Vietnam’s capital city of Hanoi will strive to take the lead in e-commerce nationwide, considering it an important task in economic growth this year, Acting Director of the municipal Department of Industry and Trade Tran Thi Phuong Lan has said.

Given its huge development potential, Khanh Hoa should focus on the sea-based economy, a senior Party official said on May 11.

The disbursement of public investment sourced from the State budget in April was estimated at VND30.4 trillion (US$1.32 billion), a year-on-year surge of 23.9%, and reaching the highest monthly level since 2017, according to the General Statistics Office.

Leading economic experts forecast an optimistic growth outlook for Vietnam in 2021 despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

Vietnam will record positive economic growth in 2021, at around 6-7%, if the country continue support for vulnerable groups in the economy, as well as the freshly-rolled out vaccination campaign.

The portal of the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber has run an article hailing Vietnam’s consistent, drastic and effective measures against the COVID-19 pandemic, adding that the Vietnamese market remains attractive to Austrian firms.

In the 46 years since national reunification, Vietnam’s development has witnessed great strides with major contributions from foreign investment, which has been targeted to continue being an important driver of the domestic economy.

Global financial markets have been negatively hit and significantly shaken by the ongoing unpredictable, relentless and complicated developments under the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to continued global financial instability.

Leaders of European businesses have started 2021 with optimism about the trade and investment environment in Vietnam, according the Business Climate Index (BCI) for the first quarter of 2021 released by the European Chamber of Commerce (EuroCham) on April 30.

Foreign Minister Bui Thanh Son held online talks with Costa Rican Minister of Foreign Affairs and Worship Rodolfo Solano Quirós on April 29 to discuss specific ways to strengthen the bilateral friendship and cooperation, on the occasion of the 45th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic ties.