To reach this year’s GDP growth target of 6.5%, economic expansion in the second half of 2023 must stand at around 9%, which requires harmonious and close coordination among the Government, ministries, sectors, and localities to maximise resources and seize every opportunity, experts have said.

Vietnam posted a GDP growth rate of 3.72% in H1, only higher than that in the same period of 2020 (1.74%) since 2011.

The economy improved in July thanks to vibrant trading activities and services and positive signs from foreign investment attraction. In particular, bottlenecks facing businesses are being gradually removed.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh has ordered that in the rest of the year, priority must be given to tackling production and business obstacles, fostering growth, creating jobs, ensuring livelihoods for people, stabilising the macro-economy, controlling inflation, and guaranteeing social security.

He also demanded accelerating the disbursement of soft loan packages for social housing development and the wood and fisheries industries. While the Ministry of Finance was told to step up refunding the value added tax (VAT) and address problems in the corporate bond market, the Ministry of Transport was asked to manage to start work on a terminal of Long Thanh International Airport in August.

To take timely solutions to difficulties and grasp chances to obtain the best possible socioeconomic results in the remaining months, a representative of the General Statistics Office held that it is necessary to keep a close watch on and stay updated with changes in the world situation, including the fiscal and monetary policies of big economies and major trading and investment partners of Vietnam.

The official also pointed out the need to firmly maintain macro-economic stability and adopt a proactive, flexible, and effective monetary policy that is closely and harmoniously combined with the fiscal policy and other macro-economic ones.

Economist Nguyen Bich Lam held that to reach the growth target, the planning and investment sector should constantly update growth and inflation scenarios to ensure responsiveness to any circumstances, quickly and effectively carry out the fiscal and monetary policies approved by the National Assembly, and foster domestic production and consumption, especially the supply of input materials.

Other experts said to continue giving a “breath of fresh air” to enterprises, the most important thing is to always provide optimal conditions for them so that they can further improve their competitiveness, make use of economic growth chances, and attract investment.

To do so, ministries and competent agencies should pay more attention to simplifying and boosting the transparency of administrative procedures, maintain policy stability, solve contradictory or overlapping legal rules, and hold productive dialogues with enterprises, said Nguyen Minh Thao, head of the board for business environment and competitiveness studies at the Central Institute for Economic Management.

Accelerating public investment disbursement is also among the measures promoted by the Government to bolster growth. The Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) has urged other ministries, sectors, and localities to take stronger actions in this regard, an MPI official noted.

To achieve the best possible result, every opportunity must be tapped into. In addition, enterprises should also fulfill every order, big or small, to gradually recover, according to MPI Deputy Minister Tran Quoc Phuong.

In terms of export and consumption – two other growth drivers, the Ministry of Industry and Trade will further step up supporting enterprises to make use of preferential treatment under free trade agreements to boost export and stimulate domestic consumption.

Meanwhile, Acting Director General of the General Department of Taxation Mai Xuan Thanh said to refund VAT as ordered by the PM and the Finance Minister, the general department has directed taxation agencies nationwide and set up check teams to hasten the refunding.

As a result, over 71.82 trillion VND (3 billion USD) in VAT was refunded in the first seven months of 2023, giving enterprises more capital for their production and business activities, he added./.