HCMC – As the trajectory of the Covid-19 pandemic remains unpredictable, Vietnam’s economic expansion this year is projected to slow to 2%-2.5%, said Tran Tuan Anh, head of the Party Central Committee’s Economic Commission.
At the Industry 4.0 Summit 2021, Anh said the pandemic had heavily impacted all aspects of the global economy. The world average GDP fell 3.1% last year, the average income declined 6% and the number of jobs plunged by 100 million.
With the appearance of the heavily mutated Omicron variant of the coronavirus, the world’s GDP growth may lose 0.2%-0.4% next year, Anh said, adding that Vietnam had also felt the severe impact of the pandemic. Last quarter, its GDP fell 6.17%, the sharpest fall since the country calculated and announced the quarterly GDP, the local media reported.
He stressed the need for solutions to help the economy recover and develop after the pandemic and create driving forces in the long term to boost industrialization and modernization in line with the new situation and development demand.
Despite some achievements in the industrialization and modernization process, the post-pandemic socioeconomic recovery and development path has been bumpy.
Specifically, the growth model does not depend on science, technology and innovation; the local economy remains dependent on external factors, and domestic value and supply chains are not paid much attention.
In addition, industrial development has yet to meet the demand for industrialization and modernization and pursues short-term targets. Further, policies to develop industrial sectors have slowly been realized.
At the summit, Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Tran Quoc Phuong said a comprehensive program on socioeconomic recovery and development was vital.
He pointed out five solution groups for the program, including reopening the economy in association with fighting the pandemic; social welfare and job support; supporting enterprises, cooperatives and household businesses; developing infrastructure; and improving policies, administrative procedures and the business environment.
Speaking at the summit, HCMC Vice Chairman Vo Van Hoan also shared the city’s economic recovery plan with two phases. In 2022, the city will focus on dealing with the consequences of the pandemic, helping production recover, supporting enterprises and caring for local residents, while adapting safely to Covid.
In 2023 and the following years, the city will deploy solutions to remove obstacles to the city’s growth and improve the city’s strengths to develop the city into a finance, innovation, service and culture hub of the country and Southeast Asia.
The city is deploying seven main solutions, including restructuring industrial and export processing zones, encouraging enterprises to apply new technology, organizing the city’s economic forum on digital transformation in April 2022, effectively using land funds and supporting enterprises, especially small and medium ones.
