The Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM) recently organised a seminar to announce the macroeconomic report in the third quarter of 2014, which was sponsored by the Restructuring for a more Competitive Vietnam (RCV) Project. Accordingly, in 2015, the economic situation of Vietnam shows a positive trend with the GDP growth rate of 6.2 percent.
At the workshop, Nguyen Dinh Cung, Director of the Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM), said that before the workshop took place, he had received a complaint from a business representative. The complaint is related to the the current solution that focuses too much on the restructuring rather than supports for businesses, which negatively affect the business operation. However, from the economist’s perspective and strong experiences in the restructuring, Dr Cung said that increasing demand is not a good way to support businesses; businesses would rather need a favourable mechanism in which they could reduce their own costs and risks and this environment is a good foundation for the businesses to access and exploit the opportunity.
According Dr Cung, the current policies aim to not only current businesses but also potential businesses that will greatly contribute to the economy. Therefore, if the policies are focused only on a group of enterprises, it is likely that the economy of Vietnam will fail because the economy relies on the group of businesses who have not highlighted their contribution and roles to the sustainable development of the economy. Also, this will be put under the risks in the short-term, which prevent Vietnam to reach the targeted GDP of 6.2 percent and the total social investment of 30-32 percent of the GDP by 2015 as projected by the National Assembly.
According to the analysis of Dr Nguyen Dinh Cung, Vietnam should further stabilise the macro- economy at less than 5 percent. Besides, other policies will be focused on the implementation of fiscal and monetary policy, associated with the tightening of the state budget and easing of the currency and more importantly, the improvement of the efficiency of investment projects. The focus of the policies should be on improving the quality of the supply side: through reduction of the risks and costs, increase of the freedom and security of the businesses rather than doing too much to increase the aggregate demand through the fiscal measures and currency. The role of the government and the market should be defined clearly. Through the recent reforms such as the amended laws including the Enterprises Law, Investment Law, and Resolution 19/ NQ-CP dated 18/03/2014 and other licenses like the business licenses and export permits, the government has laid a good foundation to help Vietnam complete the tasks of the restructuring of the economy and creating the incentives to develop the business community.
Dau Anh Tuan, Director of Legal Department of Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), said that according to the statistics, the number of the private businesses that have been closed temporarily in October, 2014 are increased by 57 percent compared with the previous month. Thus, Vietnam should create more incentives to support the business community. When the consensus is high, the removal of the ceiling advertising costs has been passed by the Ministry of Finance.
According to Tuan, the policy makers should have business mindset to create the best conditions for them. He suggested 2015 should be the year of the businesses.
In response to this report, Dr Le Dang Doanh said that a report should further focus on analysing the budget deficit, public debt, overspending and other issues that affect directly to the health of the economy of Vietnam such as credit, bad debt, and collateral. In addition, Dr Doanh also gave some concerns about the quality of the supervision and management of the banking system and proposed the amendment of the legal system relating to the transparency of the credit institutions.
Economic expert Pham Chi Lan gave concerns about the process of the economic reform in Vietnam by citing the progress and equitization of the state-owned enterprises and the ways to create a level playing field between the economic sectors. There should be more conditions for the development of the private sector.
Prof Dr Nguyen Quang Thai said that the most important thing is that Vietnam needs to restructure the business community because they are the key economic drivers. However, to do this, Vietnam should have new governance mindset.
Anh Phuong
Đăng ký: VietNam News
