect the construction materials industry and the macro economy. He proposed that the Prime Minister assign the Ministry of Construction to coordinate with relevant ministries and branches to review housing development projects as well as conduct necessary surveys and assessments in a more comprehensive manner on the real estate market; at the same time, it is necessary to continue to focus on implementing priority solutions to solve housing for low-income people and social policy beneficiaries.

Discussing this issue, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung expressed his agreement and support for the solutions proposed by the Ministry of Construction to remove difficulties for the real estate market, especially expressing his strong agreement with the viewpoint that it is necessary to focus strongly on implementing solutions to prioritize housing for low-income people and social policy beneficiaries.

Deputy Prime Ministers Nguyen Xuan Phuc and Vu Van Ninh said that in order to achieve the goal of curbing inflation, stabilizing the macro economy, and maintaining reasonable growth in 2012, great efforts will continue to be needed from ministries, sectors, and localities in the final months of the year to successfully implement the tasks and goals set for the whole year of 2012. The Deputy Prime Ministers emphasized the need to be more drastic in handling bad debts and inventories; continue to promote administrative reform, reduce administrative costs for people and businesses; replicate the one-stop shop and inter-connected one-stop shop models; effectively handle complaints and denunciations, and minimize the number of complaints and denunciations that go beyond the central level.

Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai proposed continuing to pay attention to removing difficulties and creating favorable conditions to encourage production and business; rectifying basic investment activities; increasing enterprises' access to capital; further promoting the equitization of state-owned enterprises; and effectively implementing policies to attract foreign investment.

Regarding the implementation of the goal of curbing inflation, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan asked the Ministry of Health to work with localities that have not yet announced adjustments to medical service prices to agree on a roadmap for implementing the adjustment in the direction of postponing the application period; at the same time, he asked localities to have a program to ensure adequate food supply for the last months of the year, especially during the Lunar New Year.

Regarding food safety and livestock farming, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan emphasized that localities must take more drastic measures to ensure food hygiene and safety, and resolutely and strictly handle acts of trading and consuming dirty food and food of unknown origin.

In addition, continuing to resolutely implement measures to create jobs and increase income for workers; supporting livestock and aquaculture production to ensure adequate food supply for the market; improving the quality of trade and investment promotion activities... are also major issues mentioned and emphasized by many Government members at the meeting.

Strive to achieve the highest results for the set socio-economic goals

Concluding the meeting, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung requested ministries, sectors and localities to continue to coordinate closely, proactively and flexibly, monitor and closely follow developments, and strive to achieve the highest socio-economic development goals set for 2012, creating a premise for development in 2013 and the following years.

Accordingly, first of all, it is necessary to continue to resolutely, persistently and synchronously implement the goal of curbing inflation and stabilizing the macro-economy. Maintain the target of curbing inflation for the whole year of 2012 at around 8%. Strengthen management, operation and price stabilization; ensure the balance of supply and demand of goods; prevent sudden increases in food and foodstuff prices at the end of the year, do a good job of managing market prices, strictly handle acts of speculation, price increases and price hikes.

Continue to effectively implement solutions to handle bad debt with drastic and thorough solutions. At the same time, it is necessary to soon complete the overall project on handling bad debt.

The State Bank resolutely directs the restructuring of the banking system; is open and transparent in banking restructuring activities, while closely managing the gold market; is open and transparent in implementing policies related to gold and developing the gold market.

Implement reasonable and effective fiscal policies; closely coordinate fiscal policies with monetary and credit policies, ensure macroeconomic stability and control inflation; strengthen budget revenue and expenditure management; ensure budget revenue and expenditure balance; maintain budget deficit according to the set plan.
Speed ​​up disbursement for projects using investment capital from the state budget, government bond capital, national target program capital... Strengthen inspection and supervision of the management and use of state budget capital.

Along with implementing solutions to control inflation and stabilize the macro-economy, it is necessary to pay close attention to achieving the growth target for the whole year of 2012 at a reasonable level.

Accordingly, it is necessary to continue to remove difficulties, create all favorable conditions to encourage production and business development, especially in industries and fields considered to have advantages such as agricultural production; tourism and service development. Increase the competitiveness of goods and services. Along with that, continue to develop appropriate plans and policies to support the consumption of inventories for businesses, especially inventories of construction materials. Promote exports, maintain high growth momentum of key export items.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung also noted the need to continue paying attention to ensuring social security and social welfare; solving housing problems for poor households and low-income people; doing a good job of inspection, examination, disease prevention, ensuring food hygiene and safety; strengthening the work of preventing corruption, negativity, and crime on a regular and continuous basis; thoroughly handling 528 outstanding and prolonged complaints and denunciations, minimizing new complaints.

Finally, emphasizing the special importance of information and propaganda work, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung stated that ministries, branches and localities need to further strengthen information and propaganda work; provide objective and honest information about what has been done, the shortcomings, limitations and weaknesses that need to be overcome, thereby creating social consensus, contributing to the successful implementation of socio-economic development goals set for 2012 and the following years; continue to bring the country to rapid and sustainable development, steadily moving forward on the path of innovation and integration.

*At the meeting, the Government also listened to reports and discussed the draft Decree on assignment and decentralization of the implementation of rights, responsibilities and obligations of state owners towards state-owned enterprises and state capital invested in enterprises./.

According to (Chinhphu.vn) – LT