In the past nine months, the national economy has continued to maintain a high growth rate, reaching 8.16 percent, while exports fetched US$35.2 billion, a year-on-year increase of 19.4 percent. Notably, for the first time garments overtook crude oil to top the list of export items, earning US$5.8 billion, up by 36 percent. In addition, 10 commodities joined the US$1-billion export value club, and foreign direct investment (FDI) capital fetched in US$9.6 billion compared to US$5.1 billion from a year ago. FDI capital is expected to surge in the last quarter of this year as many foreign groups are planning to invest in the country.
Tran Quoc Toan, vice chairman of the Government Office said, “During Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung’s visit to the US recently, many French and US groups met him and expressed their desires to invest billions of US dollars in Vietnam. They also expressed their confidence in the country’s buoyant economic growth.”
However, the past nine months saw the consumer price index (CPI) rocket to 7.32 percent, causing a headache to the Government. The soaring prices of input materials and the abundant supply of cash in circulation were considered to be the main causes of the CPI starting to increase. In addition, the domestic distribution network of many essential products such as drugs and fertilisers proved inefficient while many enterprises increased their product prices themselves, raising concerns among consumers.
To reign in the CPI, the Government has adopted a number of measures, including slashing import tariffs on several key commodities, enhancing the inspections of production and trading establishments and handing out severe punishments to individuals and businesses that have broken the law.
Also in the reviewed period, the slow disbursement of capital in the implementation of key infrastructure construction projects hindered the growth of the national economy. The mobilisation of credit sources only fulfilled 52.4 percent of the yearly plan, while that of capital from the sale of Government bonds only met 20.6 percent of the yearly target. In addition, the management of infrastructure construction projects revealed many weaknesses. The collapse of the two Can Tho bridge spans under construction which caused serious human and material losses was a serious case in point.
At the October 5-6 regular Cabinet meeting, the Government adopted a number of key measures to achieve a yearly GDP growth rate of 8.5 percent. Accordingly, the Government underlined the need to speed up production and business activities along with reducing production costs to increase profits as well as speeding up the pace of capital construction projects, while continuing to reign in the CPI and keep it at a level below the national economic growth rate. The Government also decided to pour an additional VND500 billion into the Social Policy Bank to support poor students in their studies.
Add new comment