Addressing the opening ceremony, Nguyen Van Giau, Chairman of theNational Assembly’s Economic Committee, said the annual event willanalyse the results of the 2014 socio-economic plan, determine theobstacles behind uncompleted targets, and seek measures to fulfil theplan for 2015.
Participants at the two-day forumwill also draw out next steps and specific measures to reform theVietnamese investment environment while giving in-depth assessments oncriteria for the renovation.
According to AssociateProfessor Tran Dinh Thien from the Vietnam Economics Institute, thecountry’s macro-economy continued recovering last year despite globaleconomic and political changes.
Meanwhile, Dr. LeViet Duc asserted that in the past two years, Vietnam’s monetarypolicies loosened in a careful and stable manner, ensuring inflationcontrol, supporting economic growth and solving social issues.
He noted that during 2014, the financial, monetary, exchange rate andprice system of Vietnam remained stable, putting an end to the previouspattern of speedy growth followed by severe crisis in past decades.
Dr. Duc held that through the macro-economic 2014 snapshot, the economy is visibly on the right track.
Meanwhile Dr. Le Dinh An, former Director of the National Centre forSocio-economic Information and Forecast, reported that in the firstquarter of this year the country saw 6.03 percent growth, much higherthan 4.96 percent recorded in the same period in 2014.
However, he pointed out that the economy still faces a number of bothlong- and short-term difficulties, especially low domestic businessescompetitiveness, modest national management and low labour quality.
The real estate market remained quiet despite the high risk of crisisin the broader national economy coupled with its poor competitiveness,slow restructuring and infrastructure development, he said.
According to An, it is crucial to implement more flexible managementpolicies focusing on agricultural development to enhance productionvalue while speeding up the restructuring of State-owned enterprises.
Participants at the event agreed that in the future,Vietnam should continue with its careful growth while implementingtightened fiscal policies and restructuring spending including publicinvestment and regular expenses.
At the same time,it is necessary to complete legal frameworks for labour and employmentto improve the quality of human resources and jobs in rural areas, theysaid. They also pointed to the need to continue effectively realisingmeasures rolled out by the Government, including stabilising themacro-economy, reigning in inflation, backing production and economicgrowth and increasing exports.-VNA