Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung asked the designers of national socio-economic plans to be realistic in formulating targets for 2010, when the country seeks to achieve a GDP growth rate of 6.5 percent.

The Government leader made the request in his speech in Hanoi on November 20 delivered to the planning and investment sector’s national conference discussing the nation’s socio-economic development plan for 2010.

He also asked participating officials to comment on the Government’s draft resolution regarding its major strategies for creating and executing the socio-economic development plan as well as its State budget estimations for 2010.

To deploy the 2010 socio-economic development plan, the PM requested that ministries, sectors and localities continue to focus on implementing the six groups of measures already adopted.

He asked the Ministry of Planning and Investment and localities to enhance their State management work to ensure quality growth and facilitate production as well as investment into infrastructure and social welfare--this for the betterment of their local people.

Ministries and localities should speed up public administrative reform with a focus on streamlining procedures in 2010, PM Dung said, reminding them they must combine reform with inspection and surveillance to reap the most fruitful outcomes.

He also ordered relevant agencies to implement policies to further improve the business environment along with incentives and measures to support business operations.

In addition to the above, the PM asked relevant localities to seriously undertake clearance of land at the sites reserved for major national projects, particularly the Hanoi-Lao Cai and Long Thanh-Dau Giay expressways.

Evaluating national socio-economic performance in 2009, PM Dung asserted that the country has contained economic decline and stabilised the macro-economy, reined in inflation, maintained its tempo of growth and ensured social welfare for the people, despite the numerous challenges and difficulties presented by the global financial crisis.

He argued that the country’s GDP growth rate of 5.2 percent in 2009, which is the lowest in the recent years, is an encouraging result in the context of the gloomy picture of the global economy.

At present, Vietnam leads other ASEAN member countries in terms of economic growth. It is also one among a dozen countries posting a positive growth rate in 2009./.