The Saigon Marketing newspaper on April 18 hosted a business conference to evaluate the impacts of global economic problems on the domestic economy, and work out business and administration solutions suitable for Vietnam’s conditions.

According to the Vietnam business insight survey (VibS), there will still be many challenges ahead for the national economy in 2013, and 58.3 percent of enterprises plan to maintain the current scale of their operation, while 10.4 percent expect to scale down. Only 30.5 percent say they will expand their business.

However, the number of businesses forecast to close down stands at around only one percent, which is a fairly positive signal compared to last year.

The inflation will continue the dropping trend, giving more room for policy manoeuvre, but the growth rate is slowing down, Director of the Vietnam Centre for Economic and Policy Research (VEPR) Nguyen Duc Thanh said, adding that bad debt and other potential problems in foreign currency and gold are main threats for Vietnam’s economy.

Therefore, Vietnam should make real changes, giving priority to strategic partnerships in regional and international economic connections, and carrying out domestic economic reforms in line with international integration roadmap, he said.

Dr. Tran Dinh Thien, Director of Vietnam Institute of Economics, underlined issues needed to be dealt with immediately to boost economic growth, including clearing bad debts and stock and reforming the salary system in the state sector.

Also at the conference, experts and business representatives discussed issues relating to policy, managing experience and business practice.-VNA