The meeting began at 8:00am but many provincial officials were present in front of the camera very early. In a dark-color suit, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung appeared on the screen at 7:30am at the Government Office.

About the VND 17 trillion (US $1 billion) stimulus package, most of the cabinet members agreed that the package would not only provide interest rate subsidy of 4% for short-term loans for enterprises in 2009, but also to medium and long-term loans.

However the Vice Chairman of the National Assembly Economic Committee, Vu Viet Ngoan, said that at the current situation and the credit using plan, only VND 6 trillion (US $352.94 million) out of VND 17 trillion, will be disbursed this year.

“I think VND 6 trillion is below the set target but it will greatly contribute to raise the local economy,” Ngoan said.

Also in the meeting between the cabinet and leaders of 63 provinces and cities, all cabinet members expressed their trust in the bright prospect of the economy in the next few months. The suggestion to reduce the GDP growth rate set for 2009 to 5% was approved.

As the first Deputy Prime Minister spoke in the meeting, Hoang Trung Hai said that the 5% goal must be achieved. He said that based on the good signals of the economy in the last three months, the 5% growth target is feasible. Site clearance for projects will be promoted because this is a measure for stimulus in the rural area.

Also related to the rural area, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Thien Nhan said the scheme to train one million rural laborers was finalized and it will be submitted to the government next week for implementation this year.

Cabinet members praised the development in the agricultural sector. According to reports from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, almost all areas in agriculture grew in the first quarter, except for aquaculture, which had a fall of only 0.5%.

Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung had very optimistic opinions. He said with small economic scale and its modest integration level into the world economy, Vietnam will quickly get out of the crisis, even before China, which is believed that it will soon escape from the crisis in the next few months.

Hung said that positive signs in the first quarter will set development trends for the subsequent quarters.

“Our current job is not only maintaining growth but also being determined to resume the growth rate when we saw the bottom of the crisis,” he said.

Talking about the country’s economic and social situation in the coming time, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung confirmed that the growth rate in the next quarters will be higher. “This is not an embellished idea because we have reliable foundations to believe in it,” he said.

To achieve this goal, he suggested focusing the stimulus in the rural areas by lending to farmers to buy machinery and equipment for production, trade promotion, and well performing monetary policies. The Prime Minister also mentioned social welfare, healthcare, education and job creation solutions.

After a day and a half, the first online meeting between the government and officials of 63 provinces and cities closed successfully, without any technical incident. However, only representatives of four localities – Hanoi, HCM City, Thanh Hoa, and Khanh Hoa – had time to speak at the meeting.

Source: VietNamNet/VNE