MPI lynchpin for growth

The MPI will lead the way in lifting the nation’s economic growth performance

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung directly delegated these tasks to the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) at this year’s final review of the nation’s planning and investment sector last week in Hanoi.
“Although we forecast to achieve an 8.2 per cent GDP growth this year, it [GDP growth] is still falling short of our actual capacity.”
“This year, in the context of Vietnam’s membership in the World Trade Organization, the planning and investment sector must properly address the issues of mobilising stably and using increased domestic and foreign investment sources effectively for the nation’s faster socio-economic growth,” Dung told planning and investment specialists of various governmental agencies in cities and provinces who attended the review meeting.
He stressed that the tasks would be successfully implemented only by practicing the new Investment Law, Enterprise Law and Procurement Law, which decentralises power to cities and provinces, making full use of local capacity to draw increased investment capital from both domestic and foreign sources for better socio-economic performance.
MPI Minister Vo Hong Phuc said that realised investment capital in each city and province would be one of the most important criteria for determining local competitiveness in bidding to win investors.
Phuc also told meeting participants that 2007 would be an important milestone for Vietnam to fulfill the nation’s five-year socio-economic development plan 2006-2010.
“The National Assembly has approved the 2007 GDP growth targets between 8.2 per cent and 8.5 per cent, and we are striving to mobilise all resources to ensure the 8.5 per cent GDP growth [target] will be reached next year,” said Phuc.
In 2006, Vietnam mobilised foreign resources including an estimated $1.8 billion of disbursed official development assistance (ODA) funds and $4.1 billion of implemented foreign direct investment capital.
“The international donor community appreciates the Vietnamese government’s continual efforts to turn the nation’s five-year socio-economic plan into a reality. We are expecting international donors to give higher committed ODA funds for Vietnam in 2007 than the figures of $3.7 billion committed in 2006 as a result of recent inter-prime ministerial meetings,” Phuc said.
For the first time, Prime Minister Dung will have direct dialogue with international donors at the Consultative Goup (CG) Meeting scheduled next week in Hanoi. The major working agenda of the final CG meeting this year will be reviewing and implementing donors’ assistance programs to Vietnam’s five-year socio-economic development plan.



No. 790/December 4-10, 2006