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Mounting stockpiles
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has urged all ministries, sectors and local authorities to boost production, particularly those facing difficulties as the Government admitted that it would be difficult to fulfil this year's GDP growth target of 5.2-5.7 per cent.
However, he affirmed at a two-day monthly cabinet meeting that ended yesterday that Viet Nam's socio-economic development in July and over the past seven months continued to show positive signs and was on the right track.
The trend would continue, particularly in curbing inflation, maintaining macro-economic stability, and promoting agricultural and industrial production, he added.
Priority should be given to helping businesses access credit in key sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing products for export, and supporting industries, the PM noted.
In an effort to maintain macro-economic stability and curb inflation, Dung asked the State Bank of Viet Nam to restructure debts and reduce bad debts using synchronous measures, while restructuring weak commercial banks and maintaining a stable exchange rate.
In addition, he instructed ministries, sectors and local authorities to review State-owned enterprises to improve their production and business effectiveness while speeding up disbursement of official development assistance (ODA), the State budget and foreign direct investment sources, as well as improving social welfare and national target initiatives.
During the two-day meeting, Cabinet members focused on measures to remove the difficulties facing businesses, especially those regarding capital sources.
They agreed that measures to curb inflation and stabilise the economy had continued to prove effective.
As a result, the consumer price index (CPI) had steadily decreased throughout the year, especially over the past two months.
Credit institutions had also made efforts to lower the borrowing interest rate to a maximum of 15 per cent per year from July 15.
The country's total export turnover exceeded US$62.9 billion, up by 19 per cent over the same period last year, they said.
However, they admitted that many businesses still faced a wide range of difficulties, especially in accessing credit sources.
In addition, low domestic purchasing power, large stockpiles of goods and more business bankruptcies were also major challenges for the country's economy.
During the meeting the Government also discussed several projects, including plans for comprehensive education reform and the development of science and technology to help with industrialisation, modernisation and international integration.
Speaking to the press after the meeting, Head of the Government Office Vu Duc Dam stressed that there was no evidence that the country's economy was slowing down. Only if GDP growth slowed for two consecutive quarters could we conclude that the economy was slowing down, he said.
Also at the press conference, Dam said the Government was committed to implementing measures to both boost growth and curb inflation to stabilise the macro-economy.
Dam said the Government wanted to get the message out to businesses that measures to curb inflation were also aimed at maintaining growth in the long term, and the current situation required many businesses to restructure their operations for more sustainable growth in the future.
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