General Secretary and President: Immediately remove bottlenecks to grow at least 10%

On July 4, General Secretary and President To Lam spoke to direct the regular Government meeting in June and the Government’s online conference with localities.

The General Secretary and President requested the Government to soon handle slow implementation projects, congested works, abandoned land and stagnant resources due to procedural problems, planning, site clearance, materials or the mentality of avoiding responsibility.

He also requested to continue improving institutions, handle overlapping regulations, promote decentralization, reduce administrative procedures and compliance costs for businesses. Heads of ministries, branches and localities must directly direct the handling of major tasks, difficult tasks and long-term bottlenecks, ending the situation of only stating difficulties without having a solution plan.

“Growth is a common responsibility but must be associated with the individual responsibilities of each minister, sector head, secretary, and local president,” stated the General Secretary and President. He also asked to encourage officials to dare to work for the common good along with tightening discipline and preventing corruption, waste and group interests.

In addition, he requested synchronous management of fiscal, monetary and price policies, directing credit flows to production, exports, high-tech industries, supporting industries, innovation, housing and essential infrastructure. Along with that, the operator needs to tightly manage the budget, prevent revenue loss, transfer pricing, and waste, and prioritize resources for investment in development, science – technology, education, health care, and strategic infrastructure.

According to the General Secretary and President, tax and fee tools need to be used selectively to encourage green production, technological innovation, and limit speculation without increasing the burden on businesses and people. The price management of essential goods must have a roadmap, while strictly handling speculation, hoarding and price manipulation.

Besides traditional growth drivers, he suggested opening up new development spaces, such as urban space, underground space, digital space and marine space. In particular, the marine economy needs to be developed in depth with fields such as offshore wind power, high-tech marine farming, marine biotechnology, desalination and blue carbon credits.

In the first half of the year, the macroeconomy was basically stable, inflation was controlled amid many external pressures. GDP in the first half of the year increased by 8.18%, of which the second quarter increased by 8.39%. Processing, manufacturing, construction, services, tourism and export industries all maintain positive growth momentum. Budget revenue reached about 62% of the estimate, import-export turnover exceeded 550 billion USD and foreign investment continued to be a bright spot.

However, the General Secretary and President said that the economy still has some limitations and difficulties. The growth rate of 8.18% has not reached the 6-month plan, while to complete the double-digit growth target for the whole year, the last 6 months of the year must reach about 11.9%. The progress of public investment disbursement is still slow, with 7 ministries and central agencies disbursing less than 5%. Meanwhile, capital for science and technology, innovation and digital transformation has only reached about 10% of the plan.

He assessed that growth has not spread evenly as some labor-intensive industries such as textiles, footwear, and wood processing still face difficulties. Domestic demand recovered slowly, social investment only met about 35% of capital needs for high growth goals.

Meanwhile, the investment and business environment still has many bottlenecks, many projects continue to have problems with planning, land, site clearance and administrative procedures. The space for macroeconomic management is narrowing. If management is not tight, inflationary pressure, exchange rates, interest rates and liquidity may appear at the same time.

He noted that exports increased but imports increased faster. The domestic sector only increased exports by about 2.5%, while FDI increased by nearly 25%. Trade deficit of about 17 billion USD for 7 consecutive months is also a phenomenon worth noting.

“The FDI sector has a trade surplus but the domestic sector still has a trade deficit,” he said, saying that the economy is therefore both dependent on the external supply chain and susceptible to origin risks, trade fraud and trade defense in key export markets.

From the above shortcomings, the General Secretary and President requested the Government to develop a special action program for the last 6 months of the year with the spirit of “clear work, deadlines, results and inspection mechanism”.

In addition to removing bottlenecks, the General Secretary and President said that public investment needs to play a leading role, considering it a “bait capital” that opens up new development space, focusing on strategic infrastructure such as transportation, high-speed railways, digital infrastructure and databases. Along with that, capital flows for the private sector need to be opened up, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, to support capital access, digital transformation and deeper participation in the supply chain. FDI enterprises and large enterprises need to attach responsibility for developing domestic suppliers.

Another content mentioned by the General Secretary and President is ensuring economic security. He requested that there be no shortage of electricity, gasoline, essential raw materials and water for production and life in any situation. At the same time, management agencies need to accelerate appropriate power source and grid projects, energy storage, gas power and renewable energy projects, using energy economically and effectively.