Opening of the 42nd Session of the National Assembly Standing Committee

On the morning of October 12, the National Assembly Standing Committee (NASC) opened its 42nd session, giving opinions on many important contents to prepare for the 10th session of the 13th National Assembly, scheduled to open on October 20.

Chairman of the Economic Committee Nguyen Van Giau speaks at the meeting. (Photo: Kim Thanh)

Speaking at the opening of the session, National Assembly Chairman Nguyen Sinh Hung emphasized: This is an important session, the National Assembly Standing Committee will review and reconsider all work before the opening of the 10th session of the 13th National Assembly. In this session, the National Assembly Standing Committee will review and give opinions on 9 draft laws expected to be submitted to the upcoming 10th session.

Immediately after the opening, chaired by Vice Chairwoman of the National Assembly Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan, the Standing Committee of the National Assembly gave opinions on the Government's reports on the results of the implementation of the 2015 socio-economic development plan and the 2016 socio-economic development plan; the results of the implementation of the state budget in 2015, the state budget estimate and the central budget allocation plan for 2016; on allowing diversification of the issuance terms of government bonds; and the project on issuing government bonds to the international capital market until 2020.

Expected to complete 13 targets

Reporting on the socio-economic situation in the first 9 months of the year, Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Dao Quang Thu affirmed that we have responded promptly and effectively to the unpredictable economic and political fluctuations of the world in 2015 and achieved encouraging results in socio-economic, national defense, security and foreign affairs. Notably, the macro-economy continued to be stable, the economy continued to recover clearly; inflation was controlled at a low level; foreign exchange rates were relatively stable, the international balance of payments was in surplus, foreign exchange reserves increased rapidly, reaching the highest level ever; interest rates were relatively stable. GDP growth rate reached the highest level in the past 5 years. Exports maintained growth momentum. Industrial production, in which the processing and manufacturing industry had a good increase, agricultural production overcame difficulties in natural disasters and markets, developing relatively stably. Total demand and purchasing power increased; Total retail sales of goods and consumer service revenue increased...

In addition to the achieved results, Deputy Minister Dao Quang Thu also frankly pointed out that the socio-economic situation still has many difficulties and challenges such as: There are not many specific and effective solutions to overcome the negative aspects of the international integration process; agricultural production, especially livestock production, and exports of many agricultural and aquatic products are lower than the same period; trade deficit tends to increase again. Economic restructuring associated with growth model innovation is slow...

Based on the situation in the first 9 months of the year and the upcoming prospects, Deputy Minister Dao Quang Thu said that it is estimated that out of 14 economic development plan targets set for the 2015 plan in the National Assembly Resolution, 13 targets are expected to be achieved and exceeded. Only 1 target did not meet the plan, which is the forest coverage rate, mainly due to the inventory and re-evaluation of the actual conditions of the remaining land fund that can be planted with forests and the forest area, a part of the forest land was converted to other purposes... "If we only consider the forest planting target in the first 9 months of the year, it reached 172 thousand hectares, an increase of 4.2% compared to the same period last year, the damaged forest area also decreased by 53.9%" - the Deputy Minister added.

Regarding the socio-economic development plan for 2016, the Deputy Minister said that the main targets are expected to be as follows: Gross domestic product (GDP) increases by about 6.7% compared to 2015; total export turnover increases by about 10% compared to 2015; the ratio of trade deficit to total export turnover is under 5%; the ratio of state budget deficit to GDP is about 5%; total social development investment capital accounts for about 31% of GDP; consumer price index (GPI) is about 5%; the poverty rate decreases by 1.3-1.5%, with poor districts alone decreasing by 4%; the rate of trained workers reaches 53%....

Examining the Government's report, the Economic Committee unanimously assessed that our country's socio-economic situation has had positive changes.

Regarding the targets proposed by the Government, Chairman of the Economic Committee Nguyen Van Giau said that, in terms of import-export balance, in the context of current forecasts of lowering the world economic growth rate, export forecasts in 2016 will be difficult, so it is necessary to evaluate more carefully the target of increasing total export turnover by 10% and the ratio of trade deficit to export turnover by 5%; the poverty reduction target of 1.3%-1.5% is difficult to achieve because the remaining poor households are the most difficult households, and cannot be reduced quickly. It is necessary to objectively, accurately, and practically evaluate the current rate of near-poor and re-poor households and the relationship between poor and near-poor households.

Regarding the state budget deficit, the Committee agreed with the proposal to increase the budget deficit by 5%. However, “it is necessary to clearly report the state budget deficit ratio including government bonds, the deficit mainly balances development investment, and develop a detailed roadmap to reduce the deficit and public debt in the 2016-2020 period, ensuring national financial security” – Mr. Nguyen Van Giau said.

Selling off state capital shares

Also this morning, the Standing Committee of the National Assembly also listened to Minister of Finance Dinh Tien Dung report on the results of state budget implementation in 2015, state budget estimates and central budget allocation plan in 2016.

According to the report, the Government proposed a budget deficit within the estimate decided by the National Assembly of VND 226,000 billion, equal to 5.0% of GDP.

Reviewing the report, the Finance and Budget Committee (FB) said that in reality, it will be difficult to maintain the above-mentioned budget deficit. According to Chairman of the FB Committee Phung Quoc Hien, the monitoring results show that the ODA disbursement level in 2015 will exceed the estimate decided by the National Assembly; some items have been spent without any source of compensation such as: Debt for interest rate difference compensation for the Vietnam Bank for Social Policies and the Vietnam Development Bank... Therefore, it is recommended that the Government review and specifically report the ODA disbursement figures and the State's debts to closely reflect the budget deficit and public debt, and report to the National Assembly for consideration and decision.

Regarding the Government's proposal to allow the issuance of diversified government bond maturities to offset the budget deficit, the National Assembly's Finance and Budget Committee basically agrees with the contents submitted by the Government, but requests the Government to report more clearly on the current situation of capital mobilization and solutions, recommend the National Assembly to make adjustments to suit practical requirements and ensure strict, safe and effective management and use of public debt.

Regarding the 2016 State budget estimate, the Government expects the total balanced State budget revenue in 2016 to be VND984,500 billion, an increase of 6.1% compared to the estimated implementation in 2015. However, Mr. Phung Quoc Hien said that although this is a low expected increase, given the situation of low revenue from crude oil due to sharp price drops, revenue from import-export activities decreased due to implementation of international commitments, and some tax policies at the time of adjusting tax rates to ensure proactiveness and safety in State budget management, such an increase is reasonable. However, it is recommended to review State budget revenues, ensure that no revenue sources are missed and strengthen measures to prevent State budget losses. At the same time, it is necessary to recalculate the medium and long-term revenue strategy, striving for the mobilization level from taxes, fees and charges to be no lower than 20% of GDP/year in the coming years.

Regarding budget balance, the National Assembly Committee believes that in 2016, the pressure to increase state budget expenditures is still increasing: the state budget revenue growth rate is at 6.1%, the expenditure growth rate is 8.6%, development investment expenditure alone increased by 16.4%, regular expenditure by 6.0% shows that the state budget balance is very tense, while the state budget still owes many expenditures without payment sources: debt for basic construction is still large; debt for issued policies...

The Committee for State Budget basically agrees with the proposal to sell off some state capital shares in some state-owned enterprises to collect about 30,000 billion VND to supplement development investment spending, focusing on some important infrastructure projects with widespread impact. However, it is recommended to note that it is necessary to ensure compliance with the provisions of the 2013 Constitution; in case of choosing the option of selling off some state capital, the recovered capital must be used for development investment spending, not for regular spending; this is a short-term solution, it is recommended to consider using it to ensure concentration, avoiding the situation of spreading and unfinished capital allocation for many targets, leading to the following budget years not having resources to continue implementation. Accordingly, it is recommended to only focus on some key infrastructure projects in the 2016 development investment spending plan.

According to the program, this afternoon, the Standing Committee of the National Assembly will give opinions on the above reports and on the draft Law on Property Auction./.

According to dangcongsan.vn