(Illustrative photo)

Statistics released by the General Statistics Office last month show that with an estimated GDP growth of 8.02% and inflation of 3.15% (calculated by average CPI), Vietnam’s GDP in 2022 achieved a record growth rate. Last year was the 7th consecutive year that Vietnam successfully controlled inflation.

Impressive recovery

Vietnam's economy in 2022 developed in the context of global challenges, instability, and inflation in many countries rising to the highest level in decades, forcing governments to tighten monetary policy.

Strategic and geopolitical competition between major countries, the Russia-Ukriane military conflict, natural disasters, epidemics, and climate change have increased risks to the global financial markets, currencies, and energy and food security.

Vietnam's GDP growth rate of 8.02% was not only its highest rate in the last decade, but the best growth rate for ASEAN and the Asia-Pacific region.

Vietnam’s 208,000 new and re-opened enterprises was 10 times the number at the beginning of the renewal in 1986 and 30% higher than when the Law on Enterprises took effect in January, 2021. Foreign Direct Investment focused on the high-tech sector and reached the highest level in the past 5 years.

Total import-export turnover reached a record high of more than 730 billion USD, putting Vietnam in the world’s top 20 economies for foreign trade.

Director of the Center for Vietnam and ASEAN Study at the Russian Academy of Sciences, Professor and Doctor of Economics Vladimir Mazyrin said: “Vietnam’s amazing results compared to other countries have been acknowledged by experts at international ranking organizations. Vietnam can be seen as a new economic tiger of Asia, a model of success.”

Successes come from flexible policies and efforts

Director of the Center for Vietnam and ASEAN Study at the Russian Academy of Sciences, Professor and Doctor of Economics Vladimir Mazyrin (photo: VOV)

Vietnam’s economic development results last year was partly attributed to the government’s flexible macroeconomic management. With the support of the National Assembly, many government policies and solutions have been promulgated and implemented effectively.

Professor Mazyrin said the factors that helped Vietnam maintain its economic growth rate were strong inflows of foreign investment and a production shift by enterprises and multinational corporations to Vietnam.

He underlined the flexible macroeconomic policy of the Communist Party of Vietnam during the renewal in combination with the state’s management of the market mechanism.

Irina Korgun, Director of the Center of Russian Strategy in Asia (photo: VOV)

Irina Korgun, Director of the Center of Russian Strategy in Asia, said: “Vietnam is progressing on its industrialization path. We see that Vietnam is creating specialized industrial sectors from simple manufacturing factories to complex technological goods. We see targeted development of industrial sectors in the overall economic structure.”       

Associate Professor, Doctor Vu Thanh Hung, a senior lecturer at the Paris Graduate School of Management, said: “The core of Vietnam's development is its internal strength. Combining good policies on investment, labor, and employment, paying attention to sustainable development, and gaining global trust and the confidence of the business community will bring foreign investors to Vietnam. Vietnam is viewed not only as a market to be tapped but a partner and mutually beneficial party.”

The government has set a GDP target of 6.5% this year. Experts say that, although it’s a challenging goal, with the government’s overall solutions, Vietnam is determined to obtain its economic growth targets.