Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh speaks at the government meeting for February in Hanoi on March 5. Photo: VOV

Chairing the government meeting for February, Prime Minister Chinh said the merger of some provinces must take into consideration the criteria, actual conditions, circumstances and historical and cultural traditions of each locality.

Agencies must complete the abolition of district-level administrative units and downsize of the commune level to scale up grassroots administrative units, the Prime Minister said and assigned the competent agencies to propose revisions of legal documents on merging provinces, abolishing district level, and downsizing commune level.

For promoting growth, he requested proactive and flexible approach to achieve growth rapidly but sustainably, while tightening discipline and administrative order. It’s imperative to implement a proactive, flexible, timely and effective monetary policy; ramp up public investment; increase revenue, cut expenditure, save expenditure; and reduce taxes, fees and charges for people and businesses.

The Prime Minister ordered that there must be no shortage of electricity and energy for production, business and consumption and no hiccup in oil, gas and coal exploitation. Ministries and sectors must thoroughly prepare for the government meeting on policies to deal with emerging issues in the world and trade competition that affect Vietnam.

Mr. Chinh also urged for finetuning institutions for growth drivers involving emerging industries. In particular, the Ministry of Finance must urgently finalize regulations on the management of digital assets and crypto currencies, he said, adding ministries and ministerial-level agencies must complete the allocation of public investment before March 15.