Vietnam will reduce intervention in setting prices of goods and services, due to a draft decree submitted recently by Vietnam's Ministry of Finance for the government's approval, newspaper Vietnam News reported Friday.

The new draft removes gas, cotton, sugar cane, coffee, salt and railway fares from the list of 14 major goods and services in which the country can intervene to stabilize prices in urgent circumstances. The intervention in the prices of water and petroleum will also be ceased. But the draft decree stipulates that the country continues to control production costs.

If the draft decree to be approved, it would replace a decree, namely Decree No 170, issued four years ago. Decree No 170 allowed Vietnam to intervene to ease the fluctuation of prices of the 14 major goods and services in case urgent circumstances, e.g. natural disasters or epidemics happens, which could have negative influence on the country's socioeconomic development. It has also set prices for postal services, telecommunications, petroleum, water and pharmaceutical.

However, the ministry found that the prices of the 14 types of goods and services have not fluctuated significantly over the past three years, and the old decree has proven no longer appropriate and inconsistent with the regulation of several newly-issues laws.