As Vietnam is stepping up public investment, should the country earmark a certain amount for green public investment? There are good lessons of other countries for Vietnam to learn from. The World Bank in its August 2023 update titled Making Public Investment Work for Growth touched the point regarding Vietnam’s economic growth. The country’s economic growth target of 6.5% for 2023 is seen far higher than the rate of 4.7% predicted by international institutions like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. To become a high middle-income country by 2030, Vietnam’s economic growth rate should average out at 7% annually in the 2021-2030 period, but the WB predicts Vietnam’s economic growth rate, though beginning to pick up next year, will only attain 5.5% in 2024 and 6% in 2025. Given the downbeat outlook for the global economy and numerous uncertainties, Vietnam has to rely on public investment for growth, which has long been a traditional pattern. Since 2000, Vietnam has followed the investment-led growth model. Data from the General Statistics Office show that in 2000-2010, the growth rate of investment capital was 40 times higher than the GDP growth rate. In the following decade, capital was still responsible for […]
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