National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue made this statement at the Vietnam Socio-Economic Forum 2023 with the theme "Enhancing endogenous capacity, creating momentum for growth and sustainable development" taking place on September 19.
 |
| National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue delivers the opening speech at the Vietnam Socio-Economic Forum 2023. (Source: National Assembly) |
Bright Spot in the Gray Picture
To achieve the above results, according to National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue, the National Assembly, the National Assembly Standing Committee, the Government, relevant agencies and organizations have developed and issued strong policies to promptly respond to the new situation. These include Resolution No. 101/2023/QH15 on the 5th Session of the 15th National Assembly, policies on tax, fee, land use fee exemption, reduction, extension, value added tax reduction, loan interest rate reduction, implementation of credit packages, establishment of regional coordination councils, promotion of regional linkages, etc.
The National Assembly Chairman emphasized: “Thanks to the correct, timely and unprecedented policies and solutions, the economy has maintained its growth momentum and is a bright spot in the gray picture of the global economy. The macro economy is stable, inflation is under control, the national credit rating and international position continue to improve. Major balances are guaranteed, the ratio of public debt, foreign debt, and budget deficit are all below the threshold allowed by the National Assembly; bad debt is under control, and the exchange rate is quite stable.”
At the same time, agricultural production continues to play the role of a “pillar” of the economy, food security is ensured. Important national projects and works, creating new development space for localities, regions and the whole country are promoted; strengthening the confidence of businesses and investors, supporting the sustainable development of industries and fields.
Sharing the same view, Mr. Nguyen Xuan Thang, Politburo member and Director of the Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics, assessed that Vietnam has flexibly and creatively utilized the principle of “remaining constant and responding to all changes”. The country has synchronously implemented policies that focus on both resisting and adapting to external pressures and removing and handling internal weaknesses and bottlenecks.
With carefully considered, timely and appropriate decisions, three vital sectors of the economy have been significantly improved. These are: increasing outstanding bank credit; re-establishing the capital market; and gradually opening up the real estate market.
“The above positive changes bring confidence in brighter prospects for the economy in the coming time. Growth is gradually improving, each month is better than the previous month, each quarter is better than the previous quarter, especially when support policies have had and are having a clearer impact and large development investment projects are being strongly implemented throughout the country,” emphasized the Director of the Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics.
Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Dinh Thien, former Director of the Vietnam Economic Institute, affirmed that Vietnam truly deserves the praise of being a "star" in the gloomy world economic sky in 2023, as well as the positive assessments of the world community about its investment attractiveness and bright economic growth prospects.
The former Director of the Vietnam Economic Institute said that, in the general context, Vietnam is in a development situation with many different, even unusual features. After three years of experiencing the Covid-19 pandemic, the Vietnamese economy is still standing firm, creating momentum and a positive growth and development position. The figures reflecting growth achievements, macroeconomic stability, and foreign investment attraction, in international comparison, are good evidence for this assessment.
Businesses "live long" but "grow slowly"
However, Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Dinh Thien pointed out that Vietnam's economic development process contains paradoxes. For example, Vietnamese enterprises are good at resilience, "long-lived" but "slow to grow"; the economy is "thirsty for capital" but has difficulty absorbing capital; Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth is high but inflation is low; inflation is low but interest rates are high.
Director of the Ho Chi Minh National Academy of Politics Nguyen Xuan Thang realized that the economy still has difficulties that cannot be overcome overnight.
In fact, the economic growth rate has not yet reached expectations; macroeconomic stability and ensuring major balances of the economy still have potential risks, especially the risk of rising inflation at the end of the year; the risk of collapse in the corporate bond market and real estate market cannot be ruled out; businesses have not been able to accelerate the recovery of production and business; even at the end of the year when consumer demand increases, exports may still face difficulties if major markets in the world fall into recession.
On the business side, Mr. Dau Anh Tuan, Deputy General Secretary, Head of the Legal Department, Vietnam Federation of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), admitted that this area is facing a number of barriers and difficulties such as the issue of infrastructure quality which is improving but still not keeping up with the needs of economic development. Access to basic production and business resources (capital, human resources, land) is not really favorable.
Mr. Dau Anh Tuan cited that in the first eight months of 2023, the total number of newly registered and re-entered enterprises still decreased slightly by about 0.03% compared to the same period in 2022. Notably, the number of enterprises leaving or temporarily leaving the market reached 124.7 thousand enterprises, an increase of 15.6% compared to the first eight months of 2022. This is an important indicator showing that the "health" of the business sector is alarming.
 |
| The Vietnam Socio-Economic Forum 2023 attracted 450 delegates to attend in person and more than 1,000 lecturers, students and pupils to watch online. (Source: National Assembly) |
Promote internal strength, exploit external strength
Faced with the above challenges, in order for the economy to continue to overcome the "headwinds", economic experts and researchers attending the Forum said that Vietnam needs to "renew" old growth drivers, traditional growth drivers on the basis of promulgating and implementing policy and legal frameworks to encourage behavioral changes in consumption, production and investment.
Accordingly, human resources are the core endogenous driving force of the economy. Therefore, the main solution to achieve higher productivity growth lies in improving the characteristics of the current young workforce. The World Bank (WB) recommends that Vietnam continue to improve its social protection system to be adaptive, integrated, easily adjustable and modern to protect households against shocks more effectively, while improving social insurance coverage to increase resilience to unemployment risks and ensure income security in old age.
The International Labor Organization (ILO) said that Vietnam needs to study and implement the issuance of degrees or practice certificates in a substantial manner according to international standards, consistent with the professional capacity and skills of workers; helping to improve the qualifications and competitiveness of the labor force in the economy.
Regarding the effective use and exploitation of external resources, Vietnam needs to promote the driving forces from attracting foreign investment and boosting exports, towards sustainability. Proactively prepare necessary conditions and promote and attract new-generation foreign direct investment, strategic investors, develop new economic sectors, have modern technology, have investment plans for research and development, have connections and technology transfer with domestic enterprises.
At the same time, it is necessary to take full advantage of key and traditional export markets, develop new markets and niche markets, and promptly and promptly respond to new requirements of export partner countries. Better exploit signed free trade agreements (FTAs), effectively carry out trade promotion, connect supply and demand, diversify goods and export and investment markets.
“Focusing on maximizing internal resources, in which, promoting and valuing endogenous capacity; taking advantage of and effectively exploiting external resources, and creating new growth drivers are the 'keys' to adapting, coping and developing in the new context of many fluctuations and increasing risks,” affirmed National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue.
Source
Comment (0)