Vietnam can achieve two-digit GDP growth if bottlenecks removed: PM

Vietnam can achieve two-digit GDP growth rates in the coming decades if institutional bottlenecks are cleared and all resources are mobilized, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh asserted at a regular cabinet meeting on Saturday.

“We cannot achieve our socioeconomic development goals set for 2030 and 2045 if our economy fails to grow by two-digit paces annually in the coming decades,” Chinh said in his closing remarks.

According to political documents of the 13th National Party Congress in January 2021, Vietnam aims to become a high-income developing country with a modern industrial base by 2030 and a high-income developed country by 2045.

For 2030, the nation has targeted a per capita income of $7,500, up from $4,284.5 in 2023 and $4,163.5 in 2022.

Reviewing economic performance in the first 10 months of this year, the cabinet reckoned that it was better than in the same period last year in almost all sectors.

The consumer price index (CPI), the main gauge of inflation, increased 3.78% year-on-year during the period, below the government’s 4.5% target. Exports rose 14.9% and foreign tourist arrivals jumped 41.3% to 14.1 million.

Registered foreign direct investment (FDI) went up 1.9% to $27.26 billion, the highest since 2019, while actual FDI rose 8.8% to $19.58 billion, a five-year high.

HSBC and Standard Chartered have lifted their respective GDP growth forecasts for Vietnam to 7% and 6.8% this year. The Singapore-based ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic Research Office (AMRO) has forecast Vietnam to be the fastest-growing ASEAN+3 (10 nation ASEAN plus China - including Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea) economy in 2024 and 2025.

PM Chinh asked government agencies to strive hard to reach a GDP growth of 7.4-7.6% in Q4/2024, aiming to have a whole-year reading of 7% and above, nearly twice that of world and ASEAN averages.

According to government data, Vietnam’s GDP grew by a higher-than-expected 7.4% in Q3 despite the devastating impacts of typhoon Yagi, resulting in January-September growth of 6.82%.