Hanoi (VNA) - PrimeMinister Pham Minh Chinh has expressed his belief that Vietnam will recordstronger, more effective, and more sustainable socio-economic development inthe second quarter of 2022.

Addressing a nationalteleconference between the Government and localities on April 5, he highlightedsome encouraging results in the Q1 socio-economic situation.

As there remain numerous difficultiesin Q2 and beyond due to the global context’s impacts, internal problems, andunpredictable issues, ministries, sectors, and localities should show strongerdetermination, efforts, and self-reliance to perform tasks fruitfully, the PMrequested.

He asked for continuedimplementation of the COVID-19 prevention and control programme, thesocio-economic recovery and development programme, and the Government’sresolutions on production, business, and innovation facilitation.

The Government leader demandedmore efforts to maintain macro-economic stability, control inflation, boost publicinvestment disbursement, tackle obstacles hindering production and business, capitalise onfree trade agreements to expand export markets, promote the domestic market,and strictly deal with smuggling, trade frauds, and wrongdoings related to realestate, bonds, the environment, the stock market, and fuels.

Ministries, sectors, andlocalities were also told to foster digital transformation and climate change response;speed up economic recovery, especially in tourism; carry out vaccination asscheduled, particularly for children aged 5 - 11; step up the fight againstcorruption and negative phenomena; and increase communications to win overpublic support and combat fake news.

According to a report at themeeting, the country's GDP growth in Q1 was estimated at 5.03 percent compared to the same periodlast year. The consumer price index was kept under control, at 1.92 percent. The disbursed foreign direct investment stood at around 4.42 billion USD, up 7.8percent year on year and also the highest figure in five years.

Meanwhile, total traderevenue rose 14.4 percent to 176.35 billion USD, with exports up 12.9 percentand imports up 15.9 percent. The labour market has also recorded manyencouraging signs.

The number of new COVID-19cases has continued soaring in most of localities, mainly due to the BA.2sub-variant of the Omicron variant. However, thanks to the wide vaccinationcoverage and the focus on caring for high-risk groups, the severe cases and thefatality rate have fallen sharply./.