The image is for illustrative purposes only. (Photo: Danh Lam/TTXVN)

This risk stems from the rapid increase in public debt, along with a host of economic problems such as slow privatization and prolonged handling of bad debts, causing concern among many economic experts.

"We cannot delay any longer, otherwise we will be derailed from our development path," warned Le Xuan Ba, former Director of CIEM.

According to Dr. Luu Bich Ho, former Director of the Institute for Development Strategy, Vietnam has only just begun restructuring and has not yet truly entered the restructuring process. The restructuring is still based on old ways of thinking, and it is unclear what changes have actually been made to the growth model.

“The business environment has indeed improved, especially with the recent government program to reform administrative procedures and improve the investment and business environment. But we shouldn't be complacent. The Prime Minister has set a target for Vietnam's business environment to be among the top four in ASEAN by 2016. This is something we absolutely must do,” Mr. Luu Bich Ho emphasized.

Looking at and comprehensively assessing Vietnam's economic restructuring process from 2011-2014, Mr. Nguyen Tu Anh, Deputy Head of the Macroeconomic Policy Department - CIEM, believes that the greatest achievement was halting inflation and macroeconomic instability. This achievement can be seen in each indicator, namely that inflation, from its peak of 28.32% (August 2008), has gradually returned to normal levels since July 2012.

Lending interest rates were brought under control after the banking system restructuring measures began to take effect from the beginning of 2012. From 23% in August 2011, interbank market interest rates and deposit rates showed a clear downward trend from February 2012 and basically stabilized from around June 2013.

Mr. Tu Anh assessed that the stability of interest rates and the rescue of the serious liquidity shortage in the commercial banking system were the main successes of the banking restructuring process. Significantly, the restructuring process did not result in a series of bank failures.

In addition, macroeconomic stability has been consistently maintained; national security indicators have improved; the business environment has been enhanced; investment efficiency and labor productivity have significantly improved... "This is an important foundation, strengthening market confidence and political determination to further accelerate the reform process, especially institutional reform," Mr. Tu Anh analyzed.

However, the risk of macroeconomic instability in Vietnam remains because the restructuring of the Vietnamese economy has not been truly effective. According to Mr. Nguyen Tu Anh, the restructuring of public investment has only focused on tightening public investment discipline and has not yet concentrated on solutions to improve investment efficiency and avoid investment waste.

Furthermore, the pace of equitization remains slow, and preferential treatment for state-owned enterprises continues to distort the market. The process of handling bad debts is protracted, and the gap between deposit and lending interest rates remains high... These risks are pervasive, even though the macroeconomic situation has been consistently stable and the business environment has recently improved.

Sharing this view, Dr. Nguyen Dinh Cung, Director of CIEM, argues that economic restructuring is essentially about changing institutions, mechanisms, and tools for allocating, managing, and utilizing national resources, especially investment capital, in order to form a more rational, efficient, and highly competitive economic structure.

According to Dr. Nguyen Dinh Cung, resources need to be reallocated, but not by the state; instead, they should be allocated by the market. When factors dependent on the state decrease and the market increases, resources will be allocated more effectively, thereby improving quality and efficiency.

Mr. Nguyen Tu Anh recalled that in the early stages of development, when resources were scarce and labor was surplus, the extensive growth model was very effective, resulting in consistently high growth rates, rapid improvement in people's lives, and a rapid reduction in poverty. However, to pursue high growth targets, investment capital had to be increasingly larger.

High investment costs, coupled with a continuous influx of capital into the economy, lead to a decrease in the efficiency of real production investment, while profits in the financial and speculative sectors increase. As a result, scarce resources such as capital, land, and skilled labor are drawn into the financial sector, speculative activities, and commercial operations. The real production sector shrinks and becomes increasingly dependent on foreign-invested enterprises.

Mr. Le Xuan Ba ​​believes that successful economic restructuring also requires a price to be paid, accepting low growth of only 4-5% in the short term in order to achieve high growth of 8-10% in the medium term.

To promote economic restructuring and transform the growth model, many economic experts also propose maintaining stable macroeconomic conditions with low inflation and strong macroeconomic foundations; forming and developing a modern market economy system; establishing a fair, transparent, and competitive business environment with low costs and risks; and developing high-quality human resources and a synchronized infrastructure system.

According to Vietnamplus.vn