Growth must be sustainable, not simply pursuing economic growth.

The first conference between the Government and localities after the reorganization took place this morning, February 21, right after the 9th extraordinary session of the National Assembly closed, discussing the implementation of the Central Committee's conclusions, the National Assembly's Resolution, and the Government's on economic growth.

Speaking at the opening of the conference, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh emphasized that GDP growth is the most important factor in achieving the above two goals. GDP growth will impact the scale of the economy, per capita income, and GDP scale ranking in the world .

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh delivered the opening speech at the conference (Photo: VGP).

"There is no other way, we must maintain high and sustainable growth continuously from now until 2045. Only then can we overcome the middle-income trap and rise up, achieve strategic goals, realize aspirations in the new era, develop richly, civilized, prosperous, people are increasingly well-off and happy," the Prime Minister emphasized.

Recently, the Government proposed that the Central Government and the National Assembly strive to achieve GDP growth of 8% or more in 2025 and double-digit growth in the coming years. The Central Government issued Conclusion 123 on January 24, the National Assembly passed a Resolution on February 19, and the Government assigned the 2025 growth target to localities and ministries.

At the 9th extraordinary session, the National Assembly voted to pass the Resolution of the National Assembly supplementing the socio-economic development plan for 2025 with a growth target of 8% or more. The GDP scale in 2025 will reach about over 500 billion USD.

"The Party has directed, the Government is unified, the National Assembly agrees, the people support, the Fatherland expects, so there is only discussion, not retreat. The problem is how?", the Prime Minister raised the issue and said that international experience and the latest announcement of the World Bank (WB) show that over the past 30 years, only 34 economies have succeeded in escaping the middle-income trap to become high-income countries, while 108 countries have not overcome it.

In general, the economies that became high-income countries maintained high growth for about 30 years, such as Japan's average growth of 11.5%/year from 1951 to 1973, South Korea's growth of 9.6%/year in the period 1963 to 1996, China's growth of about 10%/year in the period 1978 to 2011, Taiwan (China) grew by 8.9%/year from 1952 to 1989; Singapore's growth of 8.5%/year from 1961 to 1997.

According to the announcement of the Ministry of Planning and Investment, Vietnam has grown by about 6.4% in nearly 40 years of innovation since 1986. In 2024, Vietnam's GDP will reach over 470 billion USD, with an average income per capita of about 4,700 USD. If GDP growth is at about 7% per year, it will be very difficult to achieve the two 100-year goals. Thus, in the next 2 decades, we need to accelerate to achieve the set strategic goals. The road we have to travel is still very arduous.

He emphasized that this is an especially important task, requiring the drastic, synchronous, joint efforts and consensus of the entire political system, business community and people of the whole country.

"If we want the whole country to grow at over 8%, all ministries, localities, and sectors must grow at over 8%. Domestic and foreign enterprises, collective economy, private economy... must all grow at over 8%. It is impossible for just a few localities, a few ministries, a few enterprises to grow at a high rate and then pull the whole country up. This is very difficult," the Prime Minister stated.

Conference scene (Photo: VGP).

The Prime Minister noted that growth must be high but sustainable, and macroeconomic stability must be maintained, inflation controlled, progress ensured, fairness, social security ensured, and a clean, green environment protected, without sacrificing progress, fairness, social security, and the environment to pursue mere economic growth.

According to the Prime Minister, to achieve growth, we must renew traditional driving forces (investment, export and consumption, diversifying markets, products and supply chains), promote new growth drivers such as digital economy, green economy, sharing economy, circular economy, knowledge economy, etc., and exploit new development spaces such as marine space, underground space, and outer space. To do so, we must have resources in terms of human resources, capital, technology, institutions, etc.

The Prime Minister asked delegates to think, focus on discussing, further analyzing the world, regional and national situation, contribute ideas, clearly identify key tasks and solutions, especially "leverage - fulcrum" tasks and solutions to focus and bring about good results; valuing time, intelligence and decisiveness as decisive factors for success.

Source: https://www.baogiaothong.vn/thu-tuong-tang-truong-phai-ben-vung-khong-chay-theo-tang-truong-kinh-te-don-thuan-192250221095015748.htm