VINACHEM

HA NOI (VNS)— Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung yesterday requested ministries and agencies to make all-out efforts to implement the dual targets of maintaining macro-economic stability and curbing inflation.

The request was made at the Government's monthly two-day meeting that ended yesterday in the capital. The meeting focused on socio-economic performance in August and in the first eight months.

Dung highlighted the need to maintain a reasonable growth rate of around 5.3-5.4 per cent, saying that ministries, agencies and localities must use monetary and fiscal instruments flexibly to control inflation and stabilise the macro-economy.

Accordingly, ministries, agencies and localities have to work closely to maintain the Consumer Price Index at about 7 per cent, and take drastic measures to manage State budget spending and collection so that budget overspending is kept at 4.8 per cent of GDP, as agreed previously.

They were also required to take stronger actions to extricate business difficulties, support markets, handle non-performing loans, and speed up the administrative reform in order to offer favourable conditions for enterprises to flourish.

The Government leader said export was a bright point in the macro-economic landscape, thus it should be given more investment resources to seize a larger market share, and increase trade and investment promotion activities.

The agricultural sector must boost the application of science and technology in production to increase productivity and improve the quality of products.

Dung also instructed ministries and agencies to pay attention to social welfare, vocational training, job creation, poverty reduction and the building of new-style rural areas.

Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Cao Duc Phat affirmed the ministry would focus on duplicate models for producing high-quality commodities; continuously monitor situations of disease and disaster to minimize any damages caused by disasters; and instruct relevant agencies to ensure adequate food supplies in the last months of the year.

Related to investment activities, Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Nguyen Minh Quang and Minister of Transport Dinh La Thang said it was necessary to control public investment more tightly to avoid waste and loss of State money.

They suggested fostering administrative procedure reform in implementing investment projects to facilitate the attraction of capital sources, especially the flow of foreign direct investment.

Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai suggested issuing more instructions to develop the domestic and foreign markets, especially the export markets, with their high degree of potential.

Cabinet members also called for giving more drastic directions to site clearance and capital disbursement to speed up project implementation, particularly those which are significant to socio-economic development.

According to a press release for the Cabinet regular meeting, the inflation rate was kept at 0.83 per cent in August and 3.53 per cent in the January-August period.

Interest rates were on the decline, with deposit interest rate dropping 2-3.5 per cent and lending interest rates falling 3-4 per cent against the beginning of the year.

Exports maintained a high growth pace. Total export turnover was estimated at US$84.8 billion in the first eight months, up 14.7 per cent from the same period last year. The trade gap touched $576 million, equivalent to 0.7 percent of export value. — VNS