Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung held a regular working session in Hanoi on January 25 with experts to review the country’s socio-economic performance and seek measures to execute this year’s goals.

Dung stressed the need to promptly perfect policies, improve coordination among ministries and departments, curb rising prices and deal with slow credit growth and the high number of enterprises going out of business in January.

The Government will continue to instruct relevant agencies to lower lending rates and remove production and trade obstacles, focusing on bad debts and inventories and stepping up the restructuring of the banking system and State-owned enterprises, he said.

The PM also asked experts to propose effective solutions to the Government for socio-economic development.

The Ministry of Planning and Investment reported that the country experienced more positive socio-economic changes in January. Industrial production went up 21.1 percent year on year, exports and foreign investment rose by 43.2 percent and 5 percent, respectively. Nearly 19,000 tonnes of rice was donated to underprivileged people on the occasion of the traditional lunar New Year (Tet) holiday, and 130,000 jobs were created.

Experts said challenges remain, suggesting that ministries and departments need to effectively implement key measures of the National Assembly and Government’s Resolutions, as well as the Prime Minister’s directions.

They asked the Government to take drastic and long-term measures to settle bad debt, restructure State-owned enterprises, generate jobs for workers and promote the expansion of export markets.

In the future, it is necessary to stabilise market prices, guarantee the supply of goods during Tet, monitor food hygiene, combat smuggling, implement social welfare policies, ensure social safety and order as well as road safety, they said.

VNA