Exports are one of the positive points of 2020. Currently, exports still maintain the growth rate, especially with an export surplus over US$18 billion. This is a huge contribution to maintaining GDP growth of over 2% this year, demonstrating Vietnam's ability to maintain production capacity thanks to the pandemic being controlled and in the context of direct competition with Vietnam in some products, and is still heavily affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Regarding exports in 2021, Vietnam's economy still depends heavily on the demand of some major markets such as the US, Japan, South Korea, the EU, China and ASEAN, accounting for nearly 80% of the export turnover of Vietnam.

If the recovery of these markets is as fast and strong as predicted by some international organizations, Vietnam is likely to regain a high export growth rate as in 2019 and previous years and will contribute more positively to GDP growth. But if these markets recover slowly, Vietnam's export growth in the coming years may still achieve positive growth but will not reach as high as expected to contribute to the GDP growth target of 6% in 2021 set by the Government.

However, we have many advantages. First of all, Vietnam's production capacity is being maintained, domestic enterprises continue to be registered and FDI inflows continue to flow into Vietnam. These are the advantages for Vietnam's exports to break through in 2021. When the global market recovers, Vietnam will meet that demand very quickly and recover strongly compared to other countries.

In your opinion, how should the agricultural sector be strengthened in 2021?

- Through the Covid-19 pandemic, the agriculture sector proved to be a good support for the economy, ensuring food security while still providing raw materials for key export commodities. This area still shows its advantages to demonstrate Vietnam's competitiveness. The agricultural sector will become a highly competitive industry in Vietnam due to its geography, soil and agricultural productivity.

However, the development of agricultureis inseparable from the industrial sector. The benefits of agricultural production are mainly in the processing, distribution, and service stage. Therefore, Vietnam's approach will have to change and develop in chains, not pure agricultural development. Only focusing on agricultural production, not associated with market development, with the formation of chains will not create advantages for Vietnam in the long run and not bring the highest added value.

In order for agriculture to really become a solid pillar of the economy, agricultural development must go with the development of supporting industries such as services, logistics, distribution, marketing, processing industry and machines.

What should be done to improve public investment momentum in 2021?

- Public investment disbursement, if compared with previous years, saw many positive changes. One of the most obvious changes is the awareness and commitment in disbursement of public investment, from central to local levels, ministries, sectors, project management boards, and contractors.

Commitments and responsibilities to objects has become clearer and commitments are gradually being strengthened, showing that the awareness of the importance of fully disbursing public investment capital has witnessed a positive change. It is hoped that in 2021, this spirit will continue so that the disbursement of public investment will be accelerated from the first months of 2021, thereby accelerating the progress of the whole year.

Secondly, a series of problems about regulations as well as the way to implement this capital source have been adjusted, from the formulation of investment policies, project construction, allocation of investment capital, to disbursement procedures. This has contributed to solving the difficulties in the process of disbursing public investment capital.

In addition, drastic measures to change investment forms or ways to promote disbursement of public investment capital have been more flexible and innovative than in previous years. Along with strong pressure, it is expected that these changes will continue next year to further increase the disbursement of public investment capital in 2021.

In your opinion, what should be done to help businesses overcome this difficult period for development?

- In 2021, we still have to continue to improve the business investment environment, because although the GDP growth may be higher than some countries in the region, the quality of the business environment is still lowerthan many other countries.

In my opinion, supporting businesses includes three points. First, determine which businesses will be supported and what is the basis of the support. For businesses that are affected and have the ability to recover, we will support, with the goal of ensuring that businesses recover in a certain period of time. Second, the Covid-19 pandemic is like a screening test, we must accept that a series of businesseswill no longer continue the game.

This is also normal because in the market economy, the screening shows that there are a number of businesses and industries that are no longer appropriate, or the competitiveness of enterprises is limited.

Thirdly, it is necessary to stimulate a number of groups of enterprises with potential development, especially those that have the ability to lead to the development of a series of other enterprises, such as innovation enterprises, digital economic enterprises, and agricultural enterprises, high-tech agricultural enterprises, that if investing in them, theycan maintain and will lead to the development of satellite enterprises and businesses in industry clusters, or a whole value chain. This approach will be more relevant for 2021.

Source: Customs News