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VN exports lead way in Asia
Viet Nam was exporting more than other regional nations during difficult economic times, said Martin Rama, lead economist with the World Bank, at a press briefing here yesterday, June 4.
The briefing was one of several activities for the Mid-Year Consultative Group meeting for Viet Nam in Buon Ma Thuot City in the Central Highland province of Dak Lak being next Monday and Tuesday. More than 500 participants are expected to attend.
The economist told reporters that in the first quarter of this year, Viet Nam had export growth of 7.4 per cent, while China’s exports fell 19.7 per cent, Thailand’s minus 23.2 per cent and Japan’s minus 60 per cent.
The construction industry strongly rebounded in the first quarter, with GDP growth of 6.9 per cent.
Its recovery resulted from the the Government’s stimulus package, Rama said.
He said there had been a more active urban labour market. The total number of job offers in April being much higher than in October last year, although the number of people seeking jobs was lower.
Rama said the Vietnamese Government had reacted even more quickly to the global slowdown than it did to the overheating in 2007, and that the first phase of the interest rate subsidy was a clever way to get credit flowing.
He said job losses were more common among seasonal workers and those on short-term contracts.
Despite the fact that most of the unemployed were from rural areas, a return to rural areas is relatively uncommon, as if the migration process was irreversible.
Difficult return
Those who did return seemed to face even more difficulties than generally acknowledged.
Victoria Kwakwa, Country Director of the World Bank, said the mid-term meeting would be a good chance for the Government and donors to meet directly.
She said: " The crisis was an opportunity for Viet Nam to restructure and reform," adding that Viet Nam had gained many achievements in the last 20 years and would continue to grow at a high rate.
The bank recommended that Viet Nam speed up ODA disbursements to support the stimulus package and shore up the balance of payments, as well as to strengthen the quality of banking supervision and the monitoring of international capital flows.
Kwakwa said Viet Nam should continue to reform its public sector and revitalise the equitisation of large enterprises and banks and improve the monitoring of social impacts through regular labour surveys.
She said Viet Nam had a very comprehensive agenda for fighting corruption, adding that the challenge was how to implement it.
She said the World Bank was willing to help Viet Nam on anti-corruption so that it could attract more foreign investors.
According to the bank, the meeting next week will discuss an assessment of the macro-economics situation, recent developments, growth forecasts and the social impacts of the economic slowdown and policy responses, with a focus on implementing the Anti-Corruption Strategy towards 2020, Climate Change: Adaptation and Mitigation, Progress on the Harmonisation Agenda and Aid Effectiveness.
VietNamNet, Viet Nam News
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