Gov't succeeds in stabilizing macroeconomy, says foreign diplomat
VGP – The Vietnamese Government has succeeded in maintaining macroeconomy and diversifying its export markets as well as export products, Mr. Franz Jessen, Ambassador of EU Delegation to Viet Nam told our reporter recently.
The past year, in particular the recent months, have witnessed some upheavals in the international area and markets. The plummet of the world oil prices, the weakening of quite a few international currencies against the greenback and some complex geo-political developments pose considerable challenges to emerging economies like Viet Nam, according to the Ambassador.
Despite these challenges, Viet Nam’s economy managed to grow by more than 6%, its export revenues continued to rise by more than 8%, the country's forex reserves increased an additional US$1.7 billion, and the inflation was curbed under 1%, he said.
From January to April, the country’s State budget collections grew by more than 9% year-on-year and achieved 34% of the annual target.
The significantly declined collections from export of crude oil (a year-on-year decrease of 30%) triggered by the tumbling world prices were offset by the improvement of the revenues from exports of agro products and labor-intensive goods. Viet Nam in deed has successfully diversified its export markets as well as its export products, which are crucially important to minimizing any possible reverse impacts, the Ambassador highlighted.
In the context of weakened international currencies against the US dollars, it is understandable that the State Bank of Viet Nam decided to adjust the exchange rate for two times since the beginning of the year. This move has helped improve the competitiveness of Vietnamese exports in the international market.
In particular, the Vietnamese Government has been pursuing bold and decisive policies of trade liberalization and economic integration. This by all means helps generate further economic growth and create jobs for the young dynamic labor force. More than 19,000 new enterprises were set up in the first quarter and these dynamic SMEs help create 260,000 jobs. This is incredible performance, Ambassador Franz Jessen noted .
Regarding the Viet Nam-EU relations, Mr. Franz Jessen said the bilateral trade ties have gone from strength to strength in tandem with Viet Nam’s regional and global economic integration.
The EU has been one of the biggest markets for many key Vietnamese products and one of the most important overseas markets for Viet Nam for many years. In the first quarter this year, the EU continued to be the biggest overseas market of Viet Nam, purchasing as much as 19% of the country’s global exports.
Most importantly, bilateral trade with the EU always brings surplus to Viet Nam. He believed that this tendency of trade will continue this year and the coming years.
The past decade has witnessed a robust growth of Viet Nam's exports to the EU, averaged at 15-17% per year, while Viet Nam's imports of the EU goods and services have also increased significantly, annualized at 5-7%. A simple comparison indicates that EU-Viet Nam two-way trade has risen nearly six-fold from around USD6.5 billion in 2000 to USD 36.8 billion in 2014.
Ambassador Franz Jessen expressed his belief that the conclusion of the Viet Nam-EU free trade agreement, hopefully by the end of this year, will certainly bring more opportunities of wealthy and growth to the economy and people of Viet Nam./.
By Hai Minh
