The country's per capita income in 2020 was estimated at $2,750, nearly 1.3 times higher than the $2,109 in 2015.

Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Tran Quoc Phuong said at a meeting Tuesday that in the next five years, the country should focus investment on key sectors and projects of national importance, especially in infrastructure, transportation, energy, digital transformation, science and technology development and innovation.

By 2025, Vietnam is expected to complete major projects such as the entire North-South Expressway and the first phase of Long Thanh International Airport in the southern province of Dong Nai, which is expected to help reduce current overload on the Tan Son Nhat Airport in HCMC.

In major cities, the ministry wants investment focused on speeding up urban railway projects in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, ring roads and waste treatment projects.

'Very different'

Phung Quoc Hien, Deputy Chairman of the National Assembly, said at the meeting the 2021-2025 period "would be very different" from the past five years. In particular, 2021 will be more difficult because the Covid-19 pandemic crisis is unlikely to bend before mid-2021, he added.

Hien also asked the ministry to remove bottlenecks and speed up delayed projects in the power, aviation and railway sectors, as also the 11 North-South Expressway sections.

Last year, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc had expressed his hope Vietnam would become a high-income country by 2045. Vietnam could soon climb onto the upper-middle income classification with Gross National Income (GNI) per capita at $3,996-$12,375, Phuc said. This group includes China, Malaysia, Mexico, South Africa and Thailand.

HCMC Party chief Nguyen Thien Nhan had said at a recent meeting that the southern metropolis, the largest in Vietnam and the country's major economic driver, targets becoming an economic and financial hub in Asia by 2045 with income per capita increasing to $40,000.