Experts urge speeding up economic restructuring

Economic experts have warned that Vietnam must restructure its economy or the country will be off-track in its development path.
Economic experts have warned that Vietnam must restructure itseconomy or the country will be off-track in its development path.

Luu Bich Ho, former Director of the Development Strategy Institute atthe Ministry of Planning and Investment, said while the businessenvironment has improved, particularly with the Government’s programmeto reform administrative procedures towards catching up with thebusiness environment of the top four ASEAN economies in 2016, thecountry is just making the first steps of restructuring, with no obviouschange in the growth model.

Nguyen Tu Anh, DeputyHead of the macro-economic policy section under the Central Institutefor Economic Management (CIEM), highlighted the nation’s significantachievements in curbing inflation, stabilising its macro-economy,increasing the national safety index and improving business environmentand labour productivity.

He noted that inflationpeaked at 28.32 percent in August 2008 and has gradually returned tonormal from July 2012 to the present, while loan interest rates werecurbed after measures to restructure the banking system took effect inearly 2012.

However, he warned that the risk ofmacro-economic instability still exists due to slow equitisation ofState-run businesses and the handling of bad debts. Public investmentrestructuring has yet to focus on measures to improve the efficiency ofinvestment and avoid investment waste, he added.

Director of the CIEM Nguyen Dinh Cung said restructuring the economy isto change institutions and mechanisms for the allocation, management andutilisation of national resources, particularly investment capital,towards a more effective and highly competitive economic structure. Headded that the re-allocation of national resources should not be done bythe State but be prompted by the market.

Le XuanBa, former Director of the the CIEM, said restructuring the economysuccessfully requires a high price, which means to accept a modestgrowth of 4-5 percent in the short term in order to have higher growthof 8-10 percent in the middle term.

To boosteconomic restructuring and shift growth models, experts suggestedmaintaining macro-economic stability with low inflation whileestablishing and developing institutions for the market economy andcreating fair and transparent playing grounds for businesses with lowrisk levels, high-quality human resources and synchronous infrastructuresystems.-VNA

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