Hanoi (VNA) - The Ministry of Planning and Investment is targeting aneconomic growth rate of 6.4 percent to 6.8 percent for Vietnam in 2018,according to a document sent to ministries and local authorities withguidelines to develop the socio-economic plan for 2018.

The ministry said that the economic growth in 2018 would continueto improve, fuelled by increases in manufacturing, construction, trade, bankingand tourism sectors.

The global economic and trade growth is also expected to be higherin 2018 than 2017, creating favourable conditions that would boost the economicgrowth, especially exports, the ministry said.

In addition to this, the improving business environment, rapidinternational economic integration, increasing foreign direct investment andprivate investment, coupled with the Government’s determination to removedifficulties for firms will support production and trade, it said.

The ministry said that the agriculture, forestry and fisherysectors were anticipated to have good prospects with increasing prices in theglobal market.

Accordingly, the ministry has planned the gross domestic product(GDP) to grow at 6.4 percent to 6.8 percent in 2018, total export revenue toincrease by 9 percent to 10 percent, trade deficit ratio to be below 3 percentof the total export revenue and the total investments for social development tobe at 33.5 percent to 35 percent of the GDP.

Vietnamese economy grew at 5.73 percent in the first half of thisyear. To fulfil the growth rate target set at 6.7 percent for the full year,the country must achieve 7.42 percent growth rate in the second half, which isconsidered to be an ambitious goal.

The HSBC Bank in a report released last week lowered its GDPforecast for Vietnam to 6 percent this year, down from its previous forecast of6.4 percent.

This was largely due to the disappointing growth in the firstquarter of this year, which hit a three-year low of 5.2 percent.

However, the bank said that tourism would be a major driver forgrowth in the second half of this year. In addition to this, growth would alsogain momentum from pick-ups in foreign investment and agricultural productionin the second half.

“Overall, we believe Vietnam’s growth prospects remain promising,despite recent hiccups, and can be sustained with a positive externalenvironment and continuing economic reforms,” the bank said.

The Government of Vietnam is taking bold measures to achieve theambitious growth target for this year.

The central bank earlier this month cut several lending interestrates for the first time in three years to aid growth.

Besides this, the Government has planned to exploit more crude oilto boost growth.

Recently, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) lowered itsforecast for Vietnam’s economic growth to 6.3 percent from an estimate of 6.5 percentpublished in May.

The World Bank has projected the Vietnamese economy to grow at 6.3percent this year.

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) maintained its growth forecastfor the Vietnamese economy at 6.5 percent in 2017 and 6.7 percent in 2018.-VNA