Russian experts optimistic about Vietnamese economic outlook

Vietnam’s capacity to build long-term strategies is key for the country’s economic growth despite unprecedented difficulties brought by COVID-19 pandemic, according to Acting Director of the Far East Institute at the Russian Academy of Sciences Prof. Dr. Aleksey Maslov.

Vietnamese army's chemical division disinfects the Hanoi-based National Hospital for Tropical Diseases -  one of the COVID-19 hot spot

Commenting on the economic situation of Vietnam, Maslov noted Vietnam's impressive success in 2020 with growth of 2.91 percent. Particularly, Vietnam is a model of effective response to COVID-19, he added.

He underlined that despite the country’s not very large economic scale, Vietnam has posted consecutive high growth in recent years (6.81 percent in 2017, 7.08 percent in 2018, and 7.02 percent in 2019). Even in 2020 amid great challenges, growth was seen in the production of major export products as well as major sectors.

Maslov noted that the most important development was seen in external trade with a record trade surplus of 19.1 billion USD, continuing the trend of trade surplus for five years in a row.

The Russian expert held that the signing of free trade agreements (FTA), including the EU-Vietnam FTA (EVFTA) has brought about positive outcomes, citing that last year, Vietnam’s exports to the EU hit 43.8 billion USD.

 Meanwhile, Prof. Dr. Ruslan Kotiuk from Russia’s Saint Petersburg State University has affirmed that “Doi Moi” (Renewal) is the foundation for Vietnam’s success in his recent article.

He held that the success lesson of Vietnam is rooted in its “Doi Moi” policy that was launched in the 1980s, which has resulted in a sharp fall in the ratio of poverty and a considerable rise in people’s life expectancy to 75.5.

The Vietnamese economy is opening broader to the world through years, he noted, adding that with dynamic external trade, effective monetary policies and active fiscal policies in combination with expanding domestic consumption, the Vietnamese Government has succeeded in macro-economic management.

He lauded the Vietnamese Government’s serious attention to social projects, including a scheme to reduce unemployment as well as programmes benefiting people in border, remote and ethnic-minority-inhabited areas.

He asserted that the COVID-19 prevention and control campaign of Vietnam was effective in 2020 and has been promoted this year. Besides dealing with new waves of outbreaks, the Vietnamese Government has actively sped up vaccine research and sought outside vaccine sources, including Sputnik-V from Russia.

The expert said though the new wave of COVID-19 outbreaks will put negative impacts on society, he believes that Vietnam will show flexible response, and maintain the growth trend in 2021./.

VNA