Vietnam's Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said Vietnam should gain gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 8-8.2 percent in 2006, according to local newspaper Youth Friday.

Dung, at a regular government meeting late last month, instructed ministries, sectors and localities to focus on removing obstacles to the development of production and business, especially in major industries and services, quickening the process of disbursing capital to projects using state budget, and publicizing bilateral and multilateral agreements regarding the country's accession to the World Trade Organization.

The prime minister also asked them to speed up administrative reform, rapidly deal with corruption cases, issue more legal documents on guiding the implementation of such new laws on investment, enterprise and bidding, and intensify prevention and fight against diseases and natural disasters.

Bird flu is likely to return to Vietnam this winter, while foot- and-mouth disease is still hitting a dozen of localities nationwide. Since mid-August, floods and landslides in the northern and central regions have killed and left 40 local people missing, damaged 9,900 houses, and inundated 51,000 hectares of paddy rice, 11,000 hectares of subsidiary crops and 2,000 hectares of aquaculture ponds, according to the country's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Vietnam recorded GDP growth of 7.4 percent in the first half of this year, compared with the rate of 7.6 percent in the same period last year, according to the Ministry of Planning and Investment. Last year, its GDP grew 8.43 percent to 53 billion U.S. dollars, or GDP per capita of 640 dollars.

At the two-day government meeting ending on Aug. 31, cabinet members discussed a plan on socioeconomic development in 2007, including economic growth of 8-8.5 percent or GDP per capita of some 820 dollars.

Source: Xinhua