Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc speaks at the Government’s monthly meeting

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc underscored thedetermination to accomplish all goals set for 2019, striving for a GDP growthof 6.8 percent and reining in inflation under 4 percent at the Government’smonthly meeting held in Hanoi on May 31.

The Government convened its May meeting right after the National Assemblyconcluded its plenary session discussing socio-economic and State budgetperformance.

The leader reminded the cabinet members of unpredicted external risks andchallenges, saying that inflation pressures remain visible so CPI would bepossible to surpass 4 percent in the absence of smooth coordination of policiesand communications activities.

For dealing with external risks, he tasked the Ministry of Industry and Trade tocontinue keeping a close watch on the trade tension between the US and Chinaand promptly work out appropriate solutions and scenarios, including measuresto diversify overseas markets and develop the domestic market.

Competent agencies and related ministries should pay attention to developingtechnologies, and inviting big tech companies in other countries to invest inVietnam, he suggested.

The State Bank of Vietnam needs to continue monitoring, assessing andforecasting impacts that the global finance and monetary markets may exert on localforex and deposit interest rates so to take timely solutions, while continuingraising the national reserves to be well prepared for external shocks.

Emphasizing the need to ensure the macro-economic stability, the PM asked competentagencies to not increase public service prices altogether, step upcommunications, and supervise price fixing, in order to ensure inflation iscontrolled to the set target.

He asked the cabinet members to continue analyzing the multilayer impacts ofpower and petroleum hikes as well as assessing the power charge calculationmethods to make it more suitable.

The Finance Ministry and the State Securities Commission of Vietnam arerequired to continue following developments in the stock market and investmentcapital flows channeled via the market to manage risks and capital drain.

Ministries, sectors and localities need to proactively apply Industry 4.0achievements in their work, and speed up the building of e-government, he said.

The leader stressed the need to improve the quality of institutions andpolicies, saying unnecessary business conditions must be cut to the setprogress.

He asked related ministries and agencies to work together to ensure thequality of the upcoming exams, and fight the African swine fever.

At the meeting, the PM gave instructions on preparations for thequestion-and-answer session by cabinet members at the National Assembly, andothers.

Reports delivered at the meeting show the macro-economy continued its stabilityover the past five months, with CPI expanding 2.74 percent on year (the lowestin the recent three years). Total goods sale and service turnover rose 11.6percent. More than 7.3 million foreign tourists visited the country, a rise of8.8 percent on year.

FDI disbursement reached 7.3 billion USD, a rise of 7.8 percent from the sametime last year. Newly registered FDI and new capital added to existing FDI projectshit 9 billion USD, a surge of 27 percent.

The country earned an export value of 100 billion USD, a rise of 6.7 percent. Nearly54,000 new businesses were founded, showing a 3.2 percent rise in number and a29.6 percent soar in registered capital, and close to 20,000 businesses resumedtheir operation, surging by 48 percent. -VNA

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