The Prime Minister chaired an online conference between the Government and localities on the socio-economic situation.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh stated that over the past time, we have made great efforts to implement three major groups of tasks. Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac

Attending the conference were Deputy Prime Ministers Le Minh Khai, Tran Hong Ha, Tran Luu Quang; General Phan Van Giang - Minister of National Defense; Government members, leaders of ministries, branches and central agencies.

Also attending the conference at the Government headquarters were Vice President Vo Thi Anh Xuan and Comrade Dinh Van An, Assistant to the General Secretary. Also attending the conference at local bridges were leaders of provinces and centrally run cities.

According to the program, the conference focused on discussing the socio-economic situation in March and the first three months of 2023, the implementation of Resolution 01 of the Government, the socio-economic recovery and development program, three national target programs, the allocation and disbursement of public investment capital; tasks and solutions for socio-economic development in the second quarter of 2023 and the coming time; additional assessment of the implementation results of the socio-economic development plan and the State budget in 2022.

In his opening speech, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh noted that we have ended the first quarter and entered the second quarter of the third year of implementing the Resolution of the 13th National Party Congress.

We are implementing tasks, solutions, and making efforts to achieve the set goals according to the resolutions, conclusions, and directions of the Party, the National Assembly, and the Government in the context that the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic have not been fully overcome, strategic competition between major countries is increasingly fierce, the world economy tends to decline, inflation in countries has cooled down but is still high, countries continue to tighten monetary policies, demand has decreased, markets have narrowed, especially in Vietnam's major markets, prices of some strategic goods and input materials are unstable, especially oil prices. Unstable factors, increased risks, declining confidence in the global financial market, some banks in the US and Europe have stopped operating and gone bankrupt.

The Prime Minister chaired an online conference between the Government and localities on the socio-economic situation. Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac

Domestically, the economy is modest in size but highly open, with limited resilience. A small external fluctuation can have a large impact internally, in the context of a developed country with a transitioning economy.

In that context, in the past time and in the first quarter of 2023, under the leadership of the Party, directly and regularly led by the Politburo, the Secretariat, headed by General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, the participation of the entire political system, the support of the people, the support of international friends, the efforts of authorities at all levels, we have basically achieved major goals: Maintaining macroeconomic stability, controlling inflation, promoting growth, ensuring major balances of the economy, maintaining political stability, national defense, security, social order and safety, strengthening and expanding foreign relations and integration. The material and spiritual life of the people continues to improve, the United Nations has just announced that Vietnam's "Global Happiness Index" ranking has increased by 12 places.

However, there are still many difficulties and challenges. Right from the beginning of the year, we have assessed that the situation has more difficulties and challenges than opportunities and advantages, and up to now, we have seen that this assessment is more correct.

Specifically, the recovery of businesses after the Covid-19 pandemic still faces many difficulties related to access to capital, land, cumbersome administrative procedures, and a narrowed market. The real estate, capital, and corporate bond markets still face many difficulties and obstacles that need to be further resolved to stabilize, be safe, healthy, and sustainable. Overcoming problems related to the supply of drugs, biological products, and medical supplies requires more drastic efforts. Policy responses from ministries, branches, and localities need to be more timely and effective to remove difficulties for businesses and people for better recovery. Disbursement of public investment and implementation of the three national target programs are still difficult. Administrative reform needs to be further promoted and administrative discipline and order need to be further strengthened.

The Prime Minister pointed out that in recent times, we have made great efforts to implement three major groups of tasks: Backlogged, long-standing issues that require a lot of time to resolve, such as loss-making projects and weak banks; regular tasks that are increasingly more numerous and more difficult with increasingly higher demands as the economy grows larger and the population grows larger; handling and responding to sudden, unexpected problems.

The Prime Minister asked delegates to focus on objectively assessing results, limitations, analyzing causes, lessons learned, assessing the situation, identifying tasks and solutions for implementation, making efforts to overcome limitations and shortcomings, overcoming difficulties and challenges, and concentrating all efforts to achieve the highest results in achieving the set goals and tasks.