Vietnam, fastest growing Southeast Asian economy in 2005: UN (31/3)
06/08/2010 - 268 Lượt xem
A regional socio-economic survey, released Thursday, showed industrial production, the country’s economic driver, grew by 10.6 percent, with fertilizers, automobiles, machinery, and coal registering massive growths.
The service sector witnessed a growth of 8.4 percent while agricultural production increased by 4 percent.
Exports rose around 20 percent because of the runaway oil prices and imports 22.5 percent on burgeoning local demand for various commodities, the report revealed.
The government’s massive efforts to draw foreign direct investment paid off, with FDI, at over US$3 billion, increasing by 14.5 percent over 2004.
Vietnam’s appeal as an investment destination was also revealed by the roaring success of its first sovereign bond issue worth $750 million last October.
The report added the government recorded enormous achievements in making education, heath care, and clean water accessible to people in rural areas.
Though inflation hit 8.4 percent last year, past the 8 percent target set by the government, due to severe droughts, bird flu, and higher import tariffs, the central bank managed to ward off its impact with its tight money policy among other measures, ESCAP commented.
As a result, the current account deficit to GDP was contained at 0.9 percent compared to 2 percent the previous year.
However, ESCAP forecast growth to edge down this year owing to more bird flu threats and fierce competition from China in textile and garment exports.
Bird flu, which has claimed over 100 lives in several countries since 2003, would pose the most serious risk, with expenses to curb its spread estimated at 0.1 percent of GDP so far.
ESCAP, the largest of the UN’s five regional commissions, mainly aims to promote economic activity and social progress in developing countries in the Asian Pacific region.
Source: VNA, Thanh Nien
