Prime Minister
Nguyen Tan Dung has asked ministries, branches and localities to take
synchronous measures to curb inflation, stabilize the macroeconomy and ensure
jobs for labourers.

At the regular cabinet meeting in Hanoi on March
30, PM Dung said these agencies must strictly implement social security
policies, especially for poor people, beneficiaries of social welfare and wage
earners, and build policies for low-income workers.

Cabinet members agreed on the Finance Ministry’s proposal to provide allowances
for low-income earners and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), due to
price hikes.

At the meeting, which discussed the socio-economic situation in March and the
first quarter of 2011 and reviewed the implementation of Government Resolution
No. 11/NQ-CP, PM Dung called on the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) to closely
manage interest rates and for banks to reduce profit and cut down expenditure in
order to lower lending interest rates.

He also instructed the SBV to issue regulations on foreign currency management,
following a directive to reduce foreign currency lending and preserve a foreign
currency reserve, including ensuring enough foreign currency for petrol imports.

Cabinet members said during the three-month
period, ministries, branches and localities tightened budget expenditures, cut
down public investment and took drastic measures to support production,
encourage exports and ensure social security.

Thanks to this progress, industrial production
increased by 14.2 percent year on year, agricultural production by 3.5 percent,
foreign investment by 1.6 percent, exports by 33.7 percent, and budget
collections accounted for 21.2 percent of the year’s estimates (the highest
level for the period over the last three years), keeping the GDP growth rate at
5.43 percent.

According to Minister of Planning and Investment
Vo Hong Phuc, 30 ministries and central agencies, 63 provinces and cities, 12
economic groups and State-run corporations reported the cut of 1,387 projects
worth nearly VND3.4 trillion.

However, cabinet members said that political insecurity in the Middle East and
North African countries, increased in the prices of goods on the world market
and those of power, coal and petrol on the domestic market will cause
difficulties in an effort to curb inflation.

In March, the consumer price index rose 6.12 percent from last December,
resulting in a 12.79 percent year-on-year increase in the first quarter.

VietNamNet/VOV