On February 5, the Government issued Resolution 25 on growth targets for industries, sectors and localities to ensure the national growth target in 2025 reaches 8% or more, creating a solid foundation to achieve double-digit growth in the 2026-2030 period.
Immediately after that, a series of meetings chaired by Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh took place. From leaders of large private enterprises to heads of dozens of domestic commercial banks were summoned by the Government to sit down and discuss solutions to promote growth.
Economic growth of 8% this year is considered by experts and scientists to be a heavy task for Vietnam in the context of a volatile and challenging world. However, this target demonstrates the Government's great determination to bring the country into a new era, an era of prosperous development.
The Prime Minister affirmed that 8% growth is an important task, which cannot be avoided, and must be done no matter how difficult it is to achieve long-term goals and meet people's expectations.
Therefore, the biggest problem for Vietnam at this time is to clearly identify and resolutely implement breakthrough solutions so that the country can truly break through and reach a higher level of development.
For the first time, the Government has issued a separate resolution on growth targets for 12 sectors and 63 localities, instead of setting a general growth target for the whole country as in previous years. This demonstrates the Government's highest determination to strive for GDP growth of 8% or more this year. Many targets are higher than those achieved in 2024.
According to Resolution 25, 18/63 localities were assigned double-digit GRDP growth targets by the Government and no locality grew below 8%. The two economic "locomotives", Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, were assigned growth targets of 8% and 8.5%, respectively. Bac Giang is the locality assigned the highest growth target by the Government in 2025 with 13.6%, followed by Ninh Thuan with 13%.
It can be seen that the Government has changed its management method when "assigning KPIs" to localities, requiring all provinces and cities to grow by over 8%. Resolution 25 has been implemented in accordance with the direction of General Secretary To Lam, which is that localities decide, localities do, and localities are responsible.
Therefore, to complete the assigned "KPI", leaders of provinces and cities are forced to think innovatively, be creative and seek breakthrough solutions, taking advantage of each locality's advantages to improve economic efficiency.
In a recent meeting, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh analyzed that 8% GDP growth will lead to growth in many indicators, from GDP scale, per capita income to labor productivity. Achieving this goal is a huge challenge, but the more difficult and pressured it is, the more effort we have to make, that is the tradition and culture of our nation from the past to the present.
"The whole country must grow, localities must grow, industries must grow, fields must grow. Everyone must act, must perform according to their functions, tasks, and powers, focusing on the growth target," the head of the Government emphasized.
The big target is a pressure but also a motivation for localities to be determined to implement and complete the assigned targets. As a locality assigned to grow GRDP by 10.5% this year, Mr. Mai Van Quyet, Director of the Department of Planning and Investment of Nam Dinh province, said that this target is equivalent to the target set by the province.
"The GRDP target assigned by the Government to Nam Dinh province is also consistent with Nam Dinh province's goal of striving to complete and exceed the 5-year socio-economic targets for the 2021-2025 period according to the Resolution of the 20th Provincial Party Congress," Mr. Quyet shared with Dan Tri reporter.
The leader of the Department of Planning and Investment of Nam Dinh province acknowledged that the Government's assignment of growth "KPI" is not a pressure on the locality but a driving force for the entire political system in the province to resolutely and resolutely achieve the assigned growth target. "This is an extremely difficult task, requiring efforts, but it is not a pressure," he affirmed.
In order for Nam Dinh to achieve its assigned growth target, Mr. Quyet believes that Nam Dinh has many potentials and inherent strengths. For two consecutive years, the province has achieved double-digit GRDP growth. This is both a driving force and a very favorable foundation for Nam Dinh to achieve its assigned growth target.
"In addition, the projects that have been and are being implemented are also the driving force for socio-economic development. In 2024, Nam Dinh completed many projects, in the first 6 months of this year, the province will complete many other projects such as: Nam Dinh Provincial General Hospital with a scale of 700 beds, the 490 development axis road (from Cao Bo to Ninh Co Economic Zone) ...; along with that, the Prime Minister issued a decision to establish Ninh Co Economic Zone, creating a very promising economic development space", Mr. Quyet emphasized.
In addition, the Director of the Department of Planning and Investment of Nam Dinh province said that in the past two years, Nam Dinh has attracted many projects. According to him, this will be the next foundation for the locality to do better in investment work this year.
Hai Phong was assigned a growth target of 12.5%, equal to the target set by the city in the Resolutions of the City Party Committee and People's Council. Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Tu, Director of the City Department of Planning and Investment, assessed that the above growth target is really a challenge for Hai Phong because the scale of the local economy is at a high level (ranked 5th in the country, in 2024 the city's economic scale will be about 446,000 billion VND, equivalent to 18.3 billion USD).
However, local leaders said that in order to achieve the growth target assigned by the Government, the city has directed departments, branches and sectors to develop growth scenarios for sectors and fields on a monthly and quarterly basis and will soon have documents directing specific tasks assigned to localities according to Resolution 25 of the Government.
As for Gia Lai, at the end of December 2024, the Provincial People's Council issued a resolution on socio-economic development in 2025 and determined the target for the province's gross domestic product growth rate to be 6.67%. However, the Government issued Resolution 25, which assigned the province's growth target in 2025 to be 8%.
The Department of Planning and Investment of Gia Lai province has advised the Provincial People's Committee to submit to the Provincial People's Council to adjust the growth target to 8.06% and strive to achieve a double-digit figure of more than 10%. It is expected that at the meeting at the end of February 2025, the Provincial People's Council will meet and consider. Mr. Nguyen Huu Que, Vice Chairman of the Gia Lai Provincial People's Committee, commented: "In the face of the Government's assignment of 8% to Gia Lai province and with its potential, the province will strive to achieve it. In the immediate future, the province will focus on many key areas of industry, agriculture and clean energy".
Nghe An is the locality assigned a KPI growth of 10.5% - the third highest in the North Central and Central Coast regions and among the highest growth rates in the country. Mr. Nguyen Duc Trung, Secretary of the Nghe An Provincial Party Committee, said that this is an "extremely challenging target". The head of the Nghe An Provincial Party Committee requested that agencies, departments, and localities in the province focus on leadership to implement this target.
Chairman of Nghe An Provincial People's Committee, Mr. Le Hong Vinh, requested departments, branches and localities to urgently develop and complete growth scenarios with the highest spirit of striving and making the most efforts, ensuring that they are suitable to the characteristics of the industry, field and locality but must be consistent with the general goals of the province; research and review new resources, driving forces, capacities for growth and solutions to implement specific goals in each field.
The local leaders also assigned the Department of Planning and Investment to preside over and coordinate with the General Statistics Office and departments, branches, and localities to review and develop growth scenarios for level 1 and 3 economic sectors, product taxes, and product subsidies on a quarterly basis based on 2024 data.
At the same time, propose specific, breakthrough, feasible and effective solutions for industries, fields and products in the province to serve the leadership, direction and operation to ensure the target of GRDP growth this year reaches at least 10.5%.
Sharing with Dan Tri reporter, Professor Kenichi Ohno, Japan Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) assessed that the Vietnamese Government has been very serious, especially more serious than before, in promoting growth. The expert said that over the past decades, growth policy has been implemented by Vietnam as a top priority goal.
"However, the way to achieve this important goal must be carefully considered. The growth target must be set higher than the target that the country or province or city achieves and that target must be achieved with serious efforts, clear strategies on promoting industries and specific policies and implementation methods," the expert said.
According to Professor Kenichi Ohno, this requires scientific analysis and effective policy mobilization. Without such analysis and policy mobilization, growth targets remain aspirational and difficult to achieve.
“Setting high growth targets for some localities will encourage local governments to adopt smarter and more effective policy measures than they are currently doing. But it is unrealistic to expect a leap in policy quality due to many gaps in knowledge, administrative capacity, budget shortfalls, environmental concerns…”, the professor shared.
From an economist's perspective, Mr. Ohno believes that the policy capacity of any government will improve gradually through learning from practice and experimentation, not within a year. Asking cities and provinces to achieve high growth without sufficient analysis and support from the central government will put great pressure on local governments to "create miracles."
"For any growth target, whether it is a country in general or a province in particular, the results are not only affected by policies but also by many other external factors such as the global business cycle, China's actions, US policies, natural disasters, events in neighboring countries, wars and terrorism in the world... Negative shocks can prevent growth at any time," the professor said.
Therefore, Professor Kenichi Ohno believes that if growth targets are set based on scientific analysis and with adequate support from the Government, it will help provinces and cities achieve better performance. But if these targets are unrealistic and without support, they can be counterproductive.
In addition, the Japanese expert said that Vietnam should design growth policies by sector, especially in industrial sectors, instead of setting rigid growth targets by geographical area. Because sectors have internal and external connections and spillover effects with other provinces, even foreign countries.
"The auto industry and the software industry are spread across many provinces. Therefore, local governments do not have full control over what happens within their jurisdiction. It is easier and more common to study industrial linkages (such as the electricity-steel-construction linkage) than geographical linkages between provinces," he analyzed.
Assessing the development potential of localities in particular and a country in general, Prof. Dr. David O. Dapice, senior economist at the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation (John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University) said that if a locality is poor and has great potential to receive FDI capital and has a suitable workforce, that locality can grow rapidly and develop its infrastructure system. Therefore, he said that it is completely reasonable for Bac Giang to develop faster than Bac Ninh.
Regarding a country's GDP growth, the expert said that growth comes from the increase in labor, capital and total factor productivity (TFP). TFP is one of the most accurate and general indicators reflecting the efficiency of capital and labor use, and is an important basis for analyzing the quality of economic growth and evaluating scientific and technological progress of each industry, each locality or a country.
"From 2001-2010, Vietnam's growth came mainly from labor and capital and very little from TFP. In the 2016-2019 period, when FDI poured in, capital contributed 2.4%/year to GDP growth, labor increased by 1.2% and TFP increased by 3.2%/year," he cited.
As for why there has been such a big jump, the expert said that it is largely due to the movement of low-productivity workers from rural to urban areas. In the future, Mr. Dapice said that capital growth and increased productivity will boost GDP growth by about 3% per year, lower than the boom years before Covid-19.
"To achieve 8% growth, it is necessary to increase annual productivity by 5% - something that has never been achieved in Vietnam. Even achieving 7% annual GDP growth will require TFP to reach 4%/year. Achieving TFP to increase to 4%/year will be a huge achievement, especially at a time when trade barriers are increasing," the expert commented.
2025 is considered a pivotal year and a turning point to promote double-digit growth for the coming period. After many years of formation and development, Vietnam is facing a great opportunity to affirm its position in the region and the world. This is the expectation and also the goal of Vietnam in the era of national development.
Experts say that to maintain a high and steady growth rate in the next 20 years, the Government will need more breakthrough solutions and efforts. Therefore, the way of doing things and the direction in the current context will play a decisive role in the future goals.
Content: Reporter Group
Design: Thuy Tien
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