Vietnam presses ahead with economic recovery despite challenges, says Government

Presenting the Government report, Khai said Vietnam has kept stabilising the macroeconomy, controlling inflation, and guaranteeing major economic balances.

“GDP growth in the first quarter of 2024 hit 5.66%, the highest in the 2020-2023 period, that demonstrates the Government’s great effort in the context of the economy facing many difficulties,” he emphasised.

Unveiling major economic indicators in the first four months of the year, he informed NA deputies that state budget revenue met 43.1% of the yearly target; export turnover increased by 15%; trade surplus fetched US$8.4 billion; public investment disbursement met 17.46% of the yearly plan; and total registered FDI capital hit US$9.27 billion, up 4.5%. Many large corporations have committed to investing in major Vietnamese fields such as electronics, semiconductors, and renewable energy industries.

The labour market has continued to recover, with the working age population increasing by 0.34% year on year to 51.3 million. The average income of employees now stands at VND7.6 million per month, an increase of VND549,000 over the same period last year.

The Government has been accelerating administrative reform, improving the business - investment environment, as well as reducing compliance costs, to create favourable conditions for businesses, people, and foreigners, said the Deputy PM.

Furthermore, he noted that the Government has stepped up its the anti-corruption campaign under the mottos of “no forbidden zone”, “no exception”, or “whoever the person is”, recording important results, especially in asset recovery. Notably, it is actively working on a project to build a national database on asset and income control in an effort to combat corruption.

However, the Deputy PM also pointed out shortcomings faced in the Government’s macroeconomic performance, including mounting pressure relating to inflation, credit growth, and gold price control. Firms continue to face difficulties in production and business operations. The first four months of the year alone witnessed nearly 86,400 businesses withdraw from the market, an increase of 12.2% over the same period last year.

The real estate market has been recovering at a slow pace, with the disbursement of the VND120,000 billion social housing loan package yet to meet expectations as only nearly VND1,000 billion from 12 projects has been realised.

Progress in some key traffic and site clearance projects still remains slow, while some mechanisms, policies, regulations, and administrative procedures are overlapping, cumbersome, and slow to be amended, said the Deputy PM.

According to him, the Government has worked out 11 major tasks and solutions to fulfil targets for the year and for the 2021 - 2025 period, with priority given to promoting growth associated with macroeconomic stability, controlling inflation, and ensuring major balances of the economy.

It will focus on removing long-standing problems and inadequacies; promoting decentralisation; redressing fears of wrongdoing among officials; and increasing coordination between the Government and ministries, agencies, sectors, and localities.

The Government will strive to make greater efforts and take more drastic actions to overcome all difficulties and to record rapid and sustainable socio-economic development, along with ensuring national defence, security, and deep international integration towards meeting the highest goals set for 2024 and the whole period of 2021 to 2025, said the Deputy PM.