Solutions for Vietnamese economy to overcome headwinds

According to Associate Professor. Dr. Nguyen Duc Trung, rector of Ho Chi Minh City University of Banking (HUB), to achieve its growth target of 6% to 6.5% for the year, the nation needs to work out overall solutions, such as promoting domestic consumption, maintaining and extending economic policies, and finding new directions for exports.

​Consumption promotion therefore requires intensifying trade promotion activities, replicating livestream sales models like in Ho Chi Minh City, whilst also strengthening online shopping and entertainment festivals.

Furthermore, it remains necessary to maintain and extend the 2% value added tax (VAT) reduction not only for six months. Exports need to be directed more strongly towards positive markets such as India, as opposed to just focusing on Europe, Trung emphasized.

In terms of investment, it can be considered essential to change the public investment model to ensure stability, while striving to increase the disbursement rate of public investment capital to 85% to 90%.

​With Ho Chi Minh City being the country’s leading economy, economic expert Dr. Vo Tri Thanh believes that moving forward there will still be numerous difficulties and challenges moving forward, meaning the southern metropolis needs to make good use of the foundation and growth momentum in 2023 to respond to headwinds.

Ho Chi Minh City's growth momentum will be the adoption of regional planning and national planning whilst competently applying Resolution 98 whilst piloting a number of specific mechanisms and policies for the city’s development. Furthermore, the southern city has the opportunity to transition to a green economy, a digital economy, and promote innovation in order to attract large, high-quality corporations.

“It is imperative to prepare quality human resources for the city and the whole nation. Apart from infrastructure and planning, the crucial role is to ensure quality human resources to meet new requirements, especially according to new investment trends," Dr. Thanh analyzed.

Nguyen Anh Tuan, head of the Ho Chi Minh City Enterprise Management Innovation Board, said that Ho Chi Minh City requires a breakthrough solution to have shortened mechanisms and policies because currently, investment procedures, whether small projects, also double the implementation time.

According to him, being too cautious causes the capital cycle to run slowly, thereby impacting on development.

Therefore, there needs to be a breakthrough and removal of those obstacles as a way of boosting exports to activate the economy in the coming time, he added.