Prime Minister: GDP growth in 2018 may exceed target

Opening his speech, the Prime Minister expressed that in these early autumn days, we have received much good news, including the achievements of the Vietnamese sports delegation at the ASIAD.

As of yesterday, Vietnam has won 4 Gold medals and many Silver and Bronze medals, ranking 13th overall, achieving the set goal. In particular, the Vietnam Olympic football team has entered the quarterfinals, a historic achievement.

Another good news is that in August, we successfully organized the 2018 Innovation Network Connection Program, chaired by the Ministry of Planning and Investment, demonstrating our interest in young Vietnamese talents abroad.

The August 2017 meeting will take place in 1 day with 10 contents. The Prime Minister asked the Government members to focus on reviewing and discussing to complete a number of reports to be submitted to the National Assembly at the next session to ensure progress.

Assessing the socio-economic situation, the Prime Minister said that the situation in August was better than in July. The macro economy was stable. Inflation was controlled. The consumer price index (CPI) in August 2018 increased by 0.45% compared to the previous month. The average CPI in the first 8 months of 2018 increased by 3.52% compared to the same period in 2017.

Major economic sectors continued to grow strongly, with a better growth trend. Total retail sales of goods and consumer service revenue increased by 11.2%. Trade surplus of 2.8 billion USD. To date, there are over 25 items with export turnover of over 1 billion USD. The investment situation has clearly improved. As of August 20, total registered foreign investment capital (including FDI) reached over 24.3 billion USD, up 4.2% over the same period. The confidence of foreign investors continues to be affirmed when many international organizations highly appreciate Vietnam's development prospects. The whole country has over 87,000 newly registered enterprises, up 2.4% in number of enterprises and 6.9% in registered capital over the same period in 2017. There are 21,000 enterprises resuming operations, up 9.3%.

Cultural and social fields continue to receive attention and direction. People's lives continue to improve.

However, the situation in August and the first eight months also revealed some existing problems and limitations such as infrastructure being heavily affected by floods and rains, prices of some agricultural products in the world are decreasing, fires and explosions, traffic accidents, etc. Referring to the information defaming Vietnamese pangasius products, the Prime Minister suggested that measures should be taken to handle this issue more promptly. The Ministry of Industry and Trade, and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development need to focus on handling this issue immediately as this is one of the key export products of the Vietnamese seafood industry.

From the reports and preliminary assessments of the ministries and functional branches, the Prime Minister said that the good news is that through analysis, 12/12 targets for 2018 assigned by the National Assembly can be achieved and exceeded, of which 8 targets are exceeded and 4 targets are achieved. GDP is likely to reach over 6.7%, budget revenue exceeds the estimate by 3-5%, public debt decreases, inflation is below 4%. Growth quality is improved. Labor productivity increases.

The Prime Minister also asked Government members to discuss the targets and orientations for 2019, the period 2019 - 2021, "at what level of growth?" and said that, in the context of the complicated world situation, the scale of the domestic economy has become larger, so increasing GDP by 1% is very difficult, which requires great efforts and struggles of all levels and sectors to achieve and exceed the set plan.

According to the report of the Ministry of Planning and Investment on the expected plan for 2019, GDP in 2019 is set to increase by about 6.6-6.8%, export turnover increases by about 7-8%, average CPI growth rate is about 4-5%....

At the meeting, the Government listened to and discussed the Draft Law on Tax Administration (amended); the Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Government Organization and the Law on Local Government Organization; and the proposal to develop a Law amending and supplementing a number of articles of the Law on Cadres, Civil Servants and the Law on Public Employees.

The Government will listen to the Minister and Head of the Government Office present a summary of the Report on the issuance of detailed regulations; the issuance of documents to reduce business conditions and specialized inspection procedures; and the inspection results of the Prime Minister's Working Group in August 2018.

The Government will listen to and give opinions on mid-term assessment reports on the implementation of the socio-economic development plan and medium-term public investment for the 2016-2020 period; the national financial and budget plan for the 2019-2021 period, etc.