HÀ NỘI — Prime Minister Nguyễn Xuân Phúc, chairing the Government’s regular July meeting in Hà Nội on Thursday, asked officials to take measures to ensure their sectors and agencies reach this year’s growth targets.

PM Phúc noted a positive socio-economic trend in July and the first seven months of 2017, saying that inflation and credit growth continue to be controlled, while export and import revenues grew almost 19 per cent.

About 73,000 new businesses were established and more than 17,000 others resumed operations between January and July.

According to the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the consumer price index in July was up 0.11 per cent from the previous month. Credit growth was up 8.92 per cent from December 2016.
Industrial production expanded by 6.5 per cent while manufacturing and processing grew by 10.6 per cent. The total retail and services sectors recorded a 10 per cent growth.

Việt Nam welcomed 7.24 million international visitors in the past seven months, a year-on-year increase of 28.8 per cent.

The country attracted US$21.93 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI) during the seven-month period, a surge of 52 per cent year-on-year. FDI disbursement is estimated at $9 billion, up 5.8 per cent from the same period last year.

PM Phúc expressed his delight at the implementation of social welfare, cultural, educational, healthcare and poverty reduction policies so far this year, highlighting the good organisation of the national high school examination in July and Vietnamese students’ recent achievements of medals at international competitions in mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology.

Directed by Party General Secretary Nguyễn Phú Trọng and the Central Steering Committee on Anti-Corruption, several cases of suspected corruption were also being handled.

The Party Central Committee’s Examination Commission also disciplined officials for wrongdoing, creating a strong anti-corruption atmosphere across the entire political system, the Cabinet leader noted.

However, there are still difficulties in production and business activities, as evidenced by 43,000 companies stopping operations, more than in the same period last year.

PM Phúc pointed out that although the manufacturing industry expanded, mining activities shrank. Meanwhile, the trade deficit was high, more than $3 billion, attributable to foreign projects importing machinery.

He asked Government members to devise ways to remove bottlenecks and achieve the growth target of 6.7 per cent in 2017, suggesting attention be focused on production and business expenses, expenses involving administrative procedures, disbursement of public investment capital, deforestation, illegal mining and dengue fever prevention.

PM Phúc urged drastic actions be taken between now and the year’s end to achieve set targets, improve the business climate and build a constructive and service-oriented administrative system.
He assigned specific tasks to ministries and agencies. Accordingly, the MoPI must be responsible for updating growth scenario to submit to the PM before August 20 to devise proper policies for each sector.
The PM asked the State Bank of Việt Nam to continue adjusting monetary policy, reducing lending interests and increasing credit outstanding balance by at least 20 percent.

The gross domestic product (GDP) of the agricultural sector is expected to expand by 3 per cent this year, while the exports of farm product and food should be $33 billion or higher.
He pointed to slow equitisation of State-owned enterprises, asking for the screening of bottlenecks and divesting of State capital in listed enterprises.
The PM requested ministries, sectors and localities to seriously implement the conclusions of the Party General Secretary, head of the Party Central Committee on Corruption Prevention and Combat, to contribute to building a transparent government. — VNS