From the statement of responsibility and concern of President Vo Van Thuong

President Vo Van Thuong said frankly that if officials still complain about difficulties and problems, who can people complain to?

Discussing in groups about the socio -economic situation in 2023; the expected socio-economic development plan for 2024, he commented: "There are many policies, many great expectations but the ability to implement is slow. A National Assembly delegate said 'the longest road is the road between saying and doing'. In the conclusions of the Party, it is often mentioned that the implementation organization is still a weak link".

The President's statement shows that it is necessary to immediately overcome the situation of officials not performing their functions, duties, and powers properly and, moreover, to encourage and protect them to "dare to think, dare to do" in order to quickly restore the economy.

The President speaks at the group discussion on the socio-economic situation in 2023, the 6th session, the 15th National Assembly . Photo: Hoang Ha

Determination of the whole system

The Government and the National Assembly share a common point. That is, we must rectify the situation of avoidance, fear of mistakes, and shirking of responsibility among “a portion” of cadres and civil servants; we need to protect cadres who dare to think, dare to do, and dare to take responsibility; and we need to promote appropriate decentralization and delegation of authority along with strengthening inspection, supervision, and monitoring.

The determination to rectify the persistent "avoidance and fear of making mistakes" working state is an urgent requirement that both the National Assembly and the Government are strongly committed to.

This situation is measured by the following indicators: 61% of enterprises said that “the time to process procedures is longer than prescribed”, “having to pay unofficial fees”, “determining land prices takes too long”, “officers handling procedures do not provide adequate guidance”, “not following the correct process and procedures”, according to the Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI) report.

If officials do not fulfill their functions, duties, and authority, let alone "dare to think, dare to do", it will cause difficulties for the urgent common effort to restore the country's economy after a long period of the pandemic.

First of all, we need to recognize that the economy is facing a very difficult situation, perhaps the most difficult in many years. The macro figures released at this meeting say it all.

Many industries slow down

Credit growth as of October 11, 2023 reached 6.29% compared to the end of 2022 (increased by 11.12% in the same period). Total means of payment as of September 20, 2023 increased by 4.75%, an unusually low increase, only equivalent to half of the same period in previous years. Such low money supply, contrary to the loose monetary policy after 4 times of lowering operating interest rates, shows how difficult it is for people, businesses and the economy in general.

Growth in total retail sales of goods and consumer service revenue has gradually decreased over the quarters (increased by 13.9% in the first quarter and only increased by 7.3% in the third quarter). Private investment in the first 9 months increased by 2.3%, only about 1/6 of the increase before the pandemic. Processing and manufacturing industry slowed down quite sharply (the IIP index of the industry in the first quarter decreased by 2.9%, in the second quarter decreased by 0.7%, and in the first 9 months increased by a low 3.5%). The added value of the entire industry in the first 9 months increased by only 1.65% compared to the same period last year, the lowest increase of the same period in the years 2011-2023.

More than 135,000 enterprises withdrew from the market in 9 months, almost equal to the whole year of 2022 (143.2 thousand); the number of newly established enterprises decreased by 14.6% in registered capital and 1.2% in number of employees; the situation of enterprises lacking orders is common, workers lost their jobs in many industrial parks, the number of employees working in industrial enterprises at the beginning of September 2023 decreased by 1.9% over the same period.

Growth in total retail sales of goods and consumer service revenue has gradually decreased over the quarters. Photo: Le Anh Dung

Merchandise exports in the first nine months decreased by 8.2% year-on-year, with many key export groups continuing to decline sharply; major export markets decreased, such as the US (-16.8%); ASEAN (-5.5%); South Korea (-5.1%); EU (-8.2%); and Japan (-3%). Meanwhile, the trade surplus increased mainly due to a decrease in input material imports (-13.9% year-on-year), indicating that input demand for production continued to slow down.

Growth is difficult

Overall, economic growth in the first nine months was only 4.24%. Thus, the GDP growth target of 6-6.5% in 2023 is a big challenge because to achieve the full-year target of 5% or 6%, GDP in the fourth quarter must increase by 7.21% and 11.21%, respectively.

For comparison, the World Bank's October 2023 Report forecasts Vietnam's GDP growth this year to reach 4.7% while the average growth of the East Asia-Pacific region is forecast at 5.0% in 2023, meaning Vietnam's growth is lower than the regional average.

In Southeast Asia, Vietnam's growth (4.7%) was lower than that of Indonesia (5%), the Philippines (5.6%), and Cambodia (5.5%).

For many years, our growth rate has been the highest in the region and the world, but now it has slowed down. This shows how weak and difficult it is for the people, businesses and the economy.

Poor execution capacity

The government has issued many fiscal and monetary stimulus policies to stimulate and support people and businesses. However, the disbursement rate of these packages is still very slow.

By the end of August 2023, the 2% interest rate support package is only equivalent to about 1.95% of the resources decided by the National Assembly.

The 120,000 billion VND credit package for social housing development has a very slow loan disbursement progress with only about 83/1,095 billion VND of the loan contracts signed between banks and real estate investors.

According to a report by the Ministry of Finance, four social security packages issued during and after the pandemic with a total budget of VND120,000 billion to support 68.43 million workers and 1.41 million employers were also implemented very slowly.

The 2020 VND62,000 billion package is expected to support 20 million people facing difficulties due to Covid-19, but only achieved half of the plan. The direct cash disbursement rate was more than VND13,200 billion, reaching 22%.

The VND26,000 billion package to support workers and businesses facing difficulties due to the pandemic, issued in mid-2021, includes 12 groups of support policies, but some policies have a disbursement rate of only 0.38-3.5%.

The VND6,600 billion package, allocated from the revenue increase and expenditure reduction source issued in early 2022, is expected to support housing for 3.4 million workers who are renting accommodation and returning to the labor market. However, the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs later requested a refund of VND2,900 billion from the budget.

Only the 38,000 billion VND package from the Unemployment Insurance Fund was disbursed beyond expectation (spent more than 41,000 billion).

Thus, it can be seen that many policies and policy implementation have not been as expected, mainly due to the capacity and courage of the public sector.

Creating breakthroughs for development

Public investment is currently considered a pillar for growth in the context of other locomotives gradually losing momentum. Disbursement of public investment capital by the end of September reached 51.38% of the plan, 4.68% higher than the same period, in absolute terms about 110 trillion VND higher. This is a very encouraging point.

The public sector always plays a "constructive" role for development; whenever there are officials who dare to think, dare to do, dare to take responsibility, as recorded in the history of Doi Moi, the economy develops dramatically and vice versa.

The fight against corruption can only move forward, not backward, because "corruption" is identified as one of the threats to the survival of the Party and the regime.

But clearly, encouraging and protecting the spirit of "dare to think, dare to do" among cadres and civil servants is also extremely urgent today in the context of the economy continuing to suffer "double negative impacts" from unfavorable external factors and internal limitations and shortcomings; "difficulties and challenges outweigh opportunities and advantages".

Hopefully, Decree No. 73/2023/ND-CP dated September 29, 2023 of the Government on encouraging and protecting dynamic, creative, daring, and responsible cadres for the common good will be put into practice. That is the part of the executive branch.

But in a broader perspective, this spirit is also necessary in the legislature and the State system in general.

Here is a quote from President Vo Van Thuong that is worth thinking about: “Officials who make mistakes will be severely punished; officials who speak out against policies, guidelines, and resolutions will also be gradually considered for disciplinary action, but officials who issue decrees, circulars, or even higher, laws that encounter many obstacles and troubles when implemented, have never been punished.”

According to vietnamnet.vn

Source