Hanoi (VNA) – Deputy Prime MinisterVuong Dinh Hue has urged the financial sector to take measures on restructuringthe state budget and public debt management to ensure the nation’s safe andsustainable finance.

During a conference on July 5 reviewing theperformance of the financial sector in the first six months of this year andset out tasks for the second half, Deputy PM Hue hailed the sector’s efforts tocomplete the state budget collection targets assigned by the National Assembly.

However, he pointed out the sector’sshortcomings, including slow progress in equitisation, divestment, reformingState-owned enterprises (SOEs), disbursing public investment, among others.

The Deputy PM called on the sector to make greatefforts to accomplish the state budget collection and spending targets in 2017,in which the collection targets should be exceeded by 5-8 percent.

Ministries, sectors and localities that fail to completetheir state budget collection targets will have to either find alternativesources to offset their deficits or cut down their expenditures accordingly,Hue said.

The Deputy PM requested the Finance Ministry toaccelerate the restructuring of SOEs, securities and insurance while completinglegal documents on equitisation and divestment.

At the conference, Deputy Minister of FinanceHuynh Quang Hai underlined the challenges facing the sector in the period,saying that the country’s economic growth rate stood at 5.73 percent, lowerthan the target of 6.7 percent, with slight increases in industrial production,animal livestock and disbursement.

In the first half this year, the total statebudget collection reached 563.5 trillion VND (around 24.8 billion USD),equivalent to 46.5 percent of the estimates, up 13.9 percent year-on-year, Hainoted.

Fifty four localities collected higher amountsas compared to the same period last year. But, 18 of them failed to meet theirtargets (under 48 percent) while nine others collected less than the sameperiod last year due to low growth in a number of key sectors, includingmining, hydropower, automobile production and assembling, mobile phoneproduction, food production and processing.

The budget spending was estimated at 582.9 trillionVND (25.6 billion USD), equivalent to 41.9 percent of the estimates, up 8.3percent from the same period last year.

Hai suggested the financial sector better institutionsand accelerate administrative reform focusing on taxation, customs, thusimproving the country’s business environment.

Taxation and customs agencies should devisedrastic and continuous measures to well manage tax payers and tax sources, inorder to surpass the state budget collection targets in 2017.-VNA