National Assembly (NA) deputies have emphasised the urgent need to remove difficulties for businesses, which serve as blood vessels to feed the economy, as they are weakening alarmingly.

They made the emphasis at a live-broadcast discussion of the 11 th National Assembly’s fourth session regarding the performance of socio-economic development plans in 2012 and the plans for 2013 in Hanoi on October 30.

A majority of deputies acknowledged the Government’s efforts in executing socio-economic development plans amid internal and external difficulties.

Deputy Cao Sy Kiem from Thai Binh province said that in the first nine months of 2012, the Government has successfully controlled inflation and launched an economic model renovation in some sectors in a more secure direction.

For his part, deputy Le Huu Duc from Khanh Hoa province suggested the Government take stronger actions in rearranging the banking system, urging the termination of operation of small banks with weak liquidity currently disturbing the whole system.

He added that in this context, local businesses should use each other’s products and minimise imports of products that can be made locally.

Deputy Tran Du Lich held that a target of attaining a GDP growth of 5.5 percent and curbing inflation rate at 8 percent in 2013 is feasible, proposing the design of an economic restructuring roadmap from 2012 to 2015.

He underlined the need to establish a Prime Minister-headed national committee on economic restructuring and asked the Government to prolong its support programmes for businesses until the end of 2013.

Reporting to the deputies on businesses’ inventories, Minister of Industry and Trade Vu Huy Hoang said that by October 1, the volume of inventories held by the processing and manufacturing industries had decreased from 34.9 percent to 20.3 percent, on the back of numerous positive measures taken by management agencies and businesses themselves.

At present, high inventories are found in such products as coal, steel, fertiliser and cement, Hoang said, noting that his ministry is coordinating closely with associations and businesses in seeking measures to solve this problem.-VNA