Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Van Thang chaired a meeting on May 7 regarding the allocation of growth targets for provinces and state-owned enterprises.
Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Van Thang speaks at the meeting (Photo: VGP).
According to the Ministry of Finance, the targets will serve as a basis for the government to monitor and evaluate local performance, while implementation results from provinces will play a crucial role in achieving the country’s overall economic objectives.
Deputy Finance Minister Tran Quoc Phuong said the ministry would first submit clearly defined indicators to the government for approval.
These could include annual average GRDP growth, growth rates in agriculture, forestry and fisheries, industrial and construction sectors, services and annual labour productivity increases.
At the meeting, local authorities broadly agreed with the government’s direction but requested that targets be based on transparent calculations and accompanied by detailed guidance from ministries and agencies.
Participants also proposed that the government assign targets only once and do so as early as possible.
Some state enterprises suggested adopting longer-term targets to allow companies to proactively develop implementation plans.
Several provinces said achieving high growth goals would require substantial investment capital while local budget resources remained limited, prompting calls for additional central government support.
Concluding the meeting, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Van Thang said assigning growth targets to local authorities and state enterprises was one of the government’s key tasks.
He stressed that successful implementation would require close coordination among ministries, agencies, local governments and state corporations.
Agreeing with the proposal to “assign targets once and as early as possible”, Thang instructed the Ministry of Finance to review the list of indicators to ensure consistency with conclusions from the Communist Party Central Committee and government resolutions.
The ministry was asked to announce the final list of targets by May 10 so local authorities could review and finalise implementation plans.
The government also tasked the Ministry of Finance with coordinating with relevant agencies to urgently review and report to the prime minister on growth targets for state corporations and groups before May 25.
Ministries, agencies and local authorities representing state ownership interests were instructed to assign targets to state corporations under their authority before May 20, based on guidance from the finance ministry.
The deputy prime minister said the government would create the most favourable conditions possible for provinces and businesses to achieve their goals.
“The higher the targets, the faster the actions must be,” he said.