The country's macro-economy has not improved as much as expected after ayear of restructuring and the process needed a strong boost, saideconomists at the Spring Economic Forum opened on April 5 in the centralcity of Nha Trang.
The two-day forum aims at reviewing a year of the country's economic restructuring and putting forward solutions.
Chairman of the National Assembly's Economic Committee Nguyen Van Giautold the forum that restructuring the economy will take a long time. Itis now only in its early phases and initial progress has remainedinsignificant, he said.
Director of the Vietnam Economics InstituteTran Dinh Thien said that no significant changes in the basic trend ofthe economy have been seen since 2007.
Thien said a slowdown in GDPgrowth has occurred over past years, adding that the volatility of themacro-economy remains high and there have been no signs of sustainablecontrol.
Macro-economic management is still mainly based onadministrative and short-term measures. These could be reasons for thelack of improvement in the economy in the first quarter of this year,Thien said.
He recommended that instead of short-term andadministrative measures, the Government should take long-term action tocreate real changes in restructuring the economy.
Deputy Directorof the Central Institute for Economic Management Nguyen Dinh Cung saidthere has been no significant reforms in market and integrationmechanisms.
Cung said that for the past year, restructuring hasfailed to encourage businesses, let alone create favourable conditionsfor firms and investors, to make them take risks and try new ideas, torestructure their business and production and to make better use oftheir human and financial resources.
Bui Tat Thang, from theMinistry of Planning and Investment's Institute for DevelopmentStrategies, said that confidence in the business and investmentenvironment outlook has actually decreased as the economy faces a seriesof serious problems, including high non-performing loans and risinginventories. A number of firms have ceased or stopped operations.
As for the real estate market, Rector of the Banking Institute To NgocHung said, the Government should look at whether to tax property assetsin a move to prevent speculation.
Pumping capital into the realestate market would create a bubble, which would cause the number ofnon-performing loans to increase, Hung said. The State Bank of Vietnamshould maintain its tightened and cautious monetary policies tocontrol inflation and stabilise the macro-economy.
The forum wasjointly organised by the National Assembly's Economic Committee, theVietnam Academy of Social Sciences and the Vietnam Chamber of Commerceand Industry.
The assessments, analyses and proposals made byresearchers and economists at the forum will be submitted to theNational Assembly.-VNA