Prime Minister: "We will balance and calculate to increase salaries soon"

(Dan Tri) - National Assembly deputies proposed to increase salaries at the beginning of 2026 while according to the plan, this will be implemented in July next year. The Prime Minister said that he will consider and ask for the National Assembly's opinion to increase salaries sooner.

This information was mentioned by Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh at the end of the discussion session on the state budget situation and public investment disbursement on the afternoon of October 30.

Among the many issues mentioned, the head of the Government emphasized the goal of ensuring national financial security, increasing investment for development, ensuring social security and having a budget for arising issues such as pandemics and natural disasters.

Will calculate to increase salary soon

"We must learn from all of this because in the past, many times, due to poor calculations, revenue was not enough to cover expenditure," said the Prime Minister .

He emphasized the appropriate spending budget for this term, focusing on three contents.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh speaks at the discussion session on the afternoon of October 30 at the National Assembly (Photo: Hong Phong).

One is spending on human resources and organizational structure. Two is spending to ensure national defense, security and social order and safety. Three is ensuring social security with the orientation of "not sacrificing progress and social justice to pursue mere growth".

With a series of problems arising such as storms, floods, natural disasters, and epidemics, the Prime Minister noted that "there must be money to spend", so it is necessary to calculate to ensure that revenue is enough to cover expenditure, otherwise there will be a deficit, imbalance, and increased deficit.

Listening to many opinions of National Assembly deputies reflecting on the situation of inaccurate expenditure estimates, the head of the Government admitted this and said that it was a shortcoming that needed to be overcome. However, he affirmed that all revenue increases and expenditure reductions were consulted with the National Assembly and that in the past, this had been "on the right track", focusing on spending on people, leaving 70% of revenue increase to spend on salary increases.

“National Assembly deputies proposed to increase salaries at the beginning of 2026. According to the plan, the salary increase will be implemented in July 2026, but we will consider and ask for the National Assembly's opinion to calculate the salary increase earlier,” said the Prime Minister, while also emphasizing that we will build a more reasonable revenue and expenditure budget.

Summarizing the country's situation over the past five years, the Prime Minister stated that there were more difficulties and challenges than opportunities and advantages. However, the domestic economy was strong enough to withstand major external shocks. The macro-economy was therefore stable, inflation was controlled, and growth was promoted, ensuring major balances of the economy.

According to the Prime Minister, public debt, foreign debt, and government debt have all decreased, people's lives have improved, and Vietnam's happiness index has increased 39 places compared to the beginning of his term. National defense and security potential has also been strengthened, the clearest evidence of which is the historic parade on September 2 with many types of weapons bearing Vietnamese brands.

The Head of Government also shared proud achievements in social security with 68 million people enjoying policies, and the budget spending 1.1 million billion VND on social security policies.

Those achievements, according to the Government leader, are very valuable in the context of many difficulties.

He affirmed that Vietnam has become self-reliant, self-reliant, self-confident to create momentum, strength, and confidence to enter a new era.

"This term has to resolve a lot of backlog"

In particular, according to the Prime Minister, this term must resolve many backlogs. Most importantly, 12 loss-making projects that have lasted for decades have now been basically resolved, and many projects have begun to make profits. Along with that are positive results in handling 4 weak banks and SCB.

Delegates in the discussion session in the hall on the afternoon of October 30 (Photo: Hong Phong).

With nearly 3,000 pending projects that need to be resolved, the Prime Minister said the Government has classified more than 2,000 projects under the authority of the Government, ministries, branches and localities; the remaining 500-600 projects must be reported to competent authorities.

Disbursement of public investment capital, according to the Prime Minister, is a persistent problem, a concern of everyone in the political system.

"But why do we know but cannot do it, or do it but slowly?", the Prime Minister asked and pointed out many reasons.

First, he said that this term spent 3.4 trillion VND on public investment, an increase of 55% compared to the previous term.

The previous term presented over 10,000 projects, but at the request of the Government, the projects were cut down and now there are only over 4,700 projects left, according to information given by the Prime Minister.

“Reduce the number of new projects and focus on building the expressway system in the Mekong Delta. At the beginning of my term, I only discussed the determination, but the first problem was where the money was, but we didn’t have it. But then we managed to do it,” said the Prime Minister.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh recorded the comments of National Assembly deputies during the discussion session on the socio-economic situation (Photo: Hong Phong).

Along with that, he said that the expressway system to the northern mountainous provinces is being deployed, the expressways in the central region are being calculated to expand. Along with these policies are investments in expanding ports, airports, clearing land for high-speed railway construction and the Lao Cai - Hanoi - Hai Phong railway line...

Emphasizing that one of the driving forces for growth is public investment, the Prime Minister said the Government must resolve many difficulties and will continue to find solutions for this issue.

To achieve the growth target of over 8% this year and over 10% for the next period, the Prime Minister said this is a big challenge but "it is impossible". He affirmed that there is enough basis to realize this goal, the important thing is "to dare to surpass oneself to affirm national strength".

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/thoi-su/thu-tuong-se-can-doi-tinh-toan-de-tang-luong-som-20251030165227915.htm