2017 - A special year

Nguyen Xuan Phuc said that so far the Vietnamese economy has developed vigorously in almost allfields.All 13 economic preset goals were fulfilled, contributing to developing the exciting business and investment environment and consolidating people's confidence.

Noticeably, GDP growth pace hit 6.7%, the highest rate over the last ten years. Macro-economic performance was stabilized. Inflation rate was put under control; export surged sharply; industrial production recovered remarkably. The number of newly-founded businesses was projected at 120,000 with a total value of newly-registered and additional capital of over VND 3 trillion. Meanwhile, 25,000 businesses resumed operation.

The FDI sector made significant contribution to socio-economic performance. The amount of FDI registered capitalset a new record of over US$ 35 billion. FDI disbursement hit US$ 17.5 billion, the highest figure over the last ten years.

The business environment and national competitiveness index improved remarkably. According to the World Bank (WB)'s Doing Business 2018 report, Viet Nam ranked 68th among 190 economies, jumping 14 steps against 2017 and 30 notches against 2012. The World Economic Forum (WEF) also ranked Viet Nam 55th overall, up five places from 2016.

Earlier, the Global Innovation Index 2017 (GII 2017) of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) ranked Viet Nam 59th out of 128 countries, jumping 12 notches. This was the highest performance Viet Nam has attained.

Moody's Investors Service ("Moody's") also changed the outlook on Viet Nam's ratings to positive from stable.

As of late November, VN-Index and HNX-Index leaped 42.87% and 42.19%, respectively.

The socio-political performance was stable. Diplomatic work and international integration were promoted especially the successful hosting of APEC 2017.

In the long term, the economic restructuring and transformation of the growth model churned out initial outcomes, gradually reducing heavy reliance in natural resource exploitation especially fuel.

In 2017, the Government drastically handled 12 seriously weak projects.

According to PM Phuc, the fulfillment of the 13 preset goals was a success of the economy especially in the context that the economy is shifting the growth model towards the processing and manufacturing sector and high-tech farming.

Earlier, as the GDP growth rate in Q1 was low, the Government determined to stick with the preset goals;build development scenarios for every sector and field in every quarter. The Government tasked all levels and sectors to take specific measures to develop agriculture, processing and manufacturing industries, service, and tourism.

(Source: VGP)