In the context of GDP in the first 6 months of 2026 increasing by 8.18%, according to you, what are the important drivers that can help Vietnam promote growth in the last 6 months of the year?
- In the first 6 months of the year, GDP increased by 8.18%. However, in my opinion, it is not necessary to be too burdened with the 10% growth target this year. The reason is that we are aiming for the goal of maintaining double-digit growth in about one to two decades. The first years are to create a solid foundation for the following years to accelerate.
The driving force for growth comes first of all from infrastructure investment and promoting public investment disbursement. The projects being implemented will create more jobs, expand business opportunities for construction and infrastructure businesses and contribute to promoting growth in the short term.
The second is the ongoing global supply chain restructuring process, creating opportunities for Vietnam to attract more foreign direct investment (FDI). It is expected that FDI projects will continue to be disbursed, thereby contributing to growth.
Another driving force comes from the business sector. The policy of transparentizing household business activities and exempting and reducing income tax for 3 years for newly established businesses will encourage the transformation into businesses, creating a more equal business environment. Thereby, businesses have more motivation to expand investment, production, create jobs, increase income and promote consumption. To be effective, it is necessary to expand credit channels to support investment and production and business.
Besides the growth drivers that you have just analyzed, in your opinion, from now until the end of the year, what are the difficulties and barriers that need to be removed to promote growth?
- First of all, it must be seen that the world context is still unstable. Conflicts in the Middle East are still difficult to predict, protectionism is increasing, causing supply chains, input factors and markets to all pose many risks.
Domestically, the biggest barrier today is that we have not yet built a truly sustainable production and business ecosystem. Here, ecosystem means creating synergy between domestic and foreign businesses, and at the same time orienting capital flows into production. If we can do that, businesses will boldly invest, expand production and business, and growth will come in a sustainable way.
Another issue is that current capital flows are still flowing heavily into speculative sectors such as real estate, finance, and securities. What needs to be done is to create conditions for capital flows to strongly shift to investment in production and business. To do so, it is necessary to create an ecosystem and investment opportunities that are attractive enough.
Regarding attracting foreign investment, Vietnam has an advantage as the global supply chain continues to shift, which is an opportunity for Vietnam to attract more investment capital. However, opportunities are there but competition is also very high. In addition, it is necessary to continue to expand investment support policies. Currently, businesses have investment needs but capital costs are still very high.
If you have to make the most important recommendation in the last 6 months of the year to create a foundation for growth, what solutions do you think will be?
- First, continue to improve the business environment in a substantive way. It is necessary to strongly shift from pre-inspection to post-inspection, and at the same time cut unnecessary business conditions. The important thing is to create conditions for businesses to feel that investing capital, entering the market or withdrawing from the market are both favorable. Then, new capital will boldly flow into production and business. This is a solution that can be implemented immediately.
Second, reduce capital costs, especially loan interest costs. In my opinion, it is possible to assign appropriate profit targets to state-owned banks, focusing on controlling costs well instead of focusing heavily on profits. Then, lending interest rates will decrease.
Third, it is necessary to increase connectivity between domestic enterprises and FDI enterprises to form a production ecosystem. FDI attraction should prioritize industries with spillover effects, creating jobs and promoting domestic enterprises to participate in the supply chain. At the same time, it is necessary to encourage FDI enterprises to link with domestic enterprises and support domestic enterprises to produce products to supply to the FDI sector.
Public investment is an inevitable task, but accelerating disbursement is not simple due to the adjustment of many regulations and strict requirements on budget use responsibility. In the long term, it is necessary to reform procedures, improve planning, prioritize feasible projects and promote public-private partnerships.
- Thank you!
