Deputy Prime Minister: Economic growth in 6 months is the highest in many terms

At the regular Government meeting on July 4, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Van Thang assessed that the socio-economic first half of the year achieved many positive results, creating a foundation to complete the whole year’s goals.

According to data from the Department of Statistics, GDP in the second quarter is estimated to increase by 8.39% over the same period last year. In the first 6 months of the year, GDP increased by 8.18%, higher than the same period last year (7.63%).

The Deputy Prime Minister assessed that economic growth in the first 6 months of the year reached the highest level in many recent terms, bringing Vietnam into the group of economies with high growth rates in the world. Many targets exceeded the plan such as budget revenue, agricultural growth, attracting foreign direct investment (FDI), including targets reaching the highest level ever. Many of the 34 localities recorded double-digit increases in GRDP.

However, the Deputy Prime Minister said that this result still does not meet expectations. Some localities are still quite far from their growth target, while the progress of disbursement of public investment capital is still slow. He cited calculations showing that if the disbursement rate in the first 6 months of the year reached about 50% instead of nearly 35% currently, public investment alone could contribute about 0.4 percentage points more to GDP growth.

“If all sectors and fields make more efforts, it is possible to get closer to the growth target,” he said, saying that despite the same development conditions, there are still localities achieving very high growth, showing that the implementation stage in some places is still limited and needs to be overcome soon.

Referring to the tasks in the coming time, the Deputy Prime Minister said that it is necessary to maximize the potential for growth in the context of the world economy continuing to develop complicatedly. Decisions on improving institutions and removing bottlenecks will help businesses and people reduce costs and time, thereby promoting investment and production.

Regarding solutions, the Deputy Prime Minister emphasized that to achieve high growth, financial resources must be fully and promptly met at reasonable costs. Fiscal and monetary policies need to coordinate closely to ensure capital sources for production, business and priority areas, so that businesses do not lack capital.

According to him, bank credit will still play a key role in economic growth while the capital market continues to be developed to meet medium and long-term capital needs.

The Deputy Prime Minister also requested ministries and branches to respond more quickly and drastically to timely solutions for businesses, people and localities.

After the conference, the Government will organize meetings with domestic and foreign businesses to solve problems and work with the State Bank and commercial banks to ensure capital for the economy. At the same time, Government leaders will work with 34 provinces and cities to promote growth.

At the conference, ministries also proposed many solutions to promote growth in the last 6 months of the year. Minister of Construction Tran Hong Minh said that priority will be given to removing bottlenecks in planning, standards, infrastructure and accelerating key projects. Minister of Industry and Trade Le Manh Hung said the industry will focus on perfecting institutions, removing obstacles for energy and industrial projects, while ensuring the supply of electricity, gasoline and expanding export markets.

Meanwhile, Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Lam Thi Phuong Thanh proposed promoting tourism development into a key economic sector. Minister of Agriculture and Environment Trinh Viet Hung asked localities to soon complete the land database and remove difficulties for exporting agricultural products.