The results of Vietnam’s economic recovery and growth are very encouraging. Many FDI projects are “pouring” billions of dollars of capital into Vietnam, which is a good sign in the “transformation” step of the current economy.
This comment was made by Prof. Dr. Nguyen Mai, Chairman of the Association of Foreign Investment Enterprises, said in an interview with the Government Electronic Newspaper.
Prosperous and promising
Firstly, in terms of growth results, the National Assembly decided that the GDP growth target of 2022 in 2022 is at 6-6.5%, however, the socio-economic situation in the first 6 months of the year prospered in most industries and fields. sector, especially GDP reached an impressive level – 7.72%, the highest in more than a decade.
Prof. Dr. Nguyen Mai, Chairman of Foreign Investment Business Association
In its Global Outlook report for the third quarter of 2022, Singapore-based United Overseas Bank (UOB) revised its 2022 GDP growth forecast for Vietnam from 6.5% to 7.0%. This forecast comes with the assumption that there will be no further disruptions due to COVID-19 and that GDP growth for the second half of the year is around 7.6-7.8%.
Based on the strong growth rate in the second quarter, VinaCapital also raised Vietnam’s GDP growth forecast in 2022 from 6.5% to 7.5%. Even with positive signals from the macro economy, VinaCapital believes that Vietnam’s GDP is likely to increase by more than 7.5% this year. Moreover, GDP growth in the third quarter is likely to exceed 10% year-on-year in 2021.
Mr. Michael Kokalari, Chief Economist of VinaCapital also expressed his belief that GDP in the third quarter of 10% compared to the same period last year will be an important catalyst for investors to pour money into Vietnam’s stock market.
Second, Prof. Dr. Nguyen Mai analyzed that the implementation of new free trade agreements, for example, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) took effect from the beginning of this year. will create important conditions for attracting investment of higher quality and better efficiency.
Third, a series of “billion-dollar projects” are also bright spots, creating “rebound” for the economy. For example, Ho Chi Minh City proposed a ‘super project’ of an international transshipment port of 6 billion USD in Can Gio, co-operated by Vietnam Maritime Corporation (VIMC) with Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) – the airline. The world’s leading container ship research and construction. According to the investor’s proposal, Can Gio international container transshipment port project has a designed capacity of 10-15 million TEUs, capable of receiving the world’s largest container ship of 24,000 TEUs, with a total dimension of 24,000 TEUs. The main wharf is about 7.2 km long.
Besides, at the Danang Investment Forum 2022 taking place at the end of June, the Port Development Corporation of Adani Group (India’s largest infrastructure group) pledged to support and invest 2 billion USD to develop Lien Chieu port together with the entire logistics area and industrial park in Da Nang, turning this area into an economic gateway of the Central region.
Along with that is a series of large investment projects in the field of clean energy of the US and Germany; or Liquefied Natural Gas Power Plant Project Delta Offshore Energy Pte. Ltd (Singapore) with a total investment of about 4 billion USD.
“Thus, in the near future, we will have many big projects implemented. In 2022, Vietnam is likely to attract about 40 billion USD of registered FDI capital and 21-22 billion USD of realized capital as the target. proposed”, Prof. Dr. Nguyen Mai forecast.
Need to quickly improve the investment regime
Affirming that good changes and major project agreements are the bright spot of the economy, the Chairman of the Association of Foreign Investment Enterprises said that from these bright spots, we see the policy and spirit of reform. strong administration of Vietnam. However, the processing of licensing and registration as well as post-registration work such as site clearance and investor support for project implementation is still slow in some localities.
“Not only foreign enterprises but also a few domestic enterprises and investors also reflect on the situation that there are projects that take 2-3 years to be implemented since they have an investment idea,” he said. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Mai said.
In the current and future context, competition to attract foreign investment is fierce, especially in some emerging ASEAN countries in attracting FDI such as Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. These three countries have made major changes in institutions, investment procedures, preferential policies for investors and brought immediate results.
Therefore, Prof. Dr. Nguyen Mai said that if Vietnam does not quickly complete the investment institution, especially related to attracting investment in the green economy, digital industry and the issue of the global minimum tax of 15%, then it is clear that we difficult to compete with emerging countries on the “FDI map” of the region. Simultaneously, it is necessary to synchronously reform, especially reform the organizational structure, improve the capacity of civil servants and domestic enterprises.
In fact, if you want to attract investment from large corporations and companies from Europe and the US, you must meet their conditions and requirements. Otherwise, we are just around attracting small and medium enterprises, and in the Asia region mainly.
“The remaining core issue is administrative reform. The Prime Minister talked about “hot and cold, hot and cold places.” How should ministries, branches, local People’s Committees, management boards industrial parks must synchronously reform to create an open investment environment across the country, not only emerging some good jobs and some sluggish places,” said Chairman of the Association of Foreign Investment Enterprises. apart from emphasis.