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Close co-ordination needed for effective efforts against inflation
Nearly 40 scientists, economists, policy makers, managers and enterprises leaders contributed their opinions at the seminar entitled “Measures to curb inflation, continuing to bring the national economy to stable and sustainable development” which was jointly held by Nhan Dan Newspaper, the Ministry of Finance and the State Bank of Vietnam in Hanoi on April 14.
In the first three months of this year, Vietnam has experienced high inflation rate. The Government has issued measures to curb inflation, stabilise the macro-economy, ensure social welfare and sustainable development.
The delegates to the seminar agreed with the measures proposed by the government and stressed that each ministry, sector, agency and enterprise should work out their own specific programmes to fight inflation and in implementation of these programmes, it is important to them to closely co-ordinate with each other in a comprehensive and flexible manner under the management of the government to ensure that the efforts to curb inflation are effective.
Many delegates affirmed that Vietnam currently has great potential for economic growth and that the best measure to curb the current inflation was to promote production. Developing production would also help reduce the trade deficit, promote economic growth and have no negative effects.
According to General Secretary of the Banking Association Duong Thu Huong, members of the association have recently reached a consensus on the ceiling for deposit interest rates, thus avoiding the flow of cash from one bank to the other which distabilises the domestic monetary markets. She stressed that keeping a ceiling on interest rates was a reluctant measure in the current situation because banks must shake hands to help stabilise the market. When the situation becomes more stable, banks will continue to be allowed to decide their own deposit interest rates.
Associate Professor, Ph.D Ngo Tri Long emphasised that the monetary policies in the current context must be close, active and flexible. The monetary policy should be tightened so as to restrain credit growth at a maximum level of 30% while at the same time meet the demands for capital for growth and encourage agricultural and rural development. The monetary policies should rely more on interest rate adjustments and less on compulsory reserve ratios and bond issuances.
According to Mr Ho Te, former Finance Minister, in the current context, Vietnam must bring into full play its agricultural advantages, promoting production to increase the agricultural product supplies for the domestic market and for exports, contributing to reducing inflationary pressure and the trade deficit.
A representative from the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Deputy Minister Bui Xuan Khu stressed the ministry’s efforts to promote exports such as strengthening export promotion activities and shifting the export structure towards more highly value-added products.
Former Deputy Minister of Trade Luong Van Tu requested that efforts should be made to closely control imports. The Vietnamese people should be encouraged to use Vietnam-made products while enterprises should be encouraged to produce high quality products to maintain their domestic market share.
Mr Doan Van Kien, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Vietnam Minerals and Coal Group was quite optimistic. He said there is a scarcity in the world market which he saw as an opportunity for his group to speed up production as well as processing raw materials so as to produce higher value-added products.
Mr Kien proposed that enterprises should be given more control, along with self-responsibility, so that they can take the initiative in their trading activities, and can be able to make quick decisions to seize business opportunities.
Dinh La Thang, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam) stressed that each enterprise, based on the Government’s measures against inflation and their own situation, should build their own programme to fight inflation. For example, he said, PetroVietnam has set a specific target to reducing the price of nitrogenous fertiliser by 10-15%. In order to achieve this, the group has pooled efforts to promote production and imports more in order to meet domestic demand, so as to take the initiative in prices and stabilise the market.
Do Tat Ngoc, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Vietnam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Agribank) said that the bank’s total mobilised fund had currently reduced, thus failing to meet the demands for loans from farmers. Thus, Mr Ngoc urged that his bank be allowed to use the capital of the Treasury which is kept at the bank to loan farmers and sell all the foreign currencies from agricultural products exporters at reasonable prices.
The fight to curb inflation requires the efforts by all ministries, sectors, localities, enterprises and the people under the management of the government, delegates to the seminar especially emphasised, affirming that Vietnam have great potential for economic development.
ND
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