Assessing the country's economy after nearly 30 years of renovation

On March 8, in Ho Chi Minh City, the Steering Committee for 30 Years of Innovation in coordination with the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee organized a scientific workshop on "Some key theoretical and practical issues on developing a socialist-oriented market economy."

Attending and chairing the workshop were Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee Le Thanh Hai, Head of the Central Economic Commission Vuong Dinh Hue, and President of the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences Nguyen Xuan Thang.

(Illustration photo: Hoang Lam/VNA)

In his opening speech, Mr. Nguyen Xuan Thang said that the conference aimed to focus on evaluating the 30 years of innovation of the country's economy, especially in the past 10 years, after Vietnam became a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) with objective assessments, presenting new discoveries, new ideas, new thinking for development. There were over 30 papers sent to the conference from the Central and local levels with a positive spirit.

At the workshop, comments need to be frank, objective, scientific, and direct to the issues raised, in the context of the country having many changes and the world being extremely vibrant.

Speaking at the workshop, Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc emphasized that after nearly 30 years of renovation, the basic components of the socialist-oriented market economy in Vietnam have been established and put into operation, gradually perfected. The achievements of economic renovation together with political renovation have created a new democratic atmosphere in society, creating new momentum, bringing the country not only out of the socio-economic crisis but also into the group of middle-income countries, fundamentally changing the socio-economic face of the country. Vietnam has achieved outstanding achievements in hunger eradication and poverty reduction, which have been highly appreciated by the international community. The country's overall strength has increased significantly compared to the pre-renovation period.

According to Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc, the market economy has a history of several hundred years in the world, but in Vietnam, the market economy is a completely new economic model, unprecedented in history and the development period is less than 30 years. Therefore, in the development process, Vietnam has encountered many obstacles, difficulties and shortcomings. The transition to a market economy in Vietnam is not yet complete, the challenges and barriers are still very large in ideology, awareness, mechanisms, policies and implementation organization.

The limitations, shortcomings, inadequacies and problems that arise require us to concentrate our intelligence to clarify the theoretical and practical bases for developing a socialist-oriented market economy in accordance with the specific conditions of Vietnam and in accordance with the general principles of the market economy in the world today. The basic direction is to rely on a scientific foundation and keep up with the objective development trends of the times to solve immediate problems as well as to set a long-term economic development direction for the country.

The Deputy Prime Minister asked the delegates attending the workshop to focus on discussing and clarifying the main contents including the general model for developing Vietnam's current socialist-oriented market economy, which arguments need to be deepened and renewed, based on which arguments and evidence, especially when we will fully integrate into the global market economy in 2018. The world today has many market economy models with many different diverse characteristics, what can Vietnam learn from these models and what can it apply to the future development of the country.

To perfect the market economy institution, the Deputy Prime Minister said that it is necessary to clarify the following points: Is the market an effective mechanism in which competition is the driving force in the process of mobilizing and allocating resources, helping to liberate production capacity, innovate the growth model and restructure the economy? What is the role of the State in the socialist market economy? Should the State play a leading, dominating or orienting role, creating market development, creating a favorable environment for investment and business, encouraging competition, promoting integration and development? The private economy has been proven to be one of the main drivers of growth, is there enough practical basis to affirm that this is an important and decisive driving force for the growth and development of the economy in the future.../.

According to VNA