The Government’s regular meeting- August 2012

RESOLUTION

The Government’s regular meeting- August, 2012

The Government on September 05-06 convened its regular meeting for August 2012 to discuss and decide the following issues:

1. The Reports on socio-economic performance in August and the first eight months of 2012; on the implementation of the socio-economic development plan for 2012 and the proposal of the socio-economic development plan for 2013; the implementation of the State budget in 2012 and the estimated State budget plan for 2013, presented by the Minister of Planning and Investment and the Minister of Finance.

a) The socio-economic performance in August and the first eight months of 2012:

The Government unanimously agreed that the socio-economic situation in the reviewed periods continued to be positive, on the righ track and quite comprehensive in various fields. The measures taken for curbing inflation and stabilizing macro-economy continued to prove effectiveness. Interest rates reduced, outstanding loans increased along with positive loan structure transfer; the liquidity of the banking system was improved; the exchange rate stabilized, foreign currency reserve rose; export turnover soared beyond the preset target. Agricultural production continued to develop stably and achieved good results; industrial production showed signs of recovery; difficulties in production and business were eased step by step, inventory index decreased gradually; the service sector continued to develop, total retail sales of goods and services climbed up fairly, travel activities took place vibrantly, quantity of domestic and international tourists rocketed up. Investment for development gained fairly good results; disbursement of investment capital sourced from the State budget and Government bonds for development was sped up; ODA disbursement increased higher than that of the same period last year; the volume of additional capital registered by the FDI enterprises fairly went up. Social security and social welfare were ensured. Progress has been seen in culture, sports, information and communication, education and training, healthcare, science and technology. Administrative reform, settlement of denunciations/complaints and anti-corruption, thrift practice, anti-prodigality have been strengthened. National defense and security have been enhanced, social order and safety ensured, traffic accidents reduced on all the three criteria in comparison to the same period last year. The diplomatic work continued to receive due attention.

However, the socio-economic status still faced a lot of difficulties and challenges: Macro-economy has not been really stabilized; the growth of outstanding loans has been lower than the set target; non-performing loans of the banking system have not been sharply reduced; the growth of export slowed down; import of equipment and materials for production has decreased. There have been numerous difficulties against business sector, capital absorptivity has been low; production and business have slowly recovered; industrial development index has been low and increasing slowly; the purchasing power of domestic market has been weak, inventory in several industries has remained high. Budget collection was lower than planned and the same period last year. Life of some certain groups of population has still been difficult. Crime, social evils, complaints and denunciations lodged by citizens have been complicated. Whereas, regional and international situation has been changing unpredictably, which negatively affected our country’s socio-econonmic development.

The Government tasks ministries, agencies, and localities to overcome the aforesaid difficulties and challenges, to guide and direct the efficient implementation of the targets, missions and solutions set in the Resolutions adopted by the Party, National Assembly and Government, especially Resolution No. 01/NQ-CP, Resolution No. 13/NQ-CP, resolutions of the Government’s regular meetings as well as in line with the instructions and directions of the Government, the Prime Minister, focusing on the following solutions:

- The State Bank of Viet Nam continues to regulate the monetary policy in a flexible and cautious manner, timely provide capital to credit institutions to ensure their liquidity, meet the demand for payment and credit expansion during the last months of the year in order to back economic growth; closely supervise credit institutions’ obedience of regulations on interest rates; re-structure the commercial bank system in line with the approved roadmap, quickly and drastically find the way out for weak and poor banks; direct the settlement of non-performing loans, consider the provision of new loans to the enterprises who have effective and feasible production plans; flexibly apply measures for ensuring loans and lending procedures in order to increase capital access of enterprises and people; increase credit volume for agriculture and rural area sector with low interest rates; adjust the lending interest rate properly on the basis of saving  operation costs and mobilization interest rates.

- The Ministry of Finance cooporates with relevant ministries, agencies and localities deploy the Prime Minister’s Instruction No. 22/CT-TTg dated on September 05, 2012 regarding the tasks of finance - State budget during the last months of 2012; intensify the direction of budget collection management, ensure the completion of the preset targets for budget collection, keep the budget deficit as planned. The local authorities closely co-ordinate with financial sector in the implementation of estimated State budget collection, taking active measures for balance sheet in appropriate to the local ability of budget collection; in case of having deficit, the localities must reduce expenditures and cancel the disbursement for unnecessary works.

- The Ministry of Planning and Investment and the Ministry of Finance cooperate with relevant agencies and localities to speed up the disbursement of the investment capital sourced from the State budget, capital from Government bonds, allocated capital for national target programs and the capital paid in advance under the 2013 plan; boost the attraction and disbursement of ODA and  FDI capital, focusing on new investments, large-scale and high-tech projects; recommend the preferential policies for expanded investment of FDI enterprises with effective business profiles.

- The Ministry of Industry and Trade cooperates with relevant ministries, agencies and localities to promote production and trading; stimulate consumption for stronger purchasing power and smaller inventory; develop domestic market, carry out the campaign "Buy Viet Nam" in an extensive and effective way; step up trade promotion and market information to maintain export growth of staples; closely control imports, especially goods temporarily imported for re-export; prevent and seriously settle smuggling, particularly low-quality goods and food.

- The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development directs the effective implementation of urgent policy for supporting husbandry and aquaculture; closely monitor the use of forbidden substances in husbandry, prevent epidemic diseases, fight cross-border smuggling of domesticated animals and poultry; ensure the supply of foodstuff during the Lunar New Year holiday; design the methods of supporting the procurement of agricultural and aquatic products to ensure benefit for producers; accelerate the development of rice stocks in the Mekong Delta in order to improve the efficiency of rice export and market regulation; speed up the schedule of flood and storm prevention works; actively response to unexpected changes of natural disasters.

- The Ministry of Health quickly finalizes the scheme of easing overloaded hospitals, then submits it to the Prime Minister; accelerates the construction of new hospitals; encourages more players to invest in modern equipment for examination and treatment; coordinate with the Ministry of Finance in mapping out scenarios of providing preferential health insurance for households living just above the poverty line.

- The Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs realizes salary policy, social policy and the policies applicable to the people with meritorious service to the nation; strengthens the measures for poverty reduction; implement unemployment insurance, closely controls the payment of unemployment insurance with the aim to ensure the fund's equality and safety; coordinates with the Ministry of Construction and localities to actively implement the policy of building, repairing, and upgrading houses for the people with meritorious service to the nation.

- The Ministry of Information and Communications directs communication activities to obtain the social consensus in realizing the preset goals and tasks. Ministries, agencies and localities actively provide information and simultaneously hold dialogues to popularize and clarify the guidelines, policies and  solutions in relation to their competence, especially the issues of public concern.

b) For the socio-economic development plan and State budget estimation in 2013

Through evaluating the actual situation and forecasting the possible implementment of the socio-economic development plan and State budget estimation in 2012, domestic and international situations, relying on the plans of socio-economic development, finance-budget for the period of 2011-2015 and the significance of the hinge year 2013, the Government defines the general target of the socio-economic development plan in 2013: Continue to strengthen and stabilize macro-economy, prevent the recurrence of high inflation; ensure a reasonable growth rate and further the economic restructuring focusing on three  key fields: public investment, State-run enterprises, and credit institution system; facilitate the realization of the goals preset in the socio-economic development plan for the period of 2011-2015; ensure social security and social welfare and improve people's living standard; expand foreign relations and international integration, enhance Viet Nam's position in the international arena; uphold national independence, sovereignty, territorial unification and integrity, ensure political security, social order and safety.

The Government designs some major socio-economic indices in 2013: Economic growth rate is about 6%; export turnover increases by 10-12%; trade deficit is 8-10% against the total export turnover; State budget overspending is 4.8% of GDP; total investment for development makes about 34.5% of GDP; consumer price index under 7%; creating jobs for 1.6 million workers; 1.5-2% of poor households to be slashed nationwide, and 4% in the poorest districts, against late 2012; 84%of the businesses causing serious environment pollution will be dealt with; 75% of the industrial parks and processing zones are expected to have standard concentrated wastewater treatment system; forest coverage is 40.7%. Thereby, the key tasks and solutions will be defined and implemented in 2013.

The Ministry of Planning and Investment and the Ministry of Finance will collect opinions from the Cabinet members; scrutinize the macro indexes based on the outcomes gained in 2012 and the economic prospect in 2013, especially the State budget balance and the investment capital balance, in order to ensure the resources for realizing development goals; continue to finalize the Report on the realization of socio-economic development plan in 2012 and propose the socio-economic development plan in  2013, the Report on the State budget in 2012 and estimates in 2013; then report them to the Prime Minister before submitting to the Politburo, the Party Central Committee and the National Assembly.

2. The Government made consideration of the Review report on first-year performance of the Government tenure 2011–2016, submitted by the Office of Government.

Over a year of performance, the Government, its members and the Heads of the Governmental agencies have seriously implemented the Resolutions adopted by the Party, the National Assembly and the Government; upheld rules and regulations, perform functions, tasks and power as regulated by the Constitution, the Law on Government Organization and statutory regulations relating to all fields; promptly implemented the Plan of Action for the period 2011-2016, the socio-economic development strategy for 2011-2020, and the five-year national development orientation and task for 2011-2015 as specified by the Resolution adopted by the 11th National Party Congress; and have obtained the initial positive results.

Based on the reviewed issues, the Cabinet members and the Heads of the Governmental agencies will actively resolve the shortcomings and weaknesses; scrutinize all tasks as defined in the action programs and plans prepared by their sectors and fields; strive to successfully realize the goals in a short term and in the whole tenure.

3. The Government discussed the Project, submitted by the Minister of Planning and Investment, on further reform and improvement of the State-run enterprises, ensuring the core role of the State economy in the socialist-oriented market economy.

The Government agreed that: The Project needs to focus on evaluating objectively and comprehensively the realization of the Resolution adopted at the 3rd Plenum of the 9^th Party Central Committee and other Resolutions adopted by the Party as well as the Politburo’s Conclusions on the State-run enterprises over the past 10 years; on position, role, and general performance of these enterprises in all fields, including economy, politics, society, national defense and security; and points out the successes and shortcomings, causes and lessons. The Project must strictly observe the 11th National Party Congress’ Resolution which affirms the key role of State economy in which State-run enterprises function as material resources and as a driving force for the development and structural transformation. Accordingly, the specific goals and solutions will be determined for the period 2015-2020 with strong attachment to the economic restructuring.

The Ministry of Planning and Investment coordinates with the Office of Government to collect opinions from the Cabinet members, finalizes the Project, and reports to the Prime Minister before submitting it to the Politburo.

4. The Government discussed the Project, submitted by the Minister of Planning and Investment, on mobilizing resources to realize strategic breathroughs.

The mobilization, management and use of these resources for the realization of three strategic breathroughs until 2020 must be in line with the 11th National Party Congress’ Resolution; it is necessary to extend, encourage and further attract the participation from the whole society and economic sectors, attaching the State's benefits to those of the participants.

The ministries and agencies will prepare the Projects and Plans for mobilizing resources to create breakthroughs in their own sectors. These documents must clearly define the proportion of resources mobilized from the State budget and outside the State budget. By balancing the budget by 2020, the Ministry of Planning and Investment works with the ministries and agencies; gathers, makes balance, proposes the budget and sets up the mechanism and policy to mobilize social resources for specific field.

The Ministry of Planning and Investment is responsible for cooperating with relevant ministries and agencies to complete this Project and submit it to the Government in the 4th quarter of 2012.

5. The Government discussed and commented on the authority of the Government and the Prime Minister over international agreements, as submitted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Office of Government.

The Government agreed that, regarding the international treaties not in relating to peace, security, border, territory, national sovereignty, universal international organizations, important regional organizations or others as proposed, the Prime Minister is assigned by the Government to perform following tasks:

- To submit to the State President for the approval of negotiations and signing of international treaities in the name of the State in case the President directly signs it with a counterpart of other country;

- To report to the State President on the negotiation and signing of international treaties in the name of the State and the Government which requires the approval;

- To submit to the State President the approval of or entry into international treaties;

- To make decisions on negotiation and signing of international agreements in the name of the State and the Government (except for those directly signed by the State President);

- To make decisions on amendment, modification, renewal, termination, and suspension of the international treaties within the Government's competence.

In the submitted documents, if there is any contrary opinion raised by a ministry or ministerial-level agency, it is required to collect opinion from the Cabinet members.

The Ministry of Justice coordinates with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to draft a document which soundly interpretes the content of this resolution in compliance with law, submit it to the Prime Minister in September, 2012; simultaneously finalize and propose the Government the amendments and supplementation to the Constitution 1992 and the Law on Government Organization in order to clearly define the authority of the Government and the Prime Minister over international treaties.

6. The Government discussed and commented on the Report, submitted by the Ministry of Justice, on reviewing the pilot realization of the bailiff model and the National Assembly’s draft Resolution on the continuation of this pilot model.

The Government agreed that the pilot bailiff model as specified in Resolution No. 49-NQ/TW by the Politburo, Resolution No. 24/2008/QH12 by the National Assembly and Decree No. 61/2009/ND-CP by the Government is a solution for the socialization of justice activities, actively supporting the enforcement of civil judgements and judicial operation, meeting the needs of the people and society. However, the Resolution by the National Assembly stipulated that this pilot model was finished on July 1, 2012. Therefore, to have more time and grounds for overall and objective evaluation about this model, it should be extended until the end of 2015; the pilot model should be applied in other centrally-run cities and provinces; and the bailiff’s fuctions should be simultaneously extended.

The Ministry of Justice coordinates with ministries, agencies and localities to collect the Cabinet members’ opinions, finalizes the Government’s Report and Statement on continuing the bailiff model. The Minister of Justice, authorized by the Prime Minister and acting on behalf of the Government, will submit them to the National Assembly.

7. The Government discussed and commented on the Land Law (amended); Bidding Law (amended); Law on Public Investment; Law on Corruption Prevention (amended), presented by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, the Ministry of Planning and Investment, and Government Inspectorate.

- The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment coordinates with the Ministry of Justice, the Office of Government and relevant agencies to collect the Cabinet members’ opinions, finalizes the Land Law (amended). The Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, authorized by the Prime Minister and acting on behalf of the Government, submits it to the National Assembly. At the same time, based on the Resolution adopted by the 6th Plenum of the Party Central Committee about the land laws, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment continues to modify and finalize this Bill for submittion to the National Assembly.

- The Ministry of Planning and Investment and the Government Inspectorate coordinate with the Ministry of Justice, the Office of Government and related agencies to collect opinions from Cabinet members and finalize the Bidding Law (amended) and the Law on Corruption Prevention (amended). The Minister of Planning and Investment, the Chief Inspector, authorized by the Prime Minister and acting on behalf of Government, submit them to the National Assembly.

- The Ministry of Planning and Investment coordinates with the Ministry of Justice, the Office of Government and related agencies to collect opinions from Cabinet members to  finalize the draft Law on Public Investment, then collect comments from Cabinet members, and report to the Government for further discussion before submitting it to the National Assembly.

8. The Government discussesed and commented on the Ordinance on amending and supplementing some articles of the Ordinance on foreign exchange submitted by State Bank of Viet Nam.

The State Bank of Viet Nam takes the lead in coordination with the Ministry of Justice, the Office of Government and other related agencies to collect the Cabinet members’ opinions, finalizes the draft Ordinance on amending and supplementing some articles of the Ordinance on foreign exchange. The Governor of the State Bank of Viet Nam, authorized by Prime Minister and acting on behalf of Government, submits it to the National Assembly Standing Committee .