Prime Minister directs to find solutions to overcome low pork prices

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

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

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

Speaking at the opening of the meeting, the Prime Minister assessed that during the recent holiday, a large number of people went on holiday, including both domestic and international tourists. If last year the Central Coast beaches were deserted, this year, the Central Coast beaches and many other beaches across the country were full.

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

Meanwhile, the consumer price index (CPI) in April did not increase despite adjustments in medical 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% in the first quarter.

Credit growth was the highest in the past 6 years, up 5% over the same period. Newly registered foreign investment capital, equity capital contribution and additional capital registration also increased sharply in April with 10.6 billion USD, up 40.5%. State budget revenue increased quite well, reaching over 32% of the annual estimate, up nearly 18% over the same period.

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

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

Regarding the market situation, the Prime Minister assessed that some areas are still unstable, many issues of state management are still inadequate, agricultural products have low prices, especially low pork prices for a long time, causing great losses to farmers. What the Prime Minister emphasized is that the price of live pigs is low, but the market price is still high.

“The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Ministry of Industry and Trade must clarify the cause and come up with urgent solutions, including slaughter, transportation, trading, retail, markets, and supermarkets, to help livestock farmers avoid huge losses. Coordination between the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and relevant ministries and sectors must be more proactive. Therefore, it is necessary to review planning, plans, processing, circulation, and consumption within the scope of management, and prevent similar cases from happening,” the Prime Minister directed.

Besides, the industrial sector plays an important role in GDP growth but has low growth, only increasing by 5.1% in 4 months, lower than the same period. In which, the mining sector continues 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 find solutions to handle the backlog of products such as titanium, iron ore, block stone, paving stone, and some other items that are still in large quantities and have not been consumed, affecting production. Along with that, there must be solutions to restore growth in the industrial-construction sector towards restructuring, focusing on processing, manufacturing, electricity, water, and construction industries.

Although positive compared to the first quarter, in April, the allocation and disbursement of public investment capital was still slow, with only 19% of the estimate disbursed in the first 4 months.

Exports of many key commodities increased slowly or decreased, with rice and pepper exports falling. Meanwhile, imports of some domestically produced commodities increased sharply, such as iron, steel, petroleum, chemicals, and animal feed, leading to a trade deficit of 2.8 billion USD in the past four months.

Faced with the slow progress of equitization of state-owned enterprises, the Prime Minister requested to focus on equitization and divestment of enterprises and clarify individual responsibilities in this matter.

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

The Prime Minister also pointed out that administrative discipline is not yet strict, there are still violations in personnel work, and there are still situations of harassment, group interests, and waste.

In addition, although security and order have been ensured, there are still some hot spots, including the incident in Dong Tam commune, My Duc district. Therefore, the Prime Minister directed that security and order must be ensured, and hot spots must not occur nationwide.

The Prime Minister also requested that ministries and branches focus on drastic direction, creating clear changes in each sector and field, contributing to promoting growth and maintaining national security and order. Along with that, ministries and branches must also propose solutions to mobilize resources, resolve the stagnation in public investment and investment disbursement, unblock credit sources, private investment and have measures to stimulate consumption and export to create momentum for growth, especially for ministries related to production and growth./.

According to VOV