Businesses resilient but grow too slowly

Vietnamese businesses are resilient but growing too slowly, said economist Tran Dinh Thien, arguing that companies are in need of clear government policies to “be lively again.”

After every 10 years, the country’s GDP growth speed has reduced 1% compared to the previous period, said Thien, former head of the Vietnam Institute of Economics, at the "Raising strength, clearing resources and helping businesses" conference. The event was part of the Vietnam Socio-Economic Forum 2023 on Tuesday.

The economist told the conference that one major cause of business sluggishness was that Vietnamese businesses have to pay interest rates two or three times higher than other countries.

Another reason was firms’ limited access to bank loans, he said.

Thien noted that by the end of August, credit growth was only 5.5%, less than half of this year’s goal (14%).

On the matter of slow growth, director of the legal department of the Vietnam Confederation of Commerce and Industry Dau Anh Tuan said low quality infrastructure in Vietnam is still not able to meet the demands of economic growth.

Moreover, he said high production costs have lowered competitiveness. This was demonstrated through 15,600 firms ceasing operations in the year’s first eight months.

Collected