The steel mill of the Hoa Sen Nghe An Co. Ltd in Dong Hoi Industrial Park, Nghe An province

At a press conference in Hanoi on December 27,GSO General Director Nguyen Bich Lam said the country’s GDP growth this year isimpressive, surpassing the target of 6.6 – 6.8 percent set by the NationalAssembly.

Although the figure in 2019 is lower than 7.08percent in 2018, it still outpaces the rates between 2011 and 2017, he noted.

In particular, the agro-forestry-fishery sectorgrew 2.01 percent, the industrial – construction sector expanded 8.9 percent,and the service sector rose 7.3 percent. They respectively contributed 4.6percent, 50.4 percent and 45 percent to the overall economic expansion.

In the fourth quarter alone, the GDP rose 6.97percent from the same period last year, including 1.62 percent in theagro-forestry-fishery sector, 7.92 percent in the industrial – constructionsector, and 8.09 percent in the service sector.

Lam also emphasised the improved growth qualityand economic effectiveness, elaborating that the contribution of total factorproductivity to this year’s GDP growth reached 46.11 percent, compared to theaverage of 44.46 percent during 2016-2019 and 33.58 percent during 2011-2015.

Meanwhile, the economy’s openness has beenbecoming greater. In 2019, total export and import revenue of goods andservices is equivalent to 210.4 percent of the GDP, indicating that Vietnam hasmanaged to capitalise on the domestic economy’s advantages and make use ofglobal markets, the official said.

He added that the economic structure this yearhas continued to shift in a positive direction as the agro-forestry-fisherysector’s proportion in theGDP

dropped 0.72 percentage point from 2018 to 13.96percent, the industrial – construction sector up 0.26 percentage point to 34.49percent, and the service sector up 0.52 percentage point to 41.64 percent./.VNA