At the regular February government meeting on March 2-3, PM Dung emphasised the tasks of socio-economic development from now through the end of this year in order to boost production, business and development investment.

The industrial production value rose by 13.6 percent in the first two months of this year against the same period last year despite the week-long traditional festival that affected production and business, said a report presented by Minister of Planning and Investment Vo Hong Phuc.

The number of foreign tourists to Vietnam is estimated at 877,000 in the reviewed period, up 27.4 percent. The number of telephone subscribers rose by 61.8 percent to 138 million, the report said.

However, socio-economic development over the past two months was slow-going. Total export turnover only reached US$8.913 billion while import turnover was estimated at US$10.658 billion, leading to a high trade deficit of US$1.745 billion or 19.6 percent of the total export turnover.

The consumer price index (CPI) went up by 3.35 percent in the last two months and stood at 8.04 percent higher than the same period last year.

Also, a forest fire at Hoang Lien National Park in the northern provinces of Lao Cai and Lai Chau destroyed about 1,000 ha of forests.

To meet this year’s socio-economic targets adopted at the sixth session of the National Assembly (tenure XII), the government asked ministries, branches and localities to implement eight groups of solutions, measures and programmes on macro-economic stability.

At the meeting, the government gave opinions on the Ministry of Planning and Investment’s project to renew and push up economic restructuring for the 2011-2020 period, improving the capacity, effectiveness and competitiveness of the economy.

It also gave feedback to the Ministry of Construction’s document on Hanoi’s construction planning through 2030 with a vision for 2050, and the State Appraisal Council’s assessment of investment in a project on construction of the North-South express railway, and some draft laws and decrees.