PM lauds 10 remarkable socio-economic achievements

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc highlighted 10 remarkable socio-economic achievements in 2016 and nine outstanding problems while chairing a conference of the government and localities in Hanoi on December 28.


                                       Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc (middle)

In his opening speech, he said despite numerous challenges during the year, the government has been determined to build transparent, constructive and action-minded administrative systems at all levels and issued a number of resolutions to improve business and investment climate.

Notably, the year 2016 was designed to be a Year of Start-up.

A working group was established to inspect the implementation of tasks assigned by the government and the PM. As many as 6,367 out of 10,205 tasks have been fulfilled. Among 3,838 unfulfilled tasks, 182 failed to meet deadline while others are under way.

As the result, the country posted a 6.21 percent GDP growth, higher than the rates recorded by many developing countries in Asia and Southeast Asia. The foreign currency reserves hit a record 41 billion USD while revenues to the State budget met target. Export value increased 6.8 percent and export surplus reached 2.68 billion USD despite losses of 1 percent and 0.3 percent loss of GDP caused by natural disasters and the mass fish deaths in the central region, respectively.

More than 110,000 new firms were established during the year with a total registered capital of 891 trillion VND (38.7 billion USD), the highest so far, up 48.1 percent in capital and 16.2 percent in the number of businesses.

The disbursement of foreign direct investment hit a record 15.8 billion USD. As of December 26, there were 2,556 foreign-invested projects nationwide. The total newly-registered and additional capital amounted to 24.4 billion USD, up 7.1 percent annually.

Tourism sector served more than 10 million tourists, also the highest so far.

The country was ranked 89th out of 190 countries and territories in terms of business climate, up 9 places from 2015.

The new rural development campaign brought about positive results, with 30 district-level units and 2,235 communes, or more than 25 percent of communes nationwide, have met criteria for new-style rural areas.

Regarding social development, the poverty rate based on multi-dimensional criteria fell to nearly 8.5 percent, with 1.61 million new jobs being created. The health insurance coverage surpassed 81 percent for the first time. The country won its first Olympic gold medal.

Attention has also been paid to law-building, with the issuance of 160 decrees guiding the enforcement of laws.

Under the direction of the PM and government, the entire political system joined in efforts to prevent and mitigate natural disasters, climate change response and environment protection. The Government has closed natural forests and strictly punished forest destruction activities.

Urgent issues of public concern have been dealt with promptly, including the marine environment incident in the central region, food safety, and the fight against corruption and vested interest as well as wastefulness.

The nine outstanding problems in 2016 included a 64 percent slump in the mining industry’s production index, with crude oil output and export value tumbling 12 percent and 36.7 percent, respectively, due to the strong fall in world oil prices.

Drought, flooding and saline intrusion devastated many regions. The marine environment incident has caused serious consequences, especially in the central region. Projects worth trillion VND incurred losses while commercial banks faced high risks.

Serious fires, road accidents and crimes happened across the country. A number of serious violations of personnel regulations have been uncovered such as the case involving former Vice Chairman of the Hau Giang provincial People’s Committee Trinh Xuan Thanh.

Vietnam fell four places in international rankings in innovation and creativity, placed at 59th out of 128.

Members of the government and local authorities listened to a draft resolution on launching the government’s action plan to implement the resolution on Party building and rectification adopted by the fourth plenum of the Party Central Committee (12th tenure).

Participants gave nod to the government’s report and expressed determination to perform socio-economic tasks since the beginning of next year.

Local officials vowed to continue improving business climate and facilitating business operations.

In the morning of December 29, the conference is due to discuss socio-economic affairs.

VNA