Participants at the meeting were told that the Prime Minister would soon issue an instruction on price controls in an attempt to stabilise the market up to early 2011.
Dung said a nationwide conference would be held on implementing the instruction in a bid to fulfil this year's socio-economic targets, such as controlling inflation.
He stressed the need to maintain a stable prime rate, to manage the monetary system in an active but flexible way and to keep the price of essential commodities and medicines stable.
The Prime Minister asked ministries, cities and provinces to reserve enough goods to serve public demand during the lunar new year celebrations.
In an attempt to overcome power shortages, Dung urged electricity suppliers – particularly the Electricity of Viet Nam – to take drastic measures to speed up the construction of power plants, while buying electricity from neighbouring countries and cutting down on waste.
Participants at the meeting heard that the socio-economic situation had developed positively in the first nine months of this year. The economy had recovered fairly quickly after the global downturn and performed better than the same period in 2008 and 2009.
Specifically, the gross domestic product growth averaged 6.52 per cent in the first nine months, while industrial production was higher than the whole year's plan.
Export turnover was about US$51.5 billion in the first nine months, an increase of 23 per cent compared with the same period last year and four times higher than the National Assembly's approved target of over 6 per cent.
Total import turnover was $60 billion, an increase of 22 per cent compared with the same period last year. The trade deficit continued to narrow down and stood at $8.5 billion – equal to 16.7 per cent of the total export turnover.
The consumer price index rose 8.64 per cent compared with the same period last year.
Despite much progress, the economy was still facing many difficulties, the conference heard.
The price of consumer goods had increased, as had the price of gold. The sluggish performance of some major world economies continued to affect the country's export growth.
Production and trading enterprises were still finding it difficult to borrow money because of high interest rates, the Prime Minister said. Making matters worse, the country also has to cope with natural disasters such as typhoons, flooding and epidemics.
To overcome these difficulties, the Government has asked ministries, industries, cities and provinces to ensure there are enough supplies of commodities and that prices are stable, while disbursing investment capital for projects using Government bonds and the State budget.
The meeting reviewed socio-economic development in the first nine months and discussed strategies for the remainder of 2010. — VNS
