ASEAN member state Vietnam targets to have its gross domestic product (GDP) rise by an annual average rate of 7 percent between 2021 and 2025, despite the current global economic challenges amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the government said on its portal on 14 April.
The country’s prime minister directed all government agencies, state companies and centrally-run economies and cities to work for the five-year social-economic development plan that aims to achieve economic growth of 7 percent in each of the years between 2021 and 2025.
Vietnam’s Government will work to promote comprehensive digital transformation, develop a digital economy, and create Vietnamese digital enterprises with global competitiveness. The ASEAN nation also aims to improve its environment for doing business and promote start-ups and innovation. Vietnam will be looking to expand its export and import markets and diversify its trade in goods.
Vietnam’s economy grew by 7.02 percent in 2019, exceeding the government target and posting a second consecutive year of growth of over 7 percent, the country’s General Statistics Office said at the end of December 2019. Vietnam’s National Assembly had targeted the ASEAN member state’s GDP growth at between 6.6 percent and 6.8 percent in 2019.
This year, Vietnam had targeted economic growth of 6.8 percent, but due to supply chain disruptions due to the coronavirus outbreak, the government has recently warned that growth could slow to 5.96 percent, according to Dezan Shira & Associates’ Vietnam Briefing.
Vietnam’s government has introduced incentives for businesses that have been affected by the pandemic. These include tax breaks and deferred payments of taxes for firms hit by COVID-19.