On May 25, the National Assembly discussed the supervisors’ report and draft National Assembly resolution on implementing Resolution 43/2022 released January 11, 2022 on fiscal and monetary policies to support the program on socio-economic recovery and development, as well as National Assembly’s resolutions on some national key projects until the end of 2023.

Ha Sy Dong, deputy chair of Quang Tri province, said Resolution 43 was released in early 2022 and scheduled to be implemented in 2022-2023 with an aim of recovering the national economy after Covid-19. However, it was the tardiness in the resolution implementation which has brought desired effects. If it had been implemented intensively in early 2022 soon after promulgation, the property bubble would have grown excessively.

Because of the slow implementation, when the bubble was over, the resolution helped Vietnam make a soft landing, not hard landing as occurred in many other countries.

Regarding monetary policy, Dong commented that 2022 and 2023 were very tough years. Vietnam gained certain achievements and some problems arose, but in general, what was done can be considered a success.

In the long term, the National Assembly deputy proposed using other interest rate tools to regulate credit rather than the credit growth rate quota scheme. 

In the report to the National Assembly recently, the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) showed its persistence with the viewpoint that the credit growth rate quota must be maintained.  Dong asked SBV to review the credit room policy before legalizing the matter.

Dong went on to note that some professional associations took advantage of the situation when the National Assembly and government were running economic recovery programs to ask for more support. Automobile manufacturers, for example, have proposed extending the luxury tax reduction program. Therefore, 2022 was a prosperous year for the automobile industry, which gained record high sales.

He thinks that a lesson needs to be drawn from the implementation of Resolution 43 and to thoroughly consider the feasibility of a bailout plan and to be cautious when choosing the time of implementation. A macro policy which is reasonable in January may be unreasonable in March, when conditions become different.

Mai Van Hai, a National Assembly deputy from Thanh Hoa, commented that Resolution 43 is a good solution which helps stimulate both consumption and production. Under th resolution, the 2 percent VAT cut will be applied until the end of June 30, 2024 and Hai proposed extending the policy as many businesses and individuals still have not fully recovered from Covid-19.

Tran Thuong