Dr Tran Dinh Thien, director of the Vietnam Institute of Economics (VIE), said growth in 2014 was characterised by expansion in one quarter higher than the previous three months but overall growth was much below the average during the 1990-2010 period.
Dr Thien said Vietnam’s export market is diversified while its import market is too restricted, with 29% of its foreign purchases coming from China.
In addition, export values of foreign enterprises account for more than two thirds of Vietnam’s total exports, said Dr Thien, adding that the foreign sector posted a high trade surplus while the domestic sector remained in deficit.
He also pointed out that farming technology in Vietnam lags far behind the average level of the world.
The VIE director also expressed his concerns over bad debt in the banking system, saying that the amount of debt recovered by the Vietnam Asset Management Company (VMAC) is rather small.
He said the VAMC’s current method of addressing bad debt is unreliable and not based on market principles.
Dr Le Dinh An, former director of the National Centre for Socio-economic Information and Forecast, warned that there are many challenges ahead that could bring Vietnam’s economy back to slow growth.
He said the competitiveness of domestic enterprises is very weak with poor governance, lower productivity and poorer labour skills compared with many countries in the region and the world.
He suggested the government continue to tighten its fiscal policy, perfect economic laws and improve the business environment while focusing on developing agriculture and accelerating State-owned enterprise reforms.
