Prime Minister: Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and Ha Tinh clarify responsibilities in the Formosa incident

The Prime Minister requested the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and Ha Tinh province to clarify responsibilities in the Formosa incident, and to make it public and fair to the people.

Continuing the regular Government meeting in August, on the afternoon of August 31, Government members discussed the socio-economic situation in the first 8 months and the whole year of 2016.

The report of the Ministry of Planning and Investment shows that the bright spot of the macro economy in August is the consumer price index (CPI) which increased by only 0.1% compared to July. The average CPI in the first 8 months increased by 1.91% compared to the same period last year.

Total state budget revenue by mid-August was nearly 604,000 billion VND, equal to 59.5% of the estimate.

FDI attraction continues to be positive, with total registered capital in the past 8 months reaching nearly 14.4 billion USD, of which realized capital is nearly 9.8 billion USD.

Prime Minister speaks at the meeting

Thanks to efforts to improve the investment environment, the number of newly registered enterprises increased by 19.7%. The agricultural production situation has changed positively.

Of the 13 socio-economic development plan targets set for this year, 11 targets were achieved and exceeded.

The challenge for the economy from now until the end of the year is that the export growth rate will only reach 6-7% compared to the target of 10% and economic growth is estimated at 6.4 to 6.7%.

Concluding the discussion, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc requested ministries and branches to concretize their determination with specific policies, actions and targets to handle the country's problems and promote the country's socio-economy.

The Prime Minister said that recently, ministries, branches and localities have made efforts to deal with issues such as the environment and closing natural forests.

Besides, ministries, branches and localities have made efforts to build institutions and implement Resolutions 01, 19 and 35.

The Prime Minister said that Vietnam has increased 3 places in terms of business investment environment, from 93 to 90 out of 189 countries. Vietnam is ranked 5th out of 10 ASEAN countries.

The Prime Minister emphasized that achieving the goal of becoming one of the top four countries in ASEAN in terms of investment environment is not simple, but it is a goal that must be strived for in 2017.

And to achieve that, it is important to transform the spirit of a constructive and active Government to all levels and sectors.

Ministers need to focus more, be more proactive in implementing the tasks of the industry, towards people and businesses, and improve the investment and business environment.

Ministers and Chairmen of local People's Committees must resolutely implement policies, including specific tasks such as closing natural forests, protecting the environment, and providing health insurance.

Regarding the Formosa incident, the Prime Minister requested the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and Ha Tinh province to clarify the responsibilities of the Ministry and the province in the Formosa incident, and to make it public and fair to the people.

The Prime Minister also requested that difficult issues need strong solutions, including equitization of state-owned enterprises and bad debt settlement. In addition, he commended a number of provinces, cities and ministries for their creativity and efforts in carrying out socio-economic tasks.

The Prime Minister also asked ministries, branches and localities to implement policies well and create social trust.

Prime Minister concludes on socio-economic situation

Regarding the socio-economic situation over the past 8 months, the Prime Minister assessed that the socio-economic situation has had positive changes, with import and export increasing significantly, foreign direct investment (FDI) attracting rapidly increasing capital, and the number of newly established enterprises increasing significantly.

Regarding one of the tasks in the coming time, the Prime Minister said that the scale of the economy is still small, if the number of businesses is small, it will affect employment, growth and the budget.

Therefore, the Prime Minister requested ministries, branches and localities to focus on solutions to promote startups and create favorable conditions for business development.

Accordingly, it is necessary to continue implementing the startup program with stronger solutions, so that by 2020 the whole country will have 1 million businesses.

The Prime Minister directed ministries, sectors and localities to save on investment, public procurement and better manage public assets. In addition, it is necessary to reduce staff by promoting the socialization of public service units.

Regarding the State Bank, the Prime Minister requested that this agency be responsible for operating monetary policy, ensuring inflation control within the set target. Along with that, it is necessary to continue handling bad debts, especially controlling new bad debts. The State Bank needs to propose drastic and breakthrough solutions to handle bad debts.

The Ministry of Finance has solutions to prevent tax losses, review policies and administrative procedures, create favorable conditions for people and businesses, and ensure transparency and publicity.

Along with that is transparency in tax payment of large-scale enterprises, not allowing the situation of agreement and tax splitting.

Another important task is that the Prime Minister requested ministries, branches and localities to promote disbursement of public investment capital, including implementing Resolution 60 of the Government well, to create growth momentum.

The Prime Minister also asked the Ministry of Industry and Trade to review import-export policies more clearly for each sector.

With the two economic locomotives being Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, the Prime Minister emphasized that each city must strive to exceed its budget revenue target by VND10,000 billion. Other localities must strive to balance their own budgets./.

According to VOV