Although growth in the third quarter as well as the first 9 months of the year is still low, with efforts to restore the economy and alertness and prudence in pandemic prevention, Vietnam's economic picture in 2020 will be less bleak.

Disbursement of public investment capital - "the trump card"
of economic growth in 2020. Source: Internet.

Growth momentum prospered

In the dual goal of fighting the pandemic and economic development, focusing on promoting production and business, domestic consumption, export and promoting the disbursement of public investment capital to contribute to the early recovery and development of business. The socio-economic situation in a normal state is a great and consistent message, also an imperative of the Government in operating the economy to overcome the Covid-19 pandemic. This message has been being made efforts by the Government and the business community and has seen the prosperity of growth drivers, bringing positive signals to the economy.

Some key sectors have also changed thanks to the drastic government actions. For example, the disbursement of public investment capital - the "trump card" of economic growth in 2020 has reached 60% of the plan, up more than 33% over the same period, the room for disbursement of this capital from now to the end of the year is pretty big. The commencement, construction and completion of key projects have been promoted. The Prime Minister said by 2020, we have commenced 6/11 sections on the East North - South Expressway, from now until the end of the year, the Lo Te– RachSoi route will be put into use. Along with that, TrungLuong - My Thuan expressway was opened, completing phase I, upgrading runways of NoiBai and Tan Son Nhat international airports, completing ground clearance phase I, preparing for thecommencement of the project of Long Thanh international airport. Many infrastructure works in traffic, energy, irrigation, urban areas, industrial parks, information and communication, health care andeducation have been completed, put into use, creating more capacity competition for the economy.

Along with that, efforts of enterprises to find orders and expand the domestic market as well as export have affected industrial production. According to Nguyen ThiHuong, Director General of the General Statistics Office, industrial production, processing and manufacturing industry in September has prospered, opening hopes for the ability to recover and grow aain in the finalmonth of the year. Along with that, forecasts of processing and manufacturing enterprises about the situation in the last three months of the year have been more positive when up to 80.6% of enterprises rated the business trend would be stable and better.

According to the General Statistics Office, amid the Covid-19 pandemic andcomplexdevelopments in the world disrupting international trade, Vietnam's merchandise export activities still maintained a positive growth rate of 4% fromthe same period last year. The updated data of the General Department of Customs also shows Vietnam's export surplus reached a record number with more than 17 billion USD. Thanks to these positive signals, theeconomy has bottomed out in the second quarter and is recovering in a V-shape. Many international organisationsforecast that Vietnam's GDP this year could increase by 2.5-3%.

Practical support for businesses

With prosperity in the economic picture, besides the government's management efforts, enterprises' efforts to find new directions to withstand waves and have opportunities to develop post-Covid-19 is akey factor. Many Vietnamese businesses have difficulty, even many businesses have to stop working, but also in the storm, many companies have changed their strategies and succeeded beyond expectations.

Garment Company 10 is typical. According to Than Duc Viet, General Director of May 10, when traditional products were severely reduced by the Covid-19 pandemic, the leaders of this enterprise made an unprecedented decision to seek to expand orders with aswitch to medical protective products and medical masks. This boldness has brought unexpected results when in just two months, the revenue of the mask itself was equal to the total revenue of twomonths of the years before the pandemic.

In construction andreal estate, Alphanam Group is also a successful business. Recently, sharing the story of choosing to defend or attack when the Covid-19 pandemic caused economic activities to stagnate, arepresentative of this enterprise said that they chose option twoafter a lot of discussion. The ultimate goal at that time is to have revenue andto have jobs, so as not to reduce the employee's income.

Many experts believe enterprises are the driving force for the economy, the number one priority nowadays for growth is to help businesses survive this storm. The number of newly established enterprises is no longer so important, instead, it is necessary to make sure the enterprises that have been operating can withstand and survive difficulties to have a chance to recover after Covid-19.

To support businesses in accessing capital, the State Bank said to continue operating monetary policy proactively and flexibly, maintaining system liquidity, ensuring adequate and timely provision of credit capital for the economy, to support thedifficult enterprises due to the impact of the pandemic. Regarding supporting the economy, supporting businesses, at the newly held seminar, experts of the Institute of Economic and Policy Research said that the support should not be spread out, but there should be choices towardsbusinesses capable of developing in the future, in accordance with new development trends, directing support to professions, with technology andreal digital transformation development. It is necessary to minimisefiscal policies such as tax reduction because it causes a huge imbalance in the budget, at the same time it is not certain that all businesses deserve to support.

Along with the efforts of enterprises, new moves show that there will be prosperity for the economy from now to the end of the year as well as next year such as the calculation to resume commercial routes, the visit to Vietnam of Samsung Group Vice President recently promised to create a push to attract investment from large corporations, contributing to the picture of economic growth in 2020 with brighter colours.