Afternoon briefing on April 24


Hanoi: The following is a brief review of the day’s events as reported by the Vietnam News Agency.

– Officials, Party members, and people are concerned about how the Party will select the leadership capable of shouldering the immense revolutionary tasks entrusted by the history, General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong said at the first meeting of the sub-committee on personnel affairs of the 14th National Party Congress on March 13.

In his book titled ‘Resolutely, persistently fighting corruption and other negative phenomena to contribute to building more transparent and stronger Party and State’, the leader also stressed disciplining officials is something very painful and heartbreaking that no one desires.

– Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on April 24 requested more efforts to step up institutional improvement, create a full legal corridor to promote national digital transformation and develop the digital economy while addressing the eighth meeting of the National Committee for Digital Transformation.

Chinh,
who is head of the committee, stressed the need to speed up the upgrade of digital infrastructure and digital platforms to create an important premise for digital economic development; promote the creation of digital data and the development of digital services; step up the development of digital human resources and skills to meet socio-economic development requirements; and ensure cyber security and information security to protect the national cyberspace sovereignty early and from afar.

– Acting State President Vo Thi Anh Xuan on April 24 hosted a reception for Japanese Ambassador to Vietnam Yamada Takio who came to bid farewell to her.

Congratulating Yamada on his successful tenure, Xuan spoke highly of his efforts to bolster the Vietnam – Japan relations in various domains.

– Standard Chartered Bank has lowered Vietnam’s GDP growth forecast in 2024 to 6% from the previous 6.7% due to lower-than-expected Q1 growth and global trade headwinds.

However, it is still an improvement from 5% in 2023. The count
ry’s Q1 GDP growth moderated to 5.7% (from 6.7% in Q4-2023). The bank lowered Q2 year-on-year growth forecast to 5.3% (from 6.3%) and Q3 to 6%. But Q4 growth is expected to be recovered to 6.7%.

– Though the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) has announced it is selling the US dollar to intervene in the USD/VND exchange rate since April 19, the greenback price has remained high, which has been directly affecting many domestic enterprises.

The USD/VND exchange rate listed at VietinBank and BIDV on April 23 was at 25,180 VND and 25,485 VND per USD dollar for buying and selling, an increase of 20 VND compared to the previous session.

– The State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) on April 23 took some moves like issuing treasury bills (T-bills), further employing T-bills as an open market operation (OMO), and stipulating liquidity and interest rates in the inter-bank market in the face of surging USD/VND exchange rates.

The central bank lent nearly 36 trillion VND (1.4 billion USD) for a 14-day term to nine members via the OMO
channel. The bid-winning interest rate rose to 4.25% per year from 4% per year as recorded recently.

– Five Vietnamese enterprises operating in the fields of food and hospitality are attending the Food and Hotel Asia (FHA) 2024 which is taking place in Singapore from April 23-26.

This year’s event attracts over 1,500 businesses from more than 50 nations and territories and expects to welcome 60,000 visitors.

– A delegation of Vietnamese negotiators joined those from 176 countries worldwide at the fourth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-4) on plastic waste in Ottawa on April 23.

This session is to work towards finalising an agreement on a global treaty to eliminate plastic pollution by the end of this year. To achieve this goal, negotiators will need to reach a comprehensive legally binding compromise on plastic waste./.

Source: Vietnam News Agency