LookAtVietnam – Government leaders met online yesterday, April 5, with local authorities to discuss measures to restrain high inflation and stabilise macro economics.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has invested over VND600 billion (US$31.6 million) to build Phuoc Hoa irrigation works on the Be River in Binh Duong Province. The project is to supply water to citizens, industrial parks and cultivated land in the southern provinces of Binh Duong, Binh Phuoc and Long An and HCM City.

Thanh Hoa People’s Committee Chairman Mai Van Ninh proposed that those who deliberately raised their prices be punished.

One of the Government’s resolutions to the issue was to launch a programme to promote the use and consumption of Vietnamese-made goods.

Vice President and General Secretary of the Fatherland Front’s Central Committee Vu Trong Kim said: “It is about time people co-operate with the Government and State-run management agencies to prevent high inflation.”

Kim called on the public to support the “Vietnamese people use Vietnamese-made products” programme.

Deputy Prime Minister Truong Vinh Trong asked authorities, business groups and companies to co-ordinate to work out solutions and effectively implement the action plans set by the government.

Trong asked local authorities to make the government’s policies and their implementation transparent and to make sure accurate information got out to the people.

Meanwhile, in requesting the Government and State Bank to introduce policies on controlling the loan interest rate ceiling, Ninh and Da Nang People’s Committee deputy chairman Vo Duy Khuong said the ceiling was so high that many local enterprises were finding it difficult to promote their production and business.

The enterprises put their money in the banks to gain interest instead of borrowing from the banks to invest in their production. That would result in the shortage of products in the market and increase the price of goods.

Viet Nam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade (Vietinbank) chairman Pham Huy Hung said a floating interest rate was an necessary policy under a State-oriented market mechanism.

To help stabilise the credit market, the Association of Banks had met and agreed to maintain the savings rate at 12 per cent and loan interest rate at 14 per cent, Hung said.

Vietinbank was co-operating with the Ministry of Industry and Trade on a plan to grant favourable loans to exporters in key sectors, he said.

Hung requested businesses and borrowers to minimise their spending on ineffective and unnecessary projects. He also asked the Government to establish a price stabilisation fund that ran with the support of corporations and economic groups, to take the initiative in balancing prices and curbing negative impacts from outside.

The country’s credit growth was 3.52 per cent by the end of last month, State Bank governor Nguyen Van Giau said, noting that this was good.

The State Bank had built a mechanism to grant loans on a negotiable rate, which would be introduced in accordance with the introduction of the Government’s Decree on measures to stabilise the macro economy and restrain high inflation.

Deputy PM Hung said the most important factor for the success of measures was wide publicity to gain public support for the Government’s efforts to stabilise development.

The Government would adjust taxes to ensure stable prices of domestic gas and petrol, Hung said.

The Government asked authorities to work out solutions to decrease the interest rate to a savings rate of 8-9 per cent and a lending rate of 11-12 per cent, he said.

Hung asked local leaders to strive for minimum budget spending and closely control their stock, real estate and insurance markets with strict fines and punishment for law-breakers.

He also called for the promotion of Vietnamese-made goods, projects and construction.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News