A range of stronger economic stimulus measures should be implemented moving into next year in an effort to recover the Vietnamese economy amid falling domestic and foreign demand caused by the impact of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Despite many forecasts anticipating  that the Vietnamese economy will grow by over 7% in 2021, there are still plenty of short and long-term difficulties. Indeed, even when the pandemic is contained both domestically and globally, without strong macroeconomic measures coupled with drastic steps in management, it will be a huge challenge to achieve the targets and plans set out by the Government and the National Assembly (NA).

Moving into 2021 and into the early years of the 2021 to 2025 period, the key task set by the Government will be to continue focusing on carrying out the dual goal of both effectively preventing the spread of the pandemic to protect people’s health, whilst also ensuring socio-economic development. This can be achieved by making efficient use of opportunities and efforts in an attempt to boost economic recovery.

During the 10th session of the 13th NA, the Government submitted to the legislature 12 major targets on economic, social, and environmental fields for the socio-economic development plan for 2021, with GDP set to grow by approximately 6% and the consumer price index (CPI) staying at 4% on average.

Furthermore, 15 main targets have been devised for the 2021 to 2025 period, of which the average GDP growth rate will be approximately 6.5% to 7%, with GDP per capita set to reach between US$4,700 and US$5,000 by 2025. In addition, the proportion of the digital economy will account for roughly 20% of GDP, labour productivity will represent an annual increase of over 6.5% on average, the number of trained workers by 2025 will be at 70%, and the rate of poor households according to multidimensional standards is expected to fall by between 1% to 1.5% annually.

In an effort to achieve these set targets, the Government has devised at least 10 main tasks and solutions, with a specific focus on seriously and effectively implementing measures aimed at preventing and minimising damage caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. This includes continuing to fine-tune socialist-oriented market economy institutions, maintaining macroeconomic stability, controlling inflation, and ensuring greater balances for the economy. This is along with promoting economic restructuring coupled with renewing the growth model, whilst also improving productivity, quality, efficiency, and competitiveness.

Furthermore, solutions will also focus on increasing mobilisation and effective utilising of resources, accelerating the implementation of key socio-economic infrastructure projects, and improving the overall quality and effective use of human resources associated with promoting innovation. The strong application and development of science and technology in order create a foundation for boosting socio-economic development will also be explored.

According to experts, 2021 is poised to represent a significant year which creates a good starting point and a strong foundation for the period 2021 to 2025. Therefore, it can be viewed as necessary to give priority to pooling resources in an effort to speed up development and exceed the planned tasks for this important year. Indeed, promoting public investment continues to be recommended as the number one priority among urgent solutions that can help economic recovery due to the COVID-19 pandemic remaining very complicated.

Dr. Nguyen Dinh Cung, former director of the Central Institute for Economic Management, underlined the necessity of immediately working out stronger, more specific, and substantive economic stimulus solutions to restore growth amid domestic and foreign demand decreasing due to the impact of COVID-19.

According to economic expert, Dr. Nguyen Minh Phong, it is imperative to intensify investment to improve the quality of human resources whilst promoting digital transformation both in the short term and in the long run. Despite numerous traditional markets being limited or even frozen due to the ongoing pandemic, it also presents opportunities for development in non-traditional fields, along with the effective application of Industry 4.0 technology by local enterprises.

Experts therefore underlined the need to outline solutions aimed at helping to provide information regarding advantageous import and export markets, especially those which have signed new generation free trade agreements with the nation. This can be done as a means of making the most of opportunities and enjoying greater international economic integration.

Moreover, special importance should be placed on the domestic market, considering this to be a basic solution that ensures essential production, supply and consumption activities towards better sustainable development amid increasingly fierce competition, they emphasized.