| In the first session of the May sitting, members of the Cabinet reviewed, assessed and contributed their ideas to the reports on socio-economic situations in May and the first five months; results of the implementation of the Government's Resolution 30/2008/NQ-CP on preventing economic recession and ensuring social security; inspection work, anti-corruption, administrative reforms, and law-making program; control and prevention of acute diarrhea and A/H1N1 flu diseases. Industrial index on rising trend Industrial production value continued to increase in the first five months against the same period last year (up by 14.9% in February; 2.04% in March; 5.4% in April; and 6.8% in May). Agriculture, forestry and aqua-culture production remained stable. Spring-winter crops got a high yield in both the North and the South. Aqua-culture output stood at 1.74 million tons, up by 4.4% compared with the same period last year. Export turnover reached US $4.4 billion in May, up 2.8% in comparison with the figure of April. Prices of key commodities went down while the domestic demand for these rose up. Construction, transportation and real estate markets are warming up. Consumer price index (CPI) rose by 0.44% in May, a suitable rate in favor of economic growth. Meanwhile, import turnover stood at US $5.9 billion in May, up 8.1% against April. The disbursement of foreign direct investment capital reached US $2.5 billion in the first five months. 296 new projects were licensed with the total registered capital of US $6.68 billion, an increase of 27.8% compared with the same period last year. | The Cabinet in meeting - Photo: VGP | Two major tasks: Guarantee macro-economic stability and speed up production and business PM Nguyễn Tấn Dũng urged ministries, sectors and localities to continue fruitfully controlling macro-economy and creating favorable conditions for enterprises to expand production. To realize the above two duties, the ministries, sectors and localities are required to take close watch at all the changes of the world's economy so as to have sound forecasts and propose more initiatives for better macro-economic management. The State Bank of Việt Nam (SBV) must set proper exchange and interest rates in accordance with the country’s real economic situations to make sure that the economic activities will go back on track quickly and stably. It must direct commercial banks to streamline lending procedures to facilitate production activities. The Government chief also urged the ministries, sectors and localities to fruitfully carry out the issued policies and mechanisms on consumption and investment stimulation, export encouragement, finance, and job generation. The important policies and mechanisms must be conducted under serious supervision, PM Dũng underlined. It is necessary to speed up the capital disbursement and implementation of key projects using the governmental bonds, ODA and FDI; actively prepare for management and prevention of possible natural disasters and epidemics in the summer; and provide update information on socio-economic situations to mass media, the Government chief stressed. By Hải Minh | 