Some German newspapers recently ran articles hailing Vietnam’s economic achievements and growth prospect as well as the active role played by the country in the Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN).

The Dusseldorfer Abendblatt newspaper and the website Pressportal.de took note that Vietnam enjoyed a fast economic growth of 7-8 percent per year after the country applied its renewal policy and shifted to a market economy.

They said Vietnam also quickly recovered from the impacts of the financial crisis in 2008-09 and over the last three years, the Vietnamese government successfully made use of macroeconomic stabilisation policy, thus keeping a high economic growth at 5-6 percent per year, attracting 23 billion USD in foreign direct investment (FDI) in 2013, contributing to promoting the national economic development.

Vietnam’s inflation rate has dropped from over 20 percent in 2010 and 2011 to only 6 percent in 2013, while its trade balance continued recording a surplus, with export turnover hit over 132 billion USD and import turnover was at 131.3 billion USD last year.

The articles also highlighted Vietnam’s efforts to integrate into the global economy by joining many economic organisations in the world such the World Trade Organisation, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA).

The country plays a crucial role in ASEAN, a region with a 560 million population and about 800 billion USD in GDP, the articles said, adding that Vietnam along with other ASEAN member nations agreed to accelerate regional economic integration through the formation of a ASEAN economic community by 2015.

At the same time, Vietnam is participating in negotiations of a Free Trade Agreement with the European Union (EVFTA), which is expected to end late this year or at the beginning of 2015. The country is also in the negotiation progress of the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement with the US and several other countries.

The der Focus – one of the largest newspapers in Germany- delivered assessments of Vietnam’s economic prospect in 2014.

The article said economic index in the first nine months of this year show positive prospects for Vietnam’s economy in 2014 as well as some following years.

Thanks to flexible economic policies and a stable political situation, Vietnam is now one of the leading investment destinations in ASEAN, the newspaper said, noting that the country needs to resolve several issues related to rising public debt and bad debt in its financial and banking system.-VNA