Vietnamese Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính on Saturday chairs the regular Government meeting for September on Saturday. — VNA/VNS Photo Dương Giang

HÀ NỘI — Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính has required utmost efforts to fulfil to the highest possible level of targets and tasks for 2023.

He was speaking while chairing the regular Government meeting for September and an online meeting between the Cabinet and localities on Saturday.

He emphasised the need to strongly promote growth drivers, speed up industrial production development, especially the manufacturing-processing industry in the context of continued difficulties and challenges in the world situation as well as in the country.  

The Government leader reiterated the overall goal of maintaining macro-economic stability, reining in inflation, propelling growth, ensuring major balances of the economy, paying attention to social welfare, protecting socio-political stability and social order and safety, intensifying anti-corruption activities, strengthening national defence-security, promoting external relations, and maintaining a peaceful environment for development.

He asked agencies, sectors and localities to ready plans and scenarios to respond to all circumstances.

It is necessary to focus on boosting industrial production with a goal of about 10 per cent in the fourth quarter to make up for the slow growth in previous quarters, he said, ordering ministries, sectors and localities to continue to remove difficulties facing production and business activities.

He highlighted major tasks and solutions to boost socio-economic development in October and the remaining months of the year, including the active and flexible management and harmonious coordination of policies, especially fiscal and monetary policies, the promotion of the three growth drivers of investment, exports and consumption, and the speeding up of public investment disbursement.

The PM also emphasised the need to continue to speed up administrative reform and corruption prevention and control.

Reports presented at the meetings pointed to improvements in socio-economic development results through months, with inflation controlled and major economic balances ensured. 

In the third quarter, the country posted a gross domestic production (GDP) growth of 5.33 per cent. The consumer price index (CPI) rose 3.66 per cent in September and 3.16 per cent on the average in the first nine months of this year. The interest rates continued to reduce, with lending interest rates dropping about 1 per cent over the end of 2022.

Industrial production has increased again, expanding 4.57 per cent in the third quarter, with the manufacturing-processing sector growing 5.61 per cent.

In the first nine months of this year, State budget collection completed 75.5 per cent of the yearly estimate. Meanwhile, import-export turnover rose 3.6 per cent year on year. In the January-September period, the country enjoyed US$21.68 billion of trade surplus. 

At the same time, the country drew $20.21 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI), up 7.7 per cent year on year. The disbursement of public investment capital was equivalent to 51.38 per cent of the yearly plan.

Improvement was also recorded in other fields such as culture, society, education, health care, social welfare, and administrative reform. Việt Nam has been named by HSBC as an attractive destination for foreign businesses, while the ADB predicted that Việt Nam will fully recover in a short time.

The Government leader also mentioned complex developments facing the country include disease outbreaks, climate change, storms and floods, El Nino heatwaves, droughts, and landslides.

Security and social order situation in some areas and potential risks, particularly cybercrime, drug trafficking, multi-level marketing, and loan sharking, as well as deforestation and increased forest fires, are concerning.

At the meeting, the PM also assigned specific tasks to particular ministries, sectors and localities. — VNS