Deputies discuss socioeconomic performance at NA’s fifth session

National Assembly (NA) deputies on May 22 discussed a report on supplementary assessments on outcomes of the socioeconomic development plan and State budget in 2022 and the implementation of such plan for the first months of this year, following the opening of the 15th NA’s fifth plenary session.
An overview of the NA's fifth plenary session (Photo: NDO)
An overview of the NA's fifth plenary session (Photo: NDO)

Delivering the report, Deputy Prime Minister Le Minh Khai said that last year, 13 out of the 15 targets set for the year were completed and exceeded.

After being supplemented, the socioeconomic development results of 2022 changed positively, with GDP growth of 8.02% compared to about 8% in the original report, and CPI increase of 3.15% from about 4% in the previous report. Meanwhile, the State budget collection in the year topped 1.81 quadrillion VND (77.18 billion USD), more than 201.4 trillion VND higher than the previously reported figure, Deputy PM Khai said.

However, the number of unfinished targets was raised to two from only one as reported to the NA earlier, as the contribution of the processing-manufacturing industry in GDP reached only 24.76% compared to 25.7-25.8% in the original report, lower than the set target of 25.7-25.8, said Khai.

Clarifying major socioeconomic tasks and solutions in the time to come, he said that amid the complicated and unpredictable domestic and world situation, ministries, sectors and localities should work harder, optimising growth motivations, effectively mobilising and using all resources. They should continue to implement tasks and measures given in particular areas following resolutions and conclusions of the Party Central Committee and the Politburo as well as directions by Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong during the mid-term meeting of the Party Central Committee, along with resolutions of the NA and the Government.

He highlighted 10 major groups of tasks, including maintaining the macro-economic stability, controlling inflation, promoting growth, ensuring major balances of the economy, strengthening institution building and completion, and speeding up public investment disbursement towards a target of disbursing 95% of all capital in 2023.

Verifying what Khai had reported at the NA, Chairman of the NA Economic Committee Vu Hong Thanh said that last year, the national economy saw a fast recovery with comprehensive and positive results in many areas.

However, the country experienced numerous difficulties since the fourth quarter of 2022, pressuring the macro-economic governance and the completion of the growth target for the whole 2023.

In the first quarter of this year, GDP growth reached 3.32%, which was a low level in the context that the country has reopened the economy after successfully controlling the COVID-19 pandemic and in comparison with the already low level recorded in the same period last year, making the goal of 6.5% GDP growth for the whole year difficult to achieve, said Thanh.

He underlined the need for the Government to continue to show strong performance in implementing major tasks and targets for the year, while keeping a close eye on the domestic and global economic developments to give timely response.

At the same time, Thanh also stressed the need to speed up the design and approval of planning at national regional and provincial scales as well as thematic planning. He said it is also important to address problems in public investment disbursement and the implementation of the socioeconomic recovery and development programmes as well as the three national target programmes.

VNA