Step up green economy transition for 2024 GDP target, conference told

The conference was hosted by the VNU University of Economics and Business (UEB) in Hanoi to launch the Vietnam Annual Economic Report 2024.

If public spending meets its targets and foreign direct investment does not see any unusual developments in the second half this year, researchers project a baseline gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 5.85 per cent this year and inflation at 4.5 per cent, with the possibility of a devaluation of the Vietnamese dong of around 5-6 per cent.

If economic policies are altered, exports remain robust and there is a rise in public investment spending, the GDP growth is expected to hit 6.01 per cent, the conference was told.

Nguyen Quoc Viet, deputy director of the UEB’s Vietnam Institute for Economics and Policy Research (VEPR) said that over the short term, the focus should continue to be on fiscal policy to stimulate demand, especially speeding up the disbursement of public investment in the remaining months.

The policy of 2-per cent reduction of value added tax should be extended to the end of the year and possibly even to June 2025, together with bigger reduction to promote consumption, he was cited as saying by a domestic news agency.

It is also necessary to develop more credit packages to encourage investments in sustainable production and business, accelerate digital transformation, promote science and technology application, he added.

VNU-UEB’s vice rector Nguyen Anh Thu said in the long term, Vietnam must improve its national digital transformation strategy and accelerate factors which create real added value for the digital economy such as in the software industries and in e-commerce and innovation.

Investing in renewable energy to reduce the dependence of fossil fuels becomes vital and enterprises should cooperate to share renewable energy infrastructures, the researchers added.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)