Hanoi (VNA) – Economic expertsdiscussed measures to improve the quality of economic growth in aworkshop held by the Central Institute forEconomic Management (CIEM) in Hanoi on March 11.

Participants heard that with economic growth of 7.38 percent, Vietnam’s GDP growthin the first quarter of 2018 surpassed most of the forecast expectations.

According to Nguyen Anh Duong from the CIEM, the impressive economic growth inthe first three months was attributed to the improvement of trade balance.

He said the low inflation and stable macro economy created favourableconditions for Vietnam to achieve high growth in the period.

However, economic experts said Vietnam’s growth quality has not been improvedas the national economy still relies on foreign invested sector and is affectedby the world economy’s fluctuations.

To create impetus for the higher economic growth in the remaining quarters ofthe year, Duong said the Government should give priority to stabilising the macro-economyand exchange rate, while carefully considering regional minimum wage increasein 2018 to avoid impacts on inflation.


Healso underlined the need to further improve business climate, accelerate therestructuring of State-owned enterprises and encourage businesses to applyadvanced technologies in production to increase labour productivity and quality.

Prof. Dr. Nguyen Mai, Chairman of the Association of Foreign Invested Enterprises,stressed that it is necessary to have fundamental changes in FDI attractionpolicy with specific orientations and objectives, towards expanding affiliationbetween foreign-invested enterprises and local partners, thus promotingsustainable economic growth.

CIEM Director Nguyen Dinh Cung said Vietnam should be more active in findinghigh quality FDI sources that have great impact on its economy.

Along with changing the FDI attraction strategy, there should be solutions tosupport the development of domestic economic sector, contributing to the nationalgrowth, he noted.

Economic experts said in order to achieve high and sustainable growth in thecoming years, Vietnam needs to take advantage of opportunities from internationaleconomic integration, particularly benefits brought by the newly-signed Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), andthe Vietnam-European Union Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) which are said to positivelyimpact Vietnam’s economic and export growth.-VNA

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