Việt Nam’s macroeconomic situation has remained stable, inflation has been controlled, and major balances have been maintained in the first four months of this year.

The National Assembly’s Committee for Economic Affairs chairman Vũ Hồng Thanh made the assessment on Tuesday morning at the opening ceremony of the 23rd session of the National Assembly Standing Committee in Hà Nội.

Thanh, who presented a report to verify and make additional assessments of the implementation of the Socio-Economic Development Plan in 2022 and the first four months of 2023, also said trade and services’ growth continued to increase.

The money and credit markets are basically stable. Many solutions have been deployed to remove difficulties and obstacles for the corporate bond and real estate markets, according to the report.

The work of ensuring social security, labour and employment, and improving people’s lives has been effectively carried out.

Thanh added that the country faced many rapid, complicated and negative changes in the global situation last year but under the leadership and direction of the Party and National Assembly, the Government had made right and timely decisions to “safe adaptation, flexibility and effective control of the COVID-19 pandemic”, contributing to effective control of the pandemic and reopening of the economy.

Also at the session, Nguyễn Thị Thanh, Head of the National Assembly Standing Committee’s Board for Deputy Affairs, said inflation was being controlled at an appropriate level, newly-registered foreign investment projects were increasing, showing that Việt Nam was still an attractive investment destination for international businesses.

Difficulties ahead

However, there are still difficulties ahead, according to Vũ Hồng Thanh.

The socio-economic situation in the first four months of this year faced challenges that continued from the fourth quarter of last year, putting great pressure on macroeconomic management and the ability to fulfil the growth target for this year, he said.

Specifically, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth in the first quarter of this year was low (3.32 per cent), he said.

The growth of main hubs of industrial production and export in the country were reported to have an insignificant decrease, causing difficulties in achieving the full-year growth target, he said.

Enterprises faced many problems related to State management, affecting their production and business activities, he said.

Many long-standing problems had created bottlenecks for the economy, he said.

Nguyễn Thị Thanh said in the first months of this year, Việt Nam recorded a low growth rate while the world situation showed unpredictable and challenging developments.

The forecast showed that the growth in the second quarter would be also low, and the feasibility of completing the targeted goals was not high, she said.

She added that difficulties in disbursement and access to capital; cumbersome administrative procedures; banks’ high interest rates leading to an increase in production costs and decrease in business’ competitiveness; were blamed for hampering the country’s economic recovery.

Bùi Văn Cường, Secretary General of the National Assembly, said that the country was facing more challenges than advantages.

Businesses were facing trouble while orders had declined even for traditional export products, he said.

Disbursement in public investment capital only reached a low rate, he said.

Recommendations

National Assembly’s Committee for Economic Affairs chairman Vũ Hồng Thanh suggested the Government persevere in implementing the goal of stabilising the macro-economy, controlling inflation, and strengthening the adaptive and resilient capacity of the financial and banking system.

The Government was advised to carry out synchronous solutions to remove difficulties in the financial, currency, corporate bond market and real estate market.

Cường said that it needed to pay more attention to and create favourable conditions for businesses to access capital so they could recover, repay and overcome bad debts.

At the same time, it was necessary to amend loan conditions to be more reasonable, he said.

It had to step up exploitation and take advantage of Free Trade Agreements, continue to improve the business environment, improve national competitiveness, and simplify administrative procedures, he said.

The Government, ministries and relevant agencies needed to drastically and effectively disburse public investment capital, deploy the programme on economic recovery and development, attract foreign investment, and develop tourism to boost economic growth, he said.

Speaking at the meeting, National Assembly Chairman Vương Đình Huệ highly appreciated the efforts of the Government and verifying agencies in developing the reports to submit to the National Assembly Standing Committee.

The comments of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly would be very valuable and the Government was told to absorb them to further improve the quality of the reports before submitting them to the National Assembly on May 22, he said.

The 23rd session is the final meeting to prepare for the fifth plenary session of the 15th National Assembly, which is scheduled to open on May 22 and close on June 20 or June 21.

Under the 23rd session, which will wrap up on Friday, the National Assembly Standing Committee will consider and make comments on 13 major issues, including Report on additional assessment of results of socio-economic development tasks and State budget in 2022, implementation of socio-economic development plans and State budget in the first months of 2023; draft Law on Land (amended); draft Law on Credit Institutions (amended); draft Law on amendments and supplements to several articles of the Law on Exit and Entry of Vietnamese citizens and the Law on foreigners’ entry into, exit from, transit through and residence in Việt Nam; and draft Resolution of the National Assembly on piloting a number of specific mechanisms and policies for developing HCM City.

Viet Nam News