Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said that greater efforts will be exerted to accomplish socio- economic development tasks this year with great importance placed on maintaining macro-economic stability, according to a report of the government's website on Monday.

Dung said that in the coming months, the main socio-economic development tasks are to maintain macro-economic stability, prevent possible reoccurrence of high inflation, stabilize prices in domestic market and ensure social security.

Assessing the Vietnam's socio-economic health in the first two months this year, the report said that the country has been successful in keeping momentum of socio-economic development.

According to the General Statistics Office of Vietnam, the country's industrial production value went up 13.6 percent year-on- year to 114.05 trillion Vietnamese dong (5.97 billion U.S. dollars) in the first two months of this year. Vietnam's retail sales reached 246.3 trillion Vietnamese dong (12.89 billion U.S. dollars) in the first two months of this year, up 27.4 percent year-on-year.

The office said that the increase in production and retail sales during the past two months was attributed to Vietnamese people's high demand for consumption of goods and services before and during the country's lunar New Year holiday.

In the first two months, the country raked in 8.9 billion U.S. dollars from exports, almost equal to the same period last year. Meanwhile, imports went up 39.6 percent year-on-year to 10.65 billion U.S. dollars, said the office.

However, Vietnam is facing some difficulties caused by both inside and outside factors, said the report. These factors include the ongoing El-Nino related drought, pet diseases on agricultural plants and livestock, and impacts of the increasing prices of products in the international market as world economies have been showing signs of recovery.

Concerns among government's members on possibility of reemergence of high inflation this year which may hamper the country's efforts so far to retain stable macro-economy were pronounced, said the report.

According to the General Statistics Office of Vietnam, the country's Consumer Price Index (CPI) went up by 8.46 percent year- on-year. Surge in prices was recorded in food, commodities and transportation due to growing domestic demand before and during the lunar New Year holiday in Vietnam, said local insiders.

In addition, the recent adjustment to devaluate the Vietnamese dong against the U.S.dollar by 3.3 percent, the raising prices of petrol and power are forecast to have negative impacts on the national economic health in coming time, said the report.

Therefore, the Vietnam should take a wide range of drastic measures to control inflation while speeding up production, said the report.

With an aim of no more high inflation, the Prime Minister urged ministries, agencies and localities to tightly control prices of essential goods in order to stabilize the market and prevent the recurrence of high inflation.

The monetary policies should play a tool of controlling inflation, ensuring economic growth and liquidity of the national banking system by scrutinizingly regulating the amount of money supply in the domestic market, said Dung.

To create more impetus for production, it is vital to speed up implementation and disbursement on major investment projects, especially the industrial production projects, said Dung. Other measures include the application of advanced technology into production to reduce production cost and improve quality, and making full use of domestically-made materials.

Apart from focusing on production, Vietnam vowed to intensify exports this year to generate more income for the country. The country targets to contain trade deficit at 14.5 billion U.S. dollars or 20 percent of the total export value this year, according to the Vietnam's Ministry of Industry and Trade.

To realize that, Vietnam figured out measures like intensifying trade activities, promoting domestic products, and expanding export scale by seeking and establishing new export markers for the country.

Vietnam's economy in coming time is expected to see stronger recovery, especially in industry and service sectors. The expectation was based on the country's economic performance in the first two months this year and the recovery of the world economies, said Dung.

(Source: iStockAnalyst )