“The encouraging results give us more confidence, hope and new driving force to outperform the goals set by the National Assembly for 2024,” said MPI Minister Nguyen Chi Dung at a conference reviewing the six-month socio-economic development held on July 15.

The key task set by MPI for the first half of 2024 was completing the institutional regime, policies and laws. To date, 98 development plans have been approved, including three national plans and 60 provincial, 6 regional and 29 professional plans.

In the first six months, 80,482 new businesses were registered, an increase of 6.1 percent over the same period last year.

The General Statistics Office (GSO) has released a report on the macroeconomic performance in the first half of the year, which showed a high GDP growth rate in the second quarter, 6.93 percent, which was higher than the figures predicted by most large international institutions. 

This was the highest second quarter growth rate in the last 13 years, except the special period of 2022, when the growth rate reached 7.99 percent after the Covid-19 pandemic.

The figure surprised many people because international institutions had predicted that the GDP growth rate in the second quarter would be lower than that of the first quarter (5.66 percent).

The GDP growth rate of the country in the first half of 2024 was 6.42 percent over the same period last year. The agriculture, forestry and seafood sector grew by 3.38 percent, industry and construction 7.51 percent, and service 6.64 percent.

Vietnam gained initial achievements in attracting FDI (foreign direct investment), with total FDI registered capital reaching $15.2 billion, up 13.1 percent. Of this, newly registered capital increased by 46.9 percent, while FDI disbursed capital was $10.84 billion.

HaiPhong is among the top localities with the highest FDI. In the first six months, the city attracted $1.5 billion more worth of FDI. There are nearly 1,000 digital firms operating in the city and 9,000 SMEs (small and medium enterprises) using digital platforms (over 40 percent).

Mentioning tasks for the second half of the year, Dung emphasized major groups. First, deploying new policies and regulations, and designing new solutions to create a breakthrough for growth. Second, working on new strategies for socio-economic development and public investment. Third, preparing well for the Party congresses at different levels.

He said that it is necessary to accelerate disbursement for public investment and amend the legal framework on public investment management.

Tien Anh