Decision No. 06/NQ-CP of the Government's regular monthly meeting in January 2009

RESOLUTION

The regular monthly meeting of the Government for January 2009

__________________

On February 3 and 4, 2009, the Government convened its regular monthly meeting for January 2009 to discuss and adopt the following issues:

1. The Government heard the Minister of Planning and Investment's report on the socio-economic situation in January 2009; the Minister of Finance's report on the macroeconomic situation in January 2009; the Chairman of the Government Office's report on the Tet holiday of the Year of the Ox, the implementation of the Resolution of the Government's meeting in December 2008, and the work program for January 2009.

Right from the beginning of the year, the Government has directed ministries, sectors, and localities to concretize the resolutions of the Party and the National Assembly on socio-economic development; strictly implement the allocation of state budget estimates according to regulations, while implementing Resolution No. 30/2008/NQ-CP of the Government on urgent measures to prevent economic decline, maintain economic growth, ensure social welfare, and Resolution No. 01/NQ-CP on key measures to guide and manage the implementation of the socio-economic development plan and state budget estimate for 2009.

In January 2009, the first month of the year and the month of the Tet holiday, although the national economy was kept stable against the direct impact of global economic recession, there were signs of decline. Industrial production value decreased by 4.4% compared to the same period in 2008 and by 8.6% compared to December 2008; export turnover in January 2009 decreased due to the contraction of world markets and price reductions; foreign direct investment decreased; employment faced difficulties due to many enterprises reducing production...

Under difficult economic conditions, but with the determination of the Party and State, the efforts of the business community and the entire population, the whole country organized a warm, joyful, healthy, safe, and frugal Tet holiday. The Party and the Government paid attention to supporting and organizing the Tet holiday for all strata of the people, especially policy households, those who have rendered meritorious service, poor households, social assistance recipients, ethnic minorities, and disaster victims, creating conditions for everyone to have a Tet. Services and goods for the Tet holiday, with domestic products accounting for the majority of the market share, were supplied sufficiently, diversely, and met the consumption needs of the people at relatively stable prices. The consumer price index increased by only 0.32% compared to December 2008, with high increases in the prices of goods and services being those related to the Tet holiday. Political security and social order were maintained stably. Traffic safety and traffic accidents showed positive changes; road traffic accidents decreased in terms of both the number of incidents and fatalities and injuries.

To fulfill the socio-economic development tasks for 2009 and strive to achieve the set goals, the Government requests ministries, sectors, and localities to focus on implementing the following tasks:

- Urgently organize the implementation of programs, projects, and tasks assigned for the entire year. Ministers must directly lead inspections, urge, and resolve difficulties and obstacles in reality, actively handle and remove difficulties for each industry and export product with existing markets; pay attention to opening up domestic markets, increasing consumer purchasing power, promoting tourism, and services...

Accelerate the progress of construction investment, prioritizing infrastructure areas such as transportation, water conservancy...; concentrate on removing difficulties to promote key projects and works funded by the state budget, government bonds, and state-owned enterprise capital that can be completed and put into use in 2009 and 2010, both to complete projects and create jobs, stimulate investment demand; quickly implement housing support policies for the poor; the Ministry of Construction urgently completes and submits to the Prime Minister for approval and issuance of the proposal for building social housing to address the urgent needs of the people, especially workers in industrial zones and students.

- The Ministry of Finance and the State Bank closely monitor domestic and international economic situations to flexibly adjust financial and monetary policies to maintain macroeconomic stability. The Ministry of Finance is instructed to proactively study and calculate state budget balances under the current economic changes and report to the Prime Minister.

- In the context of economic downturn and difficulty in job creation, ministries, sectors, and localities must build on previous achievements, continue to ensure good social welfare; implement policies already issued for health, education, and social sectors; focus on vocational training support for the poor, farmers, and veterans. The Ministry of Labor, Invalids, and Social Affairs is instructed to take the lead, coordinate with the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor and relevant agencies to research and propose comprehensive solutions to support unemployed workers, and submit them to the Prime Minister for consideration and decision.

- Relevant ministries, sectors, and localities, within their functions, develop action plans to effectively implement Resolution No. 30a/2008/NQ-CP on rapid and sustainable poverty reduction in 61 poor districts to ensure that these districts reach the national average level of development by 2020.

- The Ministry of Public Security re-examines the situation of firecracker explosions and serious traffic accidents in some localities during the Tet holiday, report to the Prime Minister for guidance on reviewing and handling the responsibility of local leaders; the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism takes measures to direct the management of sky lanterns which may cause fires and dangers; issue a circular to localities, instructing them to rectify the organization of festivals to highlight national cultural identity, be practical, joyful, and frugal, avoiding wasteful use of time and money by the state and people.

- The work of information dissemination and propaganda to enable the people to understand clearly the situation and tasks of the country, creating high unity and consensus in society, is a very important task. Government members must proactively provide information, transparently disclosing mechanisms and policies issued and the organization and implementation thereof. The Ministry of Information and Communications is assigned to direct news agencies to actively propagate the Party's guidelines, State laws, government directives and management; report accurately, considering benefits for the country's development, creating high consensus in action, avoiding causing distraction in society.

The Government has examined and approved the report on the implementation of administrative reform work in January 2009; the report on inspection, complaint resolution, and anti-corruption work in January 2009 presented by the Minister of Home Affairs and the General Inspector of the Government.

Based on the reports approved at the meeting, opinions of Government members and attending representatives, the Government Office is assigned to compile a general report on the economic and social situation in January 2009 and the Tet holiday situation in the Year of the Metal Ox, to be submitted to the Politburo and reported to the Standing Committee of the National Assembly.

2. The Government heard the Minister of Planning and Investment's report on attracting and managing foreign direct investment over the three years 2006-2008 and some basic solutions for the years 2009-2010.

In the three years 2006-2008, foreign direct investment increased significantly both in registered capital and actual capital: compared with the target set for the five-year period 2006-2010, registered capital reached 97.6 billion USD, exceeding by 77.4%; actual capital reached approximately 23.6 billion USD, equivalent to 94.4%. With these results, the work of attracting foreign direct investment has made significant and positive contributions to the country's socio-economic development in many aspects. However, in the activities of attracting foreign direct investment, certain shortcomings and limitations have been revealed. With forecasts of more complex and difficult developments in the world and domestic economies, attracting foreign direct investment in the two years 2009-2010 may decrease significantly compared to 2008.

The Ministry of Planning and Investment is assigned to take the lead, coordinate with relevant agencies to incorporate the opinions of Government members, supplement and complete the report on attracting and managing foreign direct investment for the Politburo's comments. The report needs to evaluate specifically the achievements and limitations of the work of attracting and managing foreign direct investment in various aspects: total capital, hierarchical management and planning, technology, promoting economic structure transformation, job creation, investment effectiveness in socio-economic, environmental, national security...; identify future directions for attracting and managing foreign direct investment in the context of changes in the global and domestic economies, continuing to actively call for and attract foreign investment, selecting and prioritizing projects in high-tech fields, supporting technologies, infrastructure development and human resources, high-value-added fields, energy-efficient production, land resource conservation, large-scale export product production, agricultural and rural development, ensuring environmental and national security according to the spirit of Resolution of the 8th Plenum of the 9th Central Committee...; and propose groups of measures to maintain the attractiveness of the economy, develop planning to encourage foreign direct investment, continue decentralization while strengthening supervision, enhance the role of state management of ministries and sectors, promote disbursement of approved projects, improve the efficiency of using foreign direct investment...

On the basis of this report, the Ministry of Planning and Investment will draft a Government Resolution on attracting and managing foreign direct investment, to be submitted to the Government for consideration and issuance as soon as possible. Based on this Resolution, the Prime Minister will issue specific decisions to implement it.

3. The Government heard the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development's presentation on the National Food Security Program until 2020, with a vision to 2030.

Food security is a concern of most countries, especially after the global food shortage from late 2007 to early 2008 had negative impacts on the economic, political, and social situations in many countries around the world. Throughout different periods, our Party and State have always considered solving food and foodstuff issues as the top priority task and have achieved significant results, meeting the increasingly high demands of the people, laying a solid foundation for political stability and the country's development.

However, new challenges regarding population growth continue to increase; agricultural production land decreases due to urbanization and industrialization; global climate change is currently and will deeply affect agricultural production; animal and plant diseases and pests are increasing; the whole country still has 12.1% of poor households, 61 districts with poverty rates above 50%, poor access to food security; malnutrition rates remain high; food safety issues... require comprehensive solutions to ensure national food security firmly.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is assigned to take the lead, coordinate with the Government Office and relevant agencies, incorporate the opinions of Government members, adjust agricultural land use planning appropriately to the new situation, and strengthen the application of science and technology in agriculture, complete the National Food Security Program until 2020 and with a vision to 2030, to be submitted to the Politburo for comments; and simultaneously draft a Government Resolution on ensuring national food security, to be submitted to the Government for consideration and issuance as soon as possible.

4. The Government listens to the report from the Minister of Finance on the situation of production and business operations, restructuring, and equitization of state-owned enterprises with 100% state capital, focusing on economic groups and state-owned corporations.

The Government unanimously recognizes that in 2008, despite many unfavorable changes in the global and domestic economy affecting businesses, state-owned economic groups and corporations still operated stably and achieved relatively good socio-economic results, preserving and developing state capital; all production and business targets for 2008 showed growth compared to 2007. State-owned enterprises played a significant role in maintaining the leading position of the state economy in the national economy, accelerating industrialization and modernization; producing and supplying essential products, goods, and services for the economy; particularly, in the context of inflation and rising prices, state-owned economic groups and corporations took the lead in strictly implementing the Government's directives on stabilizing material and commodity prices, curbing inflation, contributing to macroeconomic stability...

However, the activities of state-owned economic groups and corporations in recent times have revealed some limitations that need to be continuously addressed to adapt to development requirements and the rapidly changing economic environment; while enhancing competitiveness and the effectiveness of production and business operations, playing a crucial role in implementing the Government's anti-inflation packages, maintaining macroeconomic stability, preventing economic decline, sustaining reasonable growth, and ensuring social security.

The Government affirms positive achievements in the restructuring and equitization of state-owned enterprises with 100% state capital in recent times, while pointing out limitations and causes for the slow progress in restructuring and equitization of state-owned corporations and large-scale enterprises. It instructs the Ministry of Finance to take the lead, coordinate with relevant agencies, assess the performance of state-owned enterprises that have been equitized, and report to the Government.

The Ministry of Finance takes the lead, coordinating with the Steering Committee for Reforming and Developing State-Owned Enterprises to incorporate the opinions of Government members at the meeting, complete and supplement the report on the production and business situation of state-owned economic groups and corporations, including state-owned commercial banks, as a basis for evaluating the performance of this group of enterprises; propose solutions to overcome difficulties and support production and business activities; continue to firmly and effectively implement the restructuring and equitization of state-owned corporations and large-scale enterprises, submit to the Politburo for comments.

On this basis, it instructs the Ministry of Finance to take the lead, coordinate with relevant agencies to draft the Government Decree on re-evaluating assets and capital of state-owned economic groups and corporations; amend and supplement Decree No. 109/2007/ND-CP on converting state-owned enterprises with 100% state capital into joint-stock companies, submit to the Government for consideration and issuance.

The Ministry of Planning and Investment takes the lead, coordinating with relevant agencies to finalize the draft Government Decree on state-owned economic groups, to be submitted to the Government at the February 2009 meeting; organize a mid-term review and assessment of the implementation of Decree No. 132/2005/ND-CP dated October 20, 2005 of the Government on exercising rights and obligations of state owners towards state-owned companies, propose solutions to enhance the autonomy and responsibility of enterprises within the framework of state management, creating conditions for state-owned enterprises to truly become core forces in the economy; simultaneously draft amendments to this decree, submit to the Government for consideration and decision./.