Hanoi (VNA) - Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue has highlighted remarkableresults of Vietnam's economic development in 2018 and made positive forecastsfor the national economic growth in 2019 in an interview recently granted tothe Vietnam News Agency.

Accordingly, the country’s GDP recorded the highest growth ever of 7.08 percent in2018, making the economic scale increase quickly too, hitting 240.5 billion USD,1.3 times higher than that of 2015.

Per capita income approximated 2,600 USD, up nearly 200 USD compared to 2017,Hue said.

The Deputy PM highlighted efforts from all sectors to fulfill and surpass the GDPgrowth target set for 2018, saying that available resources have been fullytapped to ensure sustainable and comprehensive growth.

Processing, manufacturing industries and service sectors remained the keycontributors to 2018’s growth, he noted.

In addition to the high growth, the quality of growth has also improved remarkably withincreasing productivity, quality, efficiency and competitiveness of thenational economy,which was reflected by the TFP (aggregate factor productivity) indexreaching 40.23 percent in the year, as compared to 33.58 percent in the whole2011-2015 period.

He underlined the need to not only promote economic growth, but also strengthenmacroeconomic foundations and control inflation.

TheDeputy PM also voiced his concern about issues related to disbursement of publicinvestment, equitization and divestment of State-owned enterprises (SOEs)andhandling of weaknesses in big projects, which still remain slow, especially in keyministries, sectors and localities.

More attention must be paid to tightening administrative disciplines, especiallythe responsibility of leaders in organising the implementation of duties, thus creatingbreakthroughs to well fulfill set goals and tasks, Hue said.

Despite the substantial and comprehensiveachievements last year, in their speeches, Party General Secretary andPresident Nguyen Phu Trong and PM Nguyen Xuan Phuc shared the view that Vietnamwill still face major difficulties and challenges in 2019 and the followingyears.

Hue noted there remain long-standing weaknessesthat cannot be resolved overnight. It is necessary to simultaneously buildproduction capacity and strongly dealing with loss-making projects.

While unpredictable developments still happen inthe world economy such as fierce trade wars between big economies, the opennessof Vietnam’s economy is considerable. Therefore, the country needs to makestronger efforts, carry out concerted and comprehensive solutions and stayclear of complacency to fulfill all socio-economic development tasks for 2019,he said.

Pointing out things that need to be done, theDeputy PM said ministries and sectors whose activities cover a wide range ofeconomic issues like the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the Ministry ofFinance, the State Bank of Vietnam and the Ministry of Industry and Tradeshould be more active in making forecasts and proposing solutions. They mustalways remember that consolidating the macro-economic stability is the toppriority.

Additionally, they have to create a trulyfavourable investment and business climate for all enterprises, especiallyprivate firms, to develop and become one of the important driving forces of theeconomy, he said, admitting that this is a challenging problem.

Hue added ministries and sectors also need tostep up the equitisation of State-owned enterprises, divest State capital fromcompanies more substantively, and push ahead with reforming the growth model inorder to improve the economy’s productivity, quality and competitiveness.-VNA