Hanoi (VNA) – Over the past six months, the Vietnamese economy has recorded many important and encouraging achievements, showing the economy’s rebouncing to the pre-COVID-19 level, with many bright spots.
So far this year, month-on-month and year-on-year growth has been seen in almost all socio-economic areas, including industry, agriculture and service.
Particularly, in August, the industrial sector recorded an expansion of 2% compared to July and 9.5% over the same period last year. Particularly, the Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) in the month reached 52.4 points, ranking second in the Southeast Asian region only after Singapore.
Vietnam welcomed 1.43 million foreign visitors in August and 11.4 million in the first eight months of 2024, up 4.8% year on year and 1% compared to the same period in 2019 before COVID-19 broke out. The average consumer price index in eight months rose 4.04%, with core inflation increasing 2.71%.
Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Tran Quoc Phuong held that the economy has regained the pre-pandemic growth pace, stressing the need for more effective coordination among the administration, sectors and agencies to achieve the set target of 6.8-7% and even over 7% in growth rate in 2024.
Especially, according to the Foreign Investment Agency under the Ministry of Planning and Investment, as of August 31, total foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow in Vietnam had hit over 20.52 billion USD, up 7% year on year, with 14.15 billion USD disbursed, a rise of 8% against the same period in 2023.
Since the beginning of this year, 2,247 new FDI projects have been licenced with a combined capital of nearly 12 billion USD, up 8.5% in the project number and 27% in capital.
At a regular Government meeting on September 7, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh emphasised the need to attach to the set targets in maintaining macro-economic stability, promoting growth, reining in inflation, and ensuring major balances.
The Government leader ordered active, flexible, timely and effective monetary policies with synchronised, harmonious and close coordination with open and reasonable fiscal policies and other macro policies.
He asked the Ministry of Finance to increase State budget collection and reduce expense, while efficiently implementing policies to cut taxes, fees and charges, and considering the mobilisation of about 100 trillion VND (4.05 billion USD) from bond issuance for strategic infrastructure investment.
Nguyen Thi Viet Nga, a National Assembly deputy of the NA deputy delegation of Hai Duong province, held that currently, the credit of many banks is depending too much on real estate, which is very risky.
She asserted that increasing consumer loan is necessary to ensure sustainable development.
With the strong economic development seen in the first half of this year, the Vietnamese economy is likely to expand more than 6% in the whole year thanks to the recovery of exports and domestic production, she said.
She said that it is crucial to increase productivity through the application of structural reform to improve the business environment, increasing investment in human and infrastructure, including the expansion of renewable energy sources.
The improvement of the capital market operation and governance, along with the strengthening of frameworks for the implementation of issues related to debt payment and bankruptcy is also crucial for productivity promotion, said Nga./.
