Vietnam has failed to reap expected benefits from joining the World
Trade Organisation and has in fact seen slower growth since, experts say.
Their assessment was made at
conference held earlier this week by the Central Institute for Economic
Management (CIEM) to review the nation's socio-economic situation five years
after joining the WTO.
During the 2007-2011 five-year
period since it joined the WTO, the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
stood at 6.5 per cent, down 1.3 percentage points over the 2002-2006 period,
the conference heard.
Delegates agreed that after it
gained WTO admission, the country had come under strong pressure caused by
tough competition with foreign companies in both the domestic and world
markets.
They said that some companies
operating in the insurance and distribution sectors had lost their shares in
the domestic market.
During the post-WTO admission
period, the service sector grew by just 0.1 percentage points to 7.5 per cent.
Pham Lan Huong, a CIEM expert,
said that the service sector was not strongly affected because it had not been
completely opened up to foreign investment.
Moreover, world recession has
prevented foreign firms from investing in Viet Nam's service sector, she said.
The industry and construction
sectors had also failed to reach growth targets. They were expected to grow by
9.5-10.2 per cent per year, but the actual rate was seven per cent, Huong said,
adding that the average growth rate of the sectors in 2002-06 was 10.2 per
cent.
Experts attributed this slow
growth to strong competition from foreign companies and weak domestic
production in terms of quality and efficiency.
Huong affirmed that the highest
growth during the 2007-2011 period was recorded by the
agriculture-fisheries-forestry sector.
She said average growth of this
sector during this period was 3.4 per cent per year, 0.4 percentage points
above expectations.
Overall investments during the
post-WTO period grew by 8.3 per cent as against 13.4 per cent in the previous
five years.
As expected, foreign-direct-investments
(FDI) in Viet Nam increased after it joined the WTO, with the number of FDI
projects increasing 1.5 times and the registered capital up by 5.1 times over
the 2002-06 period.
To reach higher growth in the
coming time, experts said it was necessary to further perfect the investment
environment and improve competitiveness by using modern technologies.
Co-operating with
foreign-invested companies to join regional distribution systems was another
recommendation made at the conference.
Dinh Thu Hang, another CIEM
expert, said Viet Nam would continue to face challenges and slow growth in the
coming months.
She said the Government needs to
adjust import-export policies towards increasing the quality of exported goods
and limiting the export of raw materials. She stressed the need to find big
import partners that can help stabilise exports.
Other experts at the conference
spoke of the need to restructure Vietnam's retail sector, ensuring greater
transparency as well as creating conditions for domestic firms to increase
their competitiveness.
VNS
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