Vietnam posts 6.7 per cent GDP growth rate in first six months
HANOI - Vietnam registered a gross
domestic product (GDP) growth rate of 6.74
per cent in the first half of the year or about 0.5
per cent lower than the annual target of 7.3 per
cent.
The industrial sector posted a 13.9 per cent
growth rate in the January-June period.
The first six months of this year also saw
improvements in marketing locally-made
industrial products. Cement,
construction-grade steel, coal, engineering
products, and paper producers, who in recent
years had large inventories of their products in
store, sold much of their surplies in the first
half of this year. Local producers have also
increased prices, which enable them to boost
production.
Production value of the private sector rose 19 per cent as against last year's corresponding figure of 17 per
cent.
Improvements were also seen in the agriculture-forestry-aquaculture processing industry with enterprises
under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development alone registering a growth rate of more than 18 per
cent.
While industrial production value rose 13.9 per cent, its GDP growth rate was 8.5 per cent in the first six
months, due to continued high production costs, or about 2 per cent lower than that of last year.
The production value of the agriculture-forestry-fisheries sector saw a year-on-year increase of more than 5
per cent. The sector also saw crop restructuring efforts in recent months.
In spite of drought at the beginning of the growing season, and a sharp decline in cultivated acreage,
farmers across the country enjoyed a bumper winter-spring rice crop with rice yields averaging 5.3 tonnes
per hectare or up 0.26 tonnes compared to the previous crop. Total food output was estimated at 16.5m
tonnes, 1m tonnes higher than last year's winter-spring rice crop output.
The area under coffee in the central highlands region of Tay Nguyen and Eastern Nam Bo (the South)
dropped considerably over the previous crop due to a sharp decline in coffee prices. In Dac Lac province
alone, coffee growers shifted a combined area of 4,000 ha to other crops in the first half of the year.
Localities planted only 121,000 ha of concentrated forest or a year-on-year decline of 0.8 per cent, and
191m ha of scattered trees, roughly equivalent to last year's figure. The first six months of this year also
saw the allotment of more than 2m ha of forest to farmers for care and protection, up almost 30 per cent
compared to the annual target.
The fisheries sector registered a total netting volume of 1.1m tonnes, making up 47.9 per cent of the annual
plan and a year-on-year rise of 4.2 per cent .
The price index in the first six months of this year rose 2.9 per cent, year-on-year. Circulation of goods in
the domestic market was stable with total retail sales up 12.5 per cent compared to the same figure of last
year. The sale of a number of commodities, including rice, foodstuffs, garment, footwear, and cosmetic
products, increased considerably in the first half of the year.
The combined revenue of postal businesses rose 47 per cent, year-on-year, with the number of telephone
subscribers increasing 48 per cent.
Vietnam has welcomed more than 1.3m foreign tourists so far this year or an annual rise of 12.3 per cent.
Meanwhile, tourism businesses provided services to 6m local tourists, up almost 7 per cent compared to
last year's first six months.
The first half of this year also saw the transformation of ownership of more than 90 businesses, including 79
state-owned enterprises undergoing equitization.
Vietnam earned an export value of 7.25bn US dollars in the first two quarters of this year, a decrease of 5.9
per cent as compared with last year. However, the export value in June was estimated at 1.42bn dollars, or
up 220m dollars compared to the average monthly figure for the first half of the year.
Foreign-invested businesses, excluding those in the field of oil and gas, earned a combined export value of
almost 2bn dollars, accounting for 26.6 per cent of the country's total export value and a year-on-year
increase of 18.3 per cent.
Items that registered increases in both export quantity and value included tea, 20,000 tonnes, up 50 per
cent in quantity and 23 per cent in earnings; textiles and garments, up 3 per cent in value to 990m dollars;
footwear, up 10.6 per cent to 877m dollars; groundnut, 44,000 tonnes, up 76 per cent and 50 per cent in
quantity and value, respectively; and coal, more than 3m tonnes, up 44.4 per cent and 64 per cent in
quantity and value, respectively.
The export value of handicrafts and fine arts products rose 49 per cent, year-on-year, to 170m dollars in the
first half of the year. This helped generate jobs for many rural residents.
Meanwhile, the country imported goods worth more than 8.4bn dollars, an 8.1 per cent year-on-year
increase. Its trade deficit in the first six months stood at 1.154bn dollars, accounting for 16 per cent of the
total export value.
Total social services investments in the first two quarters of the year stood at 83.5 trillion dong, representing
47.7 per cent of the annual plan.
Foreign investors disbursed 1.05bn dollars over the first six months or a year-on-year rise of 11 per cent. As
many as 263 projects capitalized at 473.5m dollars were licensed over the past six months.
Total state revenues were estimated at 55.7 trillion dong in the first half of the year, equivalent to 53 per cent
of the annual estimation.
BBC with Vietnam news Agency - July 02, 2002.
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