At the opening session, PM Dung congratulated Deputy PM Hoang Trung Hai and Minister of Transport Dinh La Thang, and Minister-Chairman Nguyen Van Nen on ttheir new posts. He assessed that the 6.68% GDP growth rate in 2015 was higher than the previous forecast of the National Assembly amidst complicated situations in the global and regional economies and declining oil prices. Hence, the Government leader proposed the Cabinet to raise the growth target from 6.7% to around 7% in 2016.
PM Dung suggested ministries, agencies, and localities focus on improving the investment environment and speeding up the institutional reform to make full use of signed FTAs for investment attraction and socio-economic development. Ministries, agencies, and localities were tasked to make collective reports in response to a slow-growth global economy, declining global trade, and falling oil prices.
The Government leader requested his inferiors to finalize national key construction projects especially expressways and airports; improve social welfare policies; resolve hospital overload; and prepare for university entrance exams. The PM also required good preparations of the five-year socio-economic development report and another report summarizing the Government performance term.
Regarding the saline intrusion in the Mekong Delta, PM Dung noted the importance of supplying water for local residents and production. The Ministry of Health was assigned to prepare for epidemic diseases in the dry season. The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development was asked to prevent saltwater intrusion. The Ministry of Finance was responsible for budget allocation.
Regarding the country’s socio-economic development in the first two months of this year, the leader said the nine-day Lunar New Year (Tet) holiday has not affected sectors’ performances. However, he said, investment procedures remained inconsistent and complicated. He urged agencies and localities to pay more attention to administrative reform in order to create an optimal environment for investors while making the best use of trade agreements Vietnam has signed to lure more investment.
After hearing the report, PM Nguyen Tan Dung requested the involvement of ministries, agencies, localities and the entire political system in combatting the natural disaster. The top priority is to ensure water for daily activities and production of locals, he said. He urged thorough preparations for a report on national socio-economic development and a working report of the Government over the past five years, which will be submitted to the Party Central Committee and the National Assembly in March.
The first two months of this year saw the outstanding performance of the service sector, with an increased number of international tourists, improved purchasing power and higher credit growth. The instruction gave the overall target for economic growth in 2016 as over 6.5 percent, driven by economic restructuring and growth model reform.
The agriculture sector will be shaken up with the continued building of new style rural areas and the introduction of high-tech applications into agriculture production. The country will push forward exports and control imports of non-essential commodities.
The investment climate should be greatly improved while administration procedures and government management efficiency will be quickly improved, especially across the fields of tax, customs and social insurance. The move aims to create favourable conditions for both residents and enterprises.
Social security diversification is also a key objective in 2016, with the focus on enhancing labour quality, developing education-training and science-technology, promoting health care socialisation and implementing ethnic and religion policies. The PM’s instruction also stated out that state budget expenditure estimate for 2016 must be in line with the socio-economic blueprints for 2016 and the 2016-2020 period.
