Vietnam's economy to grow faster-than-expected this year
HANOI (AFP) - Vietnam's economy will grow at a better than expected 8.2 percent this year, the prime minister said, but he stressed corruption remains a problem as the country readies to join the WTO.
In an opening speech to the National Assembly, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said gross domestic product (GDP) growth would be above the official target of 8.0 percent in 2006 and reach 8.5 percent next year.
Dung was speaking a month before Vietnam hosts its largest ever international meeting, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit due to bring leaders including those of the United States, China, Japan and Russia.
GDP per capita would reach 720 dollars this year, Dung said, in the country of 84 million that has emerged from the devastation of the Vietnam War a generation ago to become one of Asia's fastest growing economies after China and India.
"The quality of the growth, especially the competitiveness of the economy, have improved, but many weaknesses remain," Dung told deputies starting the assembly's year-end session. "Corruption and wastefulness are still serious."
Dung, who became premier in July, added that as Vietnam looks set to be approved as the 150th World Trade Organisation (WTO) member next month, those weaknesses "will become major difficulties and challenges."
On the country's politics, Dung said only that Vietnam had "discovered and foiled many conspiracies and undermining activities by hostile forces," a phrase commonly used for domestic and foreign critics of the one-party state.
The communist nation's 496-member assembly meets twice a year to discuss the nation's socio-economic development and to ratify laws.
Long seen as a rubber stamp for the ruling communist party, the body has increasingly asserted itself, observers say, with deputies at times aggressively questioning state leaders on graft and other issues of concern.
Dung said the government had "ordered serious and open dealings with corruption cases in accordance with the law, especially some major cases that have caused great concern among the population."
A major corruption case rocked the regime early this year, when officials in an infrastructure unit of the transport ministry were found to have embezzled millions of dollars, some of it to bet on football matches.
State media reported this week that authorities had investigated 1,700 corruption cases nationwide so far this year.
The premier hailed Vietnam's expected accession this year to the WTO, which the regime hopes will further open the door to trade and investment, 20 years after Hanoi first launched its "doi moi" (renewal) market reforms.
"After 11 years of patient negotiations, we have ended both bilateral and multilateral talks for our membership in the World Trade Organisation," Dung told deputies after the latest round of talks finished in Geneva last week.
Looking ahead, he said Vietnam would stick to its "socialist-oriented market mechanism" while seeking to strengthen its state-owned enterprises as Vietnam enters the WTO era of higher competition at home.
The country would also "strongly improve the investment environment, eliminating all forms of discrimination to better attract capital from inside and outside the country," he said.
Agence France Press - October 17, 2006.
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