Nguyen Sinh Hung - Photo : TTXVN

 “The National Assembly Standing Committee and I will try our best to promote unity, continue reform and heighten responsibility before the people in order to implement our tasks and rights as stated in the Constitution and laws,” he said.

Hung was speaking after his election to chairmanship of the 13th National Assembly with a vote of 91.4% and the announcement of 17 new NA Standing Committee members last week.

“We are determined in the fight against bureaucracy and corruption,” the permanent Deputy Prime Minister stressed, noting the tasks ahead for the new legislature would be tough.

NA member Dinh Xuan Thao, who is head of the NA’s Institute of Legislative Studies, said that with five years’ experiences in the Government, he would be able to well undertake his new job at the NA.

“He has profound knowledge about advantages and disadvantages of the executive system. This will be very helpful for him as new NA chairman”, Thao told the Daily.

At the start of the NA meeting last week, Hung represented the Government to deliver a report on the nation’s social and economic performance, in which he highlighted the challenges faced by the economy, such as inflation, high interest rates, trade deficit, low efficiency of State-owned enterprises and macroeconomic uncertainty.

According to the schedule, the NA’s new chairman and members will vote for the president and the prime minister this week.

Truong Tan Sang, permanent secretary of the Party Central Committee Secretariat, has been nominated by the new NA speaker to run for presidency.

The new leadership, according to economists, will have difficulty stabilizing the macro economy in the coming months.

The consumer price index (CPI) is forecast to rise 22.16% in July from the same period last year, according to the General Statistics Office. Economist Nguyen Minh Phong estimated the monthly CPI would be as high as 0.8-1% for the rest of the year.

Le Xuan Nghia, vice chairman of the National Financial Supervisory Commission, said the worst was over for the economy. However, he noted, the new leadership would be struggling with a continued economic downturn in the coming months.

Nghia said: “The economy will grow at an estimated 4% in the third and fourth quarters because money supply dipped to a record low of 3% in the first half of the year.”

But how to use the remaining money supply quota of 13% in the rest of the year will be a headache.

The 12th NA Economic Committee Chairman, Ha Van Hien, warned: “[The new leadership] should be flexible and careful with monetary and fiscal policies to avoid the situation where money would be supplied in large volume in the second half, only to aggravate inflation.”

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Truong Tan Sang

New NA chairman Nguyen Sinh Hung on Saturday made a statement to nominate Truong Tan Sang, permanent secretary of the Secretariat of the Vietnam Communist Party’s Central Committee, as State President for the 2011-2016 tenure.

Sang, 62, was born in My Hanh commune, Duc Hoa District in the Mekong Delta province of Long An and has a bachelor’s degree in law. In 1991, he was elected member of the Party’s Central Committee at the seventh congress. Sang was a member of the Politburo in the 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th congresses.

Before working as the permanent secretary, he used to be the head of the Party Central Committee’s Economic Commission and the secretary of the HCMC Party Committee.

Source: SaigonTimes