High GDP growth lays solid foundation for future

The impressive growth rate in 2019 is attributable to the country's great efforts to boost economic development amid many unfavorable developments around the world.

The GDP growth rate of 7.02 percent newly announced by the General Statistics Office of Vietnam (GSO) exceeds the National Assembly's target of between 6.6 and 6.8 percent.

Economists noted the impressive growth is attributable to the country’s great efforts to boost economic development amid unfavorable economic developments around the world, especially US-China trade frictions.

Meanwhile, the domestic economic development was also hit by the widespread and complicated African swine fever as well as the adverse effects of climate change.

2019 is still a successful year for the Vietnamese economy as the country managed to reach all the socio-economic targets set by the National Assembly (NA), thus gaining the trust of local people and businesses about the country’s economic growth on right track.

2019 recorded a trade surplus of about US$9 billion. Of note, service transactions continued to enjoy a surplus worth US$ 4.2 billion, much higher than that in 2018, while the overseas shipments of aquatic products, vegetables, and fruits also shot up.

“The macro-economic development stayed steady during 2019 - the second consecutive year which the government exceeded the targets by the NA. Especially, the country’s trade volume surpassed US$500 billion. Foreign investment inflows soared during the year while the rate of job creation picked up. These are highlights of the domestic economy”, said economist Ngo Tri Long.

Having scrutinized the factors which could make affects on the Vietnamese market in 2020, many experts showed their optimism that the Vietnamese economy will remain stable and enjoy the growth rate of 6.8-7 percent while the inflation is projected at 3.2 - 3.5 percent. The private sector continues to be a driving force for stronger economic development in the time to come.

Expert Nguyen Minh Phong predicted that Vietnam's business environment will see more drastic improvement across all levels and sectors in 2020, thus giving a boost to the development of the business community.

The business climate in 2020 is expected to be backed by reduced US-China trade tensions and market volatility as well as the increasing shift of FDI inflows.

What is more, Vietnam will officially assume the ASEAN Chairmanship during 2020, which is believed to provide the country with more opportunities to spur its development. Vietnam's deeper integration into the ASEAN Economic Community would facilitate domestic exporters' greater penetration into the ASEAN market while regional countries could consider Vietnam a gateway to the global market.

Economic expert Can Van Luc said that Vietnam's economic

growth target of 6.8 percent for 2020 is feasible.

“There are some key driving forces of the economic growth in 2020, including an estimated 9-percent export growth and the growing foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows triggered by the US-China trade frictions. Besides, private investment is forecast to jump by 17 percent while the inflation would stay at 3.2-3.3 percent”, said Luc.

2020 ends the five-year period with an estimated annual GDP growth of about 6.84 percent, still within the target of 6.5-7 percent set by the 2016-2020 development plan. It also is predicted to add momentum to the five-year socio-economic development strategy whose implementation would start from 2021.

Economic experts, however, held that with high political determination, great efforts and drastic actions of the government, sectors and localities need to fulfill the targets set for the following years.