HANOI, May 20 (Xinhua) -- Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung on Thursday urged the country's ministries, agencies and localities to boost production, investment to reach economic growth target of 6.5 percent in 2010.

Hung made the order in his report to the seventh session of Vietnam's 12th National Assembly (NA), which opened in Hanoi on Thursday.

With the positive signs of the socioeconomic development in 2009 and in the first months of this year, Vietnam is likely to attain the targets set at the last NA session in October 2009, including the economic growth rate, said Hung.

The Vietnamese economy grew by 5.83 percent in the first quarter of this year, up from 3.14 percent in the same period of 2009. The country's industrial production went up 13.6 percent year-on-year in the first three months while the figure for the corresponding period of last year stood at 2.1 percent. Export turnover climbed 8.9 percent year-on-year in January-April period.

Substantial and timely policy responses which helped Vietnam weather the global economic downturn in 2009 and is now on track of recovery in the early months of this year received a lot of support from international organizations.

The Asian Development Bank in a recent report showed its belief that if the Vietnamese government continues to tighten monetary and fiscal policies further this year to limit inflation and devaluation pressures, Vietnam's economy will accelerate and grow 6.5 percent this year and 6.8 percent next year.

Despite positive changes in economic development with high growth rates in various fields in recent months, including industry, agriculture and services, Vietnam still needs to make greater efforts to achieve economic growth target of 6.5 percent this year, said Hung.

Hung asked the relevant ministries and agencies to create favorable conditions for business and production development, especially essential goods including electronics, petrol, coal and minerals.

Increasing the business effectiveness of state-owned groups and enterprises, speeding up their equitization, and boosting trade promotion to attract more investment are also essential, said Hung.

Hung stressed the importance of tight management of state budget to reduce the budget deficit and the issue of government bonds to raise funds from the private sector for socioeconomic infrastructure development.

At the meeting, Hung also put emphasis on measures to ensure macroeconomic stability and curb inflation below 7 percent this year. The inflation stood at 6.88 percent last year.

According to Hung, Vietnam will try to cap credit growth at below 25 percent and the total money supply at 20 percent this year.

Supervision of the performance of commercial banks, stock companies and investment funds to prevent financial market instabilities needs to be paid more attention, said Hung.

It is necessary for Vietnam to take appropriate measures to encourage exports and limit imports, which create great contribution for the improvement of balance of payments and the increase in foreign exchange reserves, he said.

The Vietnamese deputy prime minister also urged to stabilize prices of essential goods to avoid shortages and price hikes.