The Spring Economic Forum opened in Vinh city in the central province of Nghe An on April 21, focusing on seeking measures to continue improving domestic business and investment environment.

Addressing the opening ceremony, Nguyen Van Giau, Chairman of the National Assembly’s Economic Committee, said the annual event will analyse the results of the 2014 socio-economic plan, determine the obstacles behind uncompleted targets, and seek measures to fulfil the plan for 2015.

Participants at the two-day forum will also draw out next steps and specific measures to reform the Vietnamese investment environment while giving in-depth assessments on criteria for the renovation.

According to Associate Professor Tran Dinh Thien from the Vietnam Economics Institute, the country’s macro-economy continued recovering last year despite global economic and political changes.

Meanwhile, Dr. Le Viet Duc asserted that in the past two years, Vietnam’s monetary policies loosened in a careful and stable manner, ensuring inflation control, supporting economic growth and solving social issues.

He noted that during 2014, the financial, monetary, exchange rate and price system of Vietnam remained stable, putting an end to the previous pattern of speedy growth followed by severe crisis in past decades.

Dr. Duc held that through the macro-economic 2014 snapshot, the economy is visibly on the right track.

Meanwhile Dr. Le Dinh An, former Director of the National Centre for Socio-economic Information and Forecast, reported that in the first quarter of this year the country saw 6.03 percent growth, much higher than 4.96 percent recorded in the same period in 2014.

However, he pointed out that the economy still faces a number of both long- and short-term difficulties, especially low domestic businesses competitiveness, modest national management and low labour quality.

The real estate market remained quiet despite the high risk of crisis in the broader national economy coupled with its poor competitiveness, slow restructuring and infrastructure development, he said.

According to An, it is crucial to implement more flexible management policies focusing on agricultural development to enhance production value while speeding up the restructuring of State-owned enterprises.

Participants at the event agreed that in the future, Vietnam should continue with its careful growth while implementing tightened fiscal policies and restructuring spending including public investment and regular expenses.

At the same time, it is necessary to complete legal frameworks for labour and employment to improve the quality of human resources and jobs in rural areas, they said. They also pointed to the need to continue effectively realising measures rolled out by the Government, including stabilising the macro-economy, reigning in inflation, backing production and economic growth and increasing exports.-VNA