Economic restructuring project set to solidify Vietnam's financial security

The plan covers a targeted yearly growth of 7-8% and includes creating room for more private businesses to develop.

A news release by the State Bank of Vietnam reports that the draft economic restructuring project for Vietnam covers the country's most advantaged sectors like rice, coffee, cashew nuts, garments among others, said Dr. Nguyen Dinh Cung, Deputy Director of the Central Institute for Economic Management.

These spearhead sectors have been selected as scattered investment has been criticized without encouraging the development of highly competitive products.

It is widely recognized that these sectors are experiencing rapid development and has been highly competitive in recent years, he said. The problem is that the deployment of sectoral planning schemes must be carried out by all businesses, not by one.

He said economic restructuring will be driven by reallocating resources instead of consuming more resources.

Economic restructuring means creating room for private businesses to develop, downsizing the number of State-owned enterprises, and creating a more equal business environment.

Minister of Planning and Investment Bui Quang Vinh recently said that the project set four key goals: raising the competitiveness of the economy to ensure average growth of 7-8% per year, maintaining economic stability and national financial security, establishing a suitable development mechanism among sectors and localities, and replacing low-tech industries with high-tech and value-added alternatives.

He said to restructure the financial markets, including credit control and the stock market, the project planned to focus on controlling inflation and managing monetary policies based on market tools. These included decreasing dependence on the US dollar, gold and other foreign currencies as settlement methods in the domestic market, and implementing flexible exchange rate policies.

Regarding restructuring investment, especially public investment, Minister Vinh said the project planned to clearly define priority fields which would receive public investment, including infrastructure, human resources, health services and social securities, while raising productivity and quality of the agricultural sector.

Under the project, public investment would not be spent on private sector interests such as trading services, hotels, restaurants and real estate. The Law on Public Investment Management, a decree on medium-term investment management and a plan on medium-term investment management in the period of 2013-2015 would also be drafted and implemented.

In terms of restructuring enterprises, especially state-owned ones, Minister Vinh said the enterprises or groups in which the State was the majority shareholder must redefine business plans to focus on investing in technology and management.