Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has required ministries, sectors and localities to focus on completing all socio-economic targets set by the National Assembly.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc addresses the meeting (Photo: VNA)

He made the request at a cabinet meeting on July 4 with the online presence of leaders of all 63 localities nationwide.

The Government leader noted that in the first six months of this year, the domestic economy maintained good growth with stable macro-economy and controlled inflation, with the recovery and expansion of many sectors.

However, the PM said GDP growth in the first half of the year at 6.76 percent was below the target in the most optimistic scenario, which did not show breakthroughs in general development as well as growth of each sectors.

In the rest of the year, the economy is likely to face many challenges, especially due to declining world demand that affects the country’s exports as well as domestic production and business, he said.

He noted complaints that the streamlining of business conditions failed to produce substantial results, thus obstacles still remain to business of some sectors and small-and-medium-sized enterprises.

The PM asked leaders of ministries, sectors and localities to identify their shortcomings and problems to seek effective measures.

He called for the involvement of the whole political system, the business community and society to work together to make further achievements in all areas.

According to a report delivered by Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung, although GDP expansion in the first half of this year was lower than in the same time last year, it is higher than the figure recorded in the first half of each year from 2011 to 2017, in the context of growth slowdown in 70 percent of economies around the world, including most developed ones.

Notably, agriculture faced difficulties as a result of the spread of African swine fever, leading to low growth of only 1.3 percent compared to 3.07 percent in the first half of 2018, he said.

June’s consumer price index decreased by 0.09 percent against the previous month, while the average CPI in the first half of the year rose by 2.64 percent on a yearly basis.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) disbursement in the first half of 2016 is estimated at 9.1 billion USD, up nearly 8 percent from the same period last year. As of July 2, the country’s export turnover reached 122.4 billion USD, while import turnover was 120.8 billion USD, resulting in a trade surplus of 1.6 billion USD.

In the period, the country had nearly 67,000 newly-established enterprises, up 3.8 percent year-on-year. More than 21,600 enterprises resumed operations, a year-on-year rise of 31.4 percent.

Minister Dung stressed the third quarter is extremely important and decisive to the growth rate of the whole year. 

He asked the agricultural sector to continue taking measures to tackle African swine fever and recover production.

Localities were required to bring into full play opportunities brought by major projects in the processing and manufacturing industries.

The minister also underlined the need to step up exports and seek measures to maintain stability in major export markets such as the US, Japan, the EU, China and ASEAN by taking advantage of free trade and investment agreements.

With the world economy changing rapidly and complicatedly, the Prime Minister requested ministries, sectors and localities to stay flexible to deal with anything.

This was the second government meeting via the e-Cabinet system since its launched on June 24.

The e-Cabinet system is able to update, store and manage documents for government meetings, as well as offer electronic voting with digital signatures. It also sends texts, emails and other notifications to Cabinet members. 

The system aims to cut 30 percent of time during Government meetings later this year, minimise the use of paper documents which will be replaced with electronic forms, except for confidential matters.