Illustrative image (Source: VNA)
Hanoi (VNA) - Reaching the 6.5% growth target is a big challenge in the context of the economy continuing to face various difficulties caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Therefore, it is necessary to take good control of the epidemic and implement effective solutions to support businesses.
In the context that the COVID-19 epidemic remains complicated in the world with new variants of SARS-CoV-2, the Vietnamese economy continues to achieve positive results. In the first quarter of 2021, the economy achieved a growth rate of 4.48%, which is a quite good growth rate compared to other countries in the region and the world, with the macro-economy being stable and inflation being controlled.
The remarks was made by Nguyen Thi Huong, General Director of the General Statistics Office of Vietnam at a recent press conference on the announcement of Vietnam’s socio-economic development statistics in the first quarter of 2021.
Huong said, in the first quarter of the year, the world economy showed signs of recovery thanks to efforts to research vaccines and deploy vaccination against COVID-19 in many countries.
In addition, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank (WB) and other international organisations have made positive forecasts about the global economic outlook. In fact, world commodity prices are trending up and the global stock market surges. Major economies such as the US, China, Japan, and the EU are also forecast to achieve good growth thanks to their efforts in vaccination and the issuance of economic relief packages.
For Vietnam, Huong said that following the positive recovery and growth momentum from the fourth quarter of 2020, the country’s macro-economy continues to be stable in the first months of the year. However, the outbreak of COVID-19 in some provinces and cities at the end of January has posed many challenges in the management, direction and administration of economic development and social security.
The report from the General Statistics Office also showed that the supply and demand of goods in the quarter were still guaranteed, such as increased purchases of goods, consumption and exports. In addition, the agro, forestry and fishery sector has a relatively high growth rate, confirming that the restructuring of the industry has proved effective, ensuring the supply of food, foodstuffs and essential goods.
The highlight is that the processing and manufacturing industry continues to play an important role in promoting economic growth in the first quarter. At the same time, the disbursement progress of public investment capital has improved markedly.
However, besides the achieved results, entering the second quarter, Ms. Huong said that the economy still faces many difficulties and challenges, especially when it is more deeply integrating into the global economy which has been affected by the COVID-19 epidemic.
Illustrative image (Source: VNA)
Given that, the head of the statistics sector has made a number of key recommendations for the economy to reach the set target of 6.5 percent growth.
For the agricultural sector, it is necessary to make appropriate adjustments to structure of rice crops, and plant crops which can adapt to climate change, and be suitable to each region.
According to Huong, in order to make full use of advantages to attract investment, Viet Nam needs to actively evaluate the trend of shifting FDI flows into the country in order to make appropriate policy adjustments in attracting quality and environmentally friendly FDI projects, contributing to national growth and economic development.
Currently, Vietnam has deeply integrated into the global economy. Taking advantage of opportunities from the signed Free Trade Agreements must be implemented urgently, Huong said.
Huong believes that there should be solutions to develop the market and remove barriers to penetrate new markets.
Huong stressed that the management of monetary policy, interest rates and exchange rates needs to be flexible and cautious, in line with domestic and international market developments./.
