Business News

Although many forecasts said that inflation would be controlled at less than four per cent this year, economists recommended it was still important to pay attention to inflationary pressures.

The Vietnamese Government has just issued two resolutions on major socio-economic targets for 2021 and enhancing business environment and national competitiveness, on the heels of a successful 2020 despite the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The monthly statistical data presents current economic and social statistics on a variety of subjects illustrating crucial economic trends and developments, including production of agriculture, forestry and fishery, business registration situation, investment, government revenues and expenditures, trade, prices, transport and tourism and so on.

In 2020, total trade volume was estimated at US$543.9 billion, up 5.1% against the previous year. Of the figure, export turnover rose 6.5% to US$281.5 billion while import value increased by 3.6% to US$262.4 billion.

New free trade agreements (FTAs), which were signed and took effect in 2020, are expected to push Viet Nam into becoming more competitive by reducing trading costs and improving its business environment.

According to Nguyen The Nhien, deputy general director of Hung Thinh Land, the group has had to scale down its business due to the pandemic, and is carrying out more market research into its investment strategy. “We are changing in the three key fields of developing more affordable products, offering reasonable price, and phasing out processes of payment to clients,” Nhien said.

According to the representative of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the UKVFTA was negotiated based on principles that were inherited from commitments in the EU-Viet Nam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) and were amended in accordance with the bilateral trade framework between Viet Nam and the UK.

Vietnam’s GDP grew 2.91 percent this year, the lowest in a decade, but it remained one of the fastest-growing economies in the world.