By Mong Binh - The Saigon Times Daily
HCMC - Vietnam is taking full use of its advantages to develop both domestic and export markets as a measure to back its stable economic growth, though some experts have called for the country not to be dependent too much on exports.
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung underscored the point at the “How Will Asia Lead?” session, as part of the opening day of the 19th World Economic Forum on East Asia in 2010 in HCMC on Monday.
The prime minister said Vietnam was now the world’s second largest exporter of rice, but this did not mean the country was totally dependent on export markets. On the contrary, the country is contributing to the world economy, especially in terms of food security.
“Each country can count on its advantages and ability to develop the domestic market in harmony with its export markets,” Dung said.
He said sustainable and strong growth would support an increase in purchasing power in the Vietnamese market, whose population will reach 100 million from the current 87 million.
Dung said Vietnam’s gross domestic product grew more than 5.3% last year and was projected to beat 6.5% this year. The average rate for the 2011-2020 will be 7-8%. “This is an important factor for domestic market expansion.”
Dung said domestic market expansion together with an appropriate strategy to widen export markets would help a country in particularly and Asia as a whole to grow in a sustainable manner.
He said Asia was a crucial pillar of the world economy and resilient to the impact of the global economic recession. However, he urged the region to step up restructuring for sustainable development.
Asked about how Asia is regarded as one of the drivers for the world economy at the opening press conference for East Asia Summit, Frans W. Muller, Co-chair of the World Economic Forum on East Asia 2010, said there were a number of factors.
As population in Asia was growing much faster than other parts of the world, Muller said the purchasing power would be very bright in the coming years besides huge production capacity and high economic growth.
The influence of countries like China and India, and the growing sustainability of Vietnam would increase, the Germany-based Metro’s board member responded to the Daily’s question about Asia’s contribution to the world economy.
Andrei L. Kostin, Co-chair of the WEF on East Asia, said there had been an important change in the region. About 10-20 years ago, Asia basically produced export goods for Europe and America, but now also for domestic consumption.
“This is a key element to the fact that we mentioned about the driving force of Asia for the world economy,” said Kostin, who is Chairman and CEO of VTB Bank of Russia.