Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc speaks at the Government meeting on August 30 (Photo: VNA)
Hanoi (VNA) – If development tasks are not implemented in a
drastic manner in September and the fourth quarter of 2017, they might not be
achieved, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said at the Government’s August
regular meeting on August 30.
Cabinet members discussed solutions to fulfil
socio-economic targets for this year and gave opinions on the implementation of
the State budget plan for 2017 and estimates for 2018, the allocation of the
central budget in 2018, and other hot issues emerging in August.
Concluding the meeting, PM Phuc applauded
tireless efforts by ministries, sectors, localities, organisations, individuals
and businesses in carrying out 13 socio-economic targets set for this year, with
eight of them expected to surpass the plans.
The Cabinet chief ordered them not to be
subjective while continuing to review each target and exert all-out efforts to
realise the targets.
He requested the Ministry of Finance to review
budget collection and expenditure targets to ensure national financial security
and major financial balances. He urged actions to prevent tax fraud, debt and
over-collection and to promote tax revenues.
It is also necessary to strongly reform the
budget, increase expenditure on development investment and debt repayment, and
sharply decrease frequent spending, the Government leader said.
To facilitate the capital flow for production
and business activities, the PM asked the State Bank of Vietnam to cut down
lending interest rates by another 0.5 percent since this is an important
solution to stimulate the economy. It has to take necessary measures to support
businesses while ensuring a credit growth rate of at least 21 percent and
strictly dealing with credit-related violations.
Regarding the acceleration of investment and ODA capital disbursement for
infrastructure construction, he instructed the Ministry of Planning and
Investment to promptly allocate capital under the Government’s resolution while
inspecting units which directly use public investment capital.
In the short term, the increase of taxes, fees
and charges needs to be postponed to avoid impacts on enterprises and the
business environment, he noted.
At the meeting, PM Phuc asked the agricultural
sector to attain the planned growth rate of 3.05 percent and farm produce export
turnover of 35 billion USD, which will set a new record. He also ordered
examination of big industrial provinces to remove difficulties and accelerate
industrial projects.
If the industrial, agricultural and services
sectors fail to realise their targets for only one month, it will be hard to
achieve the targeted growth rate of 6.7 percent for 2017, the PM said,
stressing that the tourism industry must strive to serve 15-17 million tourists
this year.-VNA