The Prime Minister has directed that solutions be found to address the low price of live pigs.

The Prime Minister instructed the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Ministry of Industry and Trade to find solutions to address the low price of live pigs and reduce losses for pig farmers.

This morning (May 4th), at the Government Headquarters, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc chaired the regular Government meeting for April. Also in attendance was Politburo member and Chairman of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front, Nguyen Thien Nhan.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc delivered a speech at the meeting.

In his opening remarks at the meeting, the Prime Minister noted that during the recent holiday period, a large number of people, both domestic and international, went on vacation. While last year the beaches in Central Vietnam were deserted, this year, the beaches in Central Vietnam and many other beaches across the country were completely full.

Meanwhile, the production and business atmosphere in localities and enterprises is also very encouraging. In some localities where the Prime Minister personally visited, including Binh Thuan and Tra Vinh, investment promotion conferences attracted many domestic and foreign investors, and investment promotion work was substantive and in-depth.

Meanwhile, the consumer price index (CPI) in April did not increase despite adjustments to healthcare service prices in 14 provinces and cities; economic growth continued to recover, especially industrial production, which increased by 7.4% in April, higher than the 4.2% of the first quarter.

Credit growth reached its highest level in the last six years, increasing by 5% year-on-year. Newly registered foreign investment, equity contributions, and additional capital registrations also increased significantly in April, reaching US$10.6 billion, a 40.5% increase. State budget revenue also increased considerably, exceeding the annual forecast by over 32%, and nearly 18% year-on-year.

In April 2017, nearly 40,000 new businesses were established with a total registered and additional capital of 825,000 billion VND.

However, the Prime Minister also frankly pointed out current shortcomings, namely that some economic sectors continue to face difficulties, especially industry, mining, agriculture, and livestock. Aggregate demand is recovering slowly. Although nearly 40,000 new businesses were established, over 4,000 businesses dissolved and nearly 27,000 businesses temporarily suspended operations. Therefore, the Prime Minister directed that solutions to achieve the 6.7% economic growth target this year, both on the supply and demand sides, need to be implemented more decisively.

Regarding the market situation, the Prime Minister assessed that some sectors remain unstable, many state management issues are still inadequate, and agricultural products have low prices, especially pork, which has remained low for an extended period, causing significant losses for livestock farmers. The Prime Minister emphasized that while live pig prices are low, market prices remain high.

“The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Ministry of Industry and Trade must clarify the causes and implement urgent solutions to address the problem, including issues related to slaughtering, transportation, trading, retail, markets, and supermarkets, to minimize losses for livestock farmers. Coordination between the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and other relevant ministries and agencies must be more proactive. Therefore, planning, processing, distribution, and consumption within their respective areas of responsibility must be reviewed to prevent similar incidents from occurring again,” the Prime Minister instructed.

In addition, the industrial sector, which plays a crucial role in GDP growth, experienced low growth, increasing by only 5.1% in the first four months, lower than the same period last year. The mining sector, in particular, continued to decline.

Overview of the regular government meeting in April.

The Prime Minister requested the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the Ministry of Construction to develop solutions to address the backlog of products such as titanium, iron ore, stone blocks, paving stones, and other items that remain unsold and negatively impact production. Alongside this, solutions should be developed to restore growth in the industrial and construction sectors through restructuring, focusing on processing, manufacturing, electricity, water, and construction industries.

Despite showing positive results compared to the first quarter, the allocation and disbursement of public investment funds remained slow in April, with only 19% of the budget disbursed over the entire four months.

Exports of many key export items increased slowly or decreased, with rice and pepper exports declining. Meanwhile, imports of some items that can be produced domestically increased sharply, such as iron, steel, petroleum products, chemicals, and animal feed, resulting in a trade deficit of $2.8 billion in the past four months.

Given the slow progress in the equitization of state-owned enterprises, the Prime Minister requested a focus on equitizing and divesting from these enterprises, and called for clarification of individual responsibilities in this matter.

Although the number of private enterprises has increased significantly, they are mainly small and medium-sized enterprises with low competitiveness. The Prime Minister stated that the Government has decided to hold the second national business conference to continue removing obstacles for all types of businesses, including private enterprises.

The Prime Minister also pointed out that administrative discipline is still not strict enough, there are still violations in personnel management, and there are still instances of harassment, vested interests, and waste.

In addition, while security and order have been generally ensured, some hotspots have still occurred, including the incident in Dong Tam commune, My Duc district. Therefore, the Prime Minister has directed that security and order must be maintained to prevent the occurrence of hotspots nationwide.

The Prime Minister also requested that ministries and agencies focus on decisive leadership, creating clear transformations in each sector and field, contributing to promoting growth and maintaining national security and order. Along with that, ministries and agencies must also propose solutions to mobilize resources, address stagnation in public investment and capital disbursement, unlock credit and private investment sources, and implement measures to stimulate consumption and exports to create momentum for growth, especially for ministries related to production and growth.

According to VOV