Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong has called on the entire Party, army and people to have firm faith and work with unanimity and determination, to bring the country out of difficulties and challenges to continue with firm development steps.

Granting an interview to the Vietnam News Agency on the occasion of the Lunar New Year 2013, the Party leader said that in 2012, the second year implementing the Resolution of the 11 th National Party Congress, the Party issued many guidelines and policies to guide the settlement of major important issues of the Party and the country.

He affirmed that with great efforts made by the entire Party, armed forces and people, Vietnam has gradually overcome difficulties and challenges and recorded significant results in all aspects.

Trong highlighted the facts that over the last year, the political security, social order and safety, national independence and sovereignty were maintained. The macro economy remained stable while inflation rate was kept at a single-digit level of 6.81 percent (in 2011 the figure was 18.13 percent) and a GDP growth rate of over 5 percent.

The country posted a record export turnover of nearly 115 billion USD, and emerged as the world’s leading rice exporter with close to 8 million tones sold.

The foreign currency reserves hit a record high, the foreign exchange rate was stable and people’s trust in Vietnam dong was improved. Social security was ensured with per-capita income reaching about 1,500 USD per year.

Despite the overall difficulties, Vietnam received more than 13 billion USD in foreign direct investment (FDI) and nearly 6.5 billion USD in official development assistance (ODA), showing investors and partners’ confidence in and support for Vietnam ’s development.

Tourism was a bright spot in the national economic picture, serving more than 6.8 million international visitors and 32.5 million domestic tourists, earning 160 trillion VND in revenues.

The Party leader said that in 2012, movements such as “Building new-style rural areas” and “Studying and following the moral example of President Ho Chi Minh” have gathered momentum and Party building work was strengthened.

In particular, the Resolution of the 11 th Party Central Committee’s 4 th meeting on Party building was implemented in depth and on wide scale with seriousness, a willingness to learn and in a constructive manner, resulting in initial important results, he said, adding that the democratic atmosphere in the Party and society continued to be promoted.

In addition, external relations further developed in both width and depth, bilaterally and multilaterally, with an active, proactive and result-oriented spirit, and on all aspects from Party’s external relations to State diplomacy as well as people-to-people exchange, thus strengthening the friendship, equal and mutually beneficiary cooperation between Vietnam and other countries, consolidating and improving Vietnam’s position and prestige in the international arena, while creating a peaceful, stable and favourable environment for national construction and defence.

The Party leader stressed that all those achievements were made in the context of a year full of difficulties, with complicated and unpredictable developments of the regional and world situations. The global financial crisis and economic downturn had negative impacts on Vietnam ’s national construction and development.

The domestic economy revealed many shortcomings and weaknesses such as the fragile stability of macro economy, high lending interest rate, large volumes of bad debts and inventories and a frozen real estate market.

Production and business activities faced a lot of difficulties and a large number of businesses had to dissolve or stop operations, having negative impacts on poverty reduction and job generation efforts.

The situation put great pressure on the life of some groups of the population, especially poor people and low-income earners, and the gap between the rich and the poor expanded. Crime and social problems, environmental pollution, food hygiene and safety violations, and traffic accidents remained worrying.

The party chief also noted that there were complicated developments regarding the East Sea issue while hostile forces continued to seek every way to sabotage the Party and State in order to cause socio-political instabilities and threaten national sovereignty and security.

He affirmed that economic restructuring in parallel with renewing the growth model is a great and complicated task that needs to be implemented synchronously in all agencies and sectors, on a national scale as well as in each locality and grassroots unit.

In the immediate future, efforts should be focused on the restructuring of three especially important areas, including public investment, commercial bank system and State-owned economic groups and corporations.

“Despite the favourable conditions and achievements, the situation in the country as well as in the world will continue to pose many difficulties in 2013. I hope that the entire Party, armed forces and people will maintain strong faith and act as one with determination to get our country rise above difficulties and challenges and continue with firm steps of development,” the Party leader said in conclusion./.VNA