An intersection in the south of Hanoi (Photo: VNA)
Hanoi (VNA) – Leading economic experts
forecast an optimistic growth outlook for Vietnam in 2021 despite the COVID-19
pandemic.
According to the Ministry of Planning and
Investment, key indexes show that the economy is bouncing back well and showing
an optimistic trend.
In the first four months of this year, total
retail sales of goods and consumer service revenue topped 1.69 quadrillion VND
(over 73 billion USD), up 10 percent year on year, while exports were estimated
at 103.9 billion USD, rising 28.3 percent.
Assoc Prof and PhD Dinh Trong Thinh, a senior
economist from the Academy of Finance, noted that nearly 44,200 new enterprises
were established during the four months, registering 627.7 trillion VND and
over 340,000 employees. The figures respectively grew 17.5 percent, 41 percent,
and 7.8 percent from a year earlier.
These encouraging statistics showed that
businesses are confident in the recovery and growth capacity of the economy, he
went on.
Assoc Prof and PhD Nguyen Thuong Lang from the
National Economics University shared the view that the good macro-economic
indexes indicate the economy has developed in a right direction over the last
four months.
With that recovery trend, the economy will
operate effectively in the coming months, he affirmed.
Export-oriented processing and manufacturing is believed to be one of the growth drivers in 2021 (Photo: VNA)
The Vietnamese economy is generally still in the
recovery process, and it needs policy and mechanism support from the Government
to further accelerate recovery and growth, according to Deputy Director of the
Academy of Finance’s Institute of Economics – Finance PhD Nguyen Duc Do.
PhD Tran Thi Hong Minh, Director of the Central
Institute for Economic Management (CIEM), held that although Vietnam is one of
the few countries having succeeded in controlling COVID-19, which has created a
prerequisite for promoting domestic production and safely reopening the
economy, it is also necessary to make a plan for a longer term that should
include stepping up administrative reforms and boosting momentum for economic
institutional reforms.
Andrew Jeffries, Country Director of the Asian
Development Bank (ADB) in Vietnam, noted the economy is forecast to expand by
6.7 percent in 2021, with growth drivers being industry, especially
export-oriented processing and manufacturing, investment increase, and trade
expansion.
Industry is predicted to go up 9.5 percent and
the services sector 6 percent. Meanwhile, trade will remain strong this year
thanks to export and import activities with the US and China, two major trading
partners of Vietnam. The country’s participation in 15 free trade agreements
with most of the developed economies in the world will also fuel exports even
more./.