That was the assessment of Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung at the conference to review work in 2023 and deploy tasks for 2024, taking place on the morning of January 11.

Eliminate thousands of sub-licenses

Commenting on the bright spots of the industry in 2023, Minister Nguyen Chi Dung said that in public investment, the industry has made efforts to overcome the situation of scattered, fragmented, divided investment and local interests to concentrate investment resources on large projects such as highways, inter-regional and coastal roads... the "steel fists" for infrastructure breakthroughs of the country and localities.

Specifically, the number of target programs in the 2011-2015 period has been reduced from about 60 to 21 in the 2016-2020 period, and now there are only 3 national target programs in the 2021-2025 period; about 12,000 projects using the central budget in the 2016-2020 period have been cut down to less than 5,000 projects in the 2021-2025 period; the goal is that by 2025, the whole country will have about 3,000 km of highways and by 2030, about 5,000 km.

In the planning, more than 20,000 previous plans were reduced to 111 plans under the national planning system and 39 technical and specialized plans; from 50 provincial-level sectoral plans integrated into a single provincial plan. Effectively applying the market mechanism to eliminate more than 3,000 product plans of all kinds, helping to eliminate thousands of business conditions and sub-licenses.

According to the Minister, growth in 2023 will reach 5.05% - although it has not yet reached the set target, it is still among the countries with the highest growth rates in the world and the region. In 2023, many localities will continue to achieve positive results in growth and investment attraction such as Quang Ninh, Bac Giang, Hai Phong, Nghe An, Ha Tinh...

“Our country’s position and role in the global FDI flow continues to be enhanced. Vietnam is not only an attractive investment destination, with registered FDI capital in 2023 reaching about 36.6 billion USD, an increase of over 32%, but also proactively and actively investing abroad, to developed economies such as the US, Canada, ... and in new industries and industrial sectors,” said the Minister.

Along with that, promoting innovation, digital economy, green growth, circular economy, new economic sectors such as chip manufacturing, semiconductors, high-tech agriculture, improving the effectiveness of promotion and investment attraction, etc. to better exploit opportunities from major country strategic competition, global FDI capital flow shift, FTAs, strategic partnerships, comprehensive strategic partnerships, especially with major economies.

In addition, the Minister also frankly pointed out some limitations of the industry, such as: At some times, we have not grasped the developments of the world and domestic situation to organize research and timely forecast the impacts on our country's economy, especially complex and newly arising issues; some work implementation is still slow; there is still a situation of "hot above, cold below"...

The Minister raised key issues and challenges. For example, although economic growth in 2023 is very positive, it is the third consecutive year that it is below the average target of the 5-year plan (6.5-7%) and the 10-year strategy (about 7%); GDP per capita in 2023 will only reach 4,284 USD, quite far from the target of about 4,700-5,000 USD by 2025.

The main source of capital for the economy is still credit capital, but the banking system still has problems to solve, especially the handling of weak banks and "zero" dong banks. The corporate bond market, although improved, still faces difficulties,...

Focus on research and development of the Regional and International Financial Center Project

Regarding the key tasks in 2024, Minister Nguyen Chi Dung said that he will focus on promoting the disbursement of public investment capital, striving to disburse public investment capital in 2024 to reach over 95% of the plan assigned by the Prime Minister; complete and submit for approval the remaining 5 regional plans in the first quarter of 2024.

At the same time, grasp the feedback of enterprises, advise and propose to remove difficulties and obstacles of enterprises and investment projects; reduce business conditions, improve the investment and business environment. Support the development of large enterprises, leading enterprises, private enterprises to reach out to the world, invest abroad.

Focus on researching and developing the Project for a Regional and International Financial Center in Vietnam, a decree on the establishment, management and use of the Investment Support Fund, with the aim of taking advantage of the trend of global investment capital flows.

Maximizing the effectiveness of the National Innovation Center and centers in regions and localities, contributing to promoting the construction and development of an innovation ecosystem and creative startups; supporting digital transformation for domestic enterprises, etc. are also tasks that the Ministry will focus on.

In addition, strongly promote economic restructuring, innovate growth models; build and further improve institutions and policies to concretize new economic models such as green economy, circular economy, night-time economy, sharing economy... Complete the human resource training project for the chip and semiconductor industry to be ready and prepared to welcome opportunities and projects to develop the semiconductor industry.

Hanoi targets an average income of 45,000-46,000 USD/person . The planning orientation of Hanoi Capital for the period 2021-2030, with a vision to 2050, sets a target of an average GRDP of 45,000-46,000 USD/person. However, experts say that breakthrough ideas are needed for Hanoi to grow as expected.