All 12 socioeconomic targets for the year assigned by the National Assembly are expected to be achieved, said an official from the Ministry of Planning and Investment at a teleconference today, September 24.

Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung speaks with the Vietnam News Agency on the sidelines of a teleconference with local governments on September 24 to assess the socioeconomic performance of the country for this year and create a plan on socioeconomic development next year 

The ministry held its first teleconference with local governments to examine the socioeconomic performance of the country for this year and create a plan for socioeconomic development next year, reported the Vietnam News Agency.

Tran Quoc Phuong, head of the National Economic Issues Department under the ministry, said the socioeconomic performance this year has witnessed positive momentum. The Government is likely to meet all 12 targets assigned by the National Assembly for this year, of which eight will be surpassed while the other four will be fulfilled, he said.

He noted one of the major achievements was maintaining macroeconomic stability, which provides the foundation for economic restructuring, thereby promoting the development of industries and sectors.

In particular, the country’s gross domestic product growth rate has reached an estimated 6.7%, and the quality of this growth has improved.

Inflation has been under control in the 2016-2018 period, with the consumer price index reaching less than 4%.

The financial market has maintained stable growth, while credit growth has remained at 17%, meeting the capital requirements for the economy, especially in the fields of production and business.

Public debt has fallen from 63.7% in late 2016 to some 61.4% so far this year. National budget revenue has amounted to over VND1.350 quadrillion (US$57.8 billion) this year, up around 3% compared with the estimate and up 5.5% against the previous year.

Notably, budget overspending has reached 3.67%, exceeding the target of the law-making body.

Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung said first and foremost, major tasks and solutions mentioned in the Government’s resolution guiding the execution of the socioeconomic development plan and the State budget estimate for 2018 should be given special attention.

Dung noted the resolution includes more than 200 specific tasks, so it is necessary to review those tasks to deal with the remaining issues in a timely manner. Besides this, the issues surrounding the restructuring of the economy should be addressed as well.

“We should carry out three strategic breakthroughs: to further streamline the institutions we are building and complete projects on schedule, thereby gradually improving infrastructure facilities… Foreign investors are very concerned because our infrastructure is less competitive than that of other countries,” he told the Vietnam News Agency in an interview on the sidelines of the teleconference.

“The third (breakthrough) issue is human resources. We should organize it well, thus making the most out of the current workforce,” he added.

“For investment in general, I think we should remove the difficulties and obstacles facing enterprises today.” 

He supposed all of the current institutions are good, but if they are not well implemented, then the disbursement of capital sources, including private, foreign direct and even public investments, is not good, they will possibly affect the efficiency of capital use.

He stressed that the rapid disbursement of capital would contribute to investment in and development of the social and economic situation in the coming period.

The country is also facing various challenges such as the effects of climate change, flooding and landslides, which have caused severe damage to residents’ production and daily activities.

He noted that Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has assigned the relevant ministries, agencies and local governments to allocate resources to assist localities in handling these problems.

SGT