Hanoi (VNA) – Leading economic expertsforecast an optimistic growth outlook for Vietnam in 2021 despite the COVID-19pandemic.

According to the Ministry of Planning andInvestment, key indexes show that the economy is bouncing back well and showingan optimistic trend.

In the first four months of this year, totalretail 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 estimatedat 103.9 billion USD, rising 28.3 percent.

Assoc Prof and PhD Dinh Trong Thinh, a senioreconomist from the Academy of Finance, noted that nearly 44,200 new enterpriseswere established during the four months, registering 627.7 trillion VND andover 340,000 employees. The figures respectively grew 17.5 percent, 41 percent,and 7.8 percent from a year earlier.

These encouraging statistics showed thatbusinesses are confident in the recovery and growth capacity of the economy, hewent on.

Assoc Prof and PhD Nguyen Thuong Lang from theNational Economics University shared the view that the good macro-economicindexes indicate the economy has developed in a right direction over the lastfour months.

With that recovery trend, the economy willoperate effectively in the coming months, he affirmed.

The Vietnamese economy is generally still in therecovery process, and it needs policy and mechanism support from the Governmentto further accelerate recovery and growth, according to Deputy Director of theAcademy of Finance’s Institute of Economics – Finance PhD Nguyen Duc Do.

PhD Tran Thi Hong Minh, Director of the CentralInstitute for Economic Management (CIEM), held that although Vietnam is one ofthe few countries having succeeded in controlling COVID-19, which has created aprerequisite for promoting domestic production and safely reopening theeconomy, it is also necessary to make a plan for a longer term that shouldinclude stepping up administrative reforms and boosting momentum for economicinstitutional reforms.

Andrew Jeffries, Country Director of the AsianDevelopment Bank (ADB) in Vietnam, noted the economy is forecast to expand by6.7 percent in 2021, with growth drivers being industry, especiallyexport-oriented processing and manufacturing, investment increase, and tradeexpansion.

Industry is predicted to go up 9.5 percent andthe services sector 6 percent. Meanwhile, trade will remain strong this yearthanks to export and import activities with the US and China, two major tradingpartners of Vietnam. The country’s participation in 15 free trade agreementswith most of the developed economies in the world will also fuel exports evenmore./.