As Tet holiday approaches, Ms. Vu Thi Huong, a farmer from Duc Chinh Cooperative in Cam Giang district, Hai Duong province, is busy harvesting the last carrot beds. Over the past 5 years, thanks to this special vegetable variety, Ms. Huong’s family, as well as hundreds of other farmers in Duc Chinh commune, have enjoyed a decent and abundant life.
With a profit of over 10 million VND per sao (1,000m2) of exported carrots, Ms. Huong is always confident on her own land. In recent years, her high-quality and clean carrot variety has been well-received in the South Korean and Japanese markets.
CONFIDENCE IN SUPPORTING AGRICULTURE
On a larger scale, Hai Duong province has identified carrots as one of its main crops. In the 2023 – 2024 winter crop, the province is planning to cultivate about 1,200 hectares of carrots, with an estimated output of 70,000 tons. The potential for developing carrot exports in Hai Duong province and Vietnam as a whole is still immense, as many foreign markets have shown an increasing demand for value-added products from organic and clean agricultural produce, such as vegetable juices, dried vegetables, preserves, candies, and fresh vegetables.
The leaders of Hai Duong province have stated that they have prioritized clean and high-quality agriculture. Carrots and lychees are the main drivers of local economic growth, stability, and development.
Against the backdrop of various other industries facing difficulties, challenges, and order cancellations, the export turnover of fruits and vegetables in 2023 is something to be proud of. The total export turnover reached a record high of $5.69 billion USD, an almost 70% increase compared to 2022, far exceeding the previous target set by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development for 2024, which was $4.5 billion USD, and the target for 2025, which was $5 billion USD.
In addition to the positive signals from fruit and vegetable exports, the number of newly registered businesses is also a noteworthy achievement in 2023 – a particularly challenging year. According to the Business Registration Management Agency (Ministry of Planning and Investment), there were 159,294 newly established businesses in the country in 2023, a 7.2% increase compared to 2022. This is the first time that the number of newly established businesses in a year has reached nearly 160,000, which is 1.2 times higher than the average in the 2017-2022 period and a 4.6% increase compared to the full-year target for 2023.
The number of businesses returning to production and business activities in 2023 also reached 58,412, bringing the total number of businesses joining and returning to the market to over 217,706, a 4.5% increase compared to the same period in 2022 and 1.3 times higher than the number of businesses exiting the market in the past year. This is the second year in a row that the number of businesses joining and returning to the market has exceeded 200,000 (in 2022, the number was 208,368). With more than 200,000 businesses joining and returning to the market in 2023, it is evident that the efforts of the Government and various ministries, sectors, and localities in creating a favorable business environment have paid off.
A BRIGHT ECONOMIC PICTURE EMERGES
In 2023, the Government and Prime Minister focused on leading and directing the recovery and development of the economy and society, swiftly transforming the situation and changing the status quo. They accelerated administrative procedure reform, digital transformation, and improved the investment environment.
Specifically, they focused on implementing three strategic breakthroughs and restructuring the economy, accelerating the progress and improving the quality of planning, widely applying information technology to grassroots-level management, establishing 5 teams to supervise the disbursement of public investment capital and 26 teams of Government members directly overseeing and promptly resolving difficulties and obstacles at the local level, as well as a team of Government members to address real estate issues.
Furthermore, the Government organized numerous conferences and meetings to address important and urgent issues, and focused on resolving long-standing problems and emerging issues. At the same time, they resolutely fought against corruption, negativity, and wastefulness, emphasized the development of culture, society, environmental protection, and strengthened national defense, security, international integration, and diplomacy.
In the report at the Conference on Summarizing the Work of 2023 and Deploying Tasks for 2024, held by the Government and local authorities on January 5, 2024, Deputy Prime Minister Le Minh Khai said that in 2023, the macroeconomic situation was fundamentally stable, with controlled inflation and public debt, and promoted growth, ensuring major balances. The economic growth rate of the last quarter was higher than the previous quarter, with a full-year growth rate of 5.05%, which belongs to the high-growth group among the region and the world, raising the scale of the economy to about $430 billion USD.
The average consumer price index in 2023 increased by 3.25% (lower than the target set at about 4.5%). The monetary and foreign exchange markets were basically stable, and interest rates decreased by about 2% compared to the end of 2022. The total import and export turnover for the year reached $683 billion USD, with a trade surplus of about $28 billion USD (the highest ever), contributing to the increase in national foreign exchange reserves. The attraction of foreign direct investment reached nearly $36.6 billion USD, a 32.1% increase in the context of global trade and investment being limited. The realized FDI capital reached nearly $23.2 billion USD (a 3.5% increase), the highest ever, demonstrating that Vietnam remains an attractive destination for foreign investors.
In 2023, there were remarkable changes in the construction of strategic infrastructure, especially in the transportation infrastructure. At the beginning of 2023, construction of 12 North-South expressway projects commenced, with 9 projects being completed mid-year and 4 projects being completed by the end of the year in the transportation sector. In 2023, approximately 475 km of expressways were put into operation, bringing the total length of expressways put into operation to about 1,900 km. In addition, three East-West expressways, two ring roads, the Tuyen Quang – Ha Giang expressway, the T3 Terminal – Tan Son Nhat International Airport, the Long Thanh International Airport project, and green infrastructure, modern digital infrastructure, urban infrastructure, and rural infrastructure were also strongly developed.
Looking ahead to 2024, the Prime Minister has asked all levels, sectors, and localities to closely follow the conclusions and resolutions of the Party Central Committee, the National Assembly, and the Government, and to implement specific objectives and tasks for 2024 with the theme “Determined Discipline, Timely and Proactive, Accelerate Creativity, Sustainable Effectiveness,” with the spirit of “year of determination”: (i) Overcoming difficulties and challenges in all areas; (ii) implementing without delay, without making things difficult, without promises that cannot be fulfilled; (iii) protecting officials who dare to think and act for the common interest, with genuine thoughts, sincere words, and effective actions, ensuring that the people truly benefit; (iv) resolving difficulties, promoting production and business activities, ensuring that people and businesses have access to the benefits of policies and achievements; (v) making the highest efforts to achieve the best results in 2024.
The Prime Minister also emphasized that the Government and the Prime Minister will continue to seriously implement the resolutions of the Party, the National Assembly, and are ready to support and accompany the comrades to fulfill their assigned tasks and overcome emerging obstacles and challenges. The entire political system will make the highest efforts to comprehensively fulfill the goals of socio-economic development and the state budget estimate for 2024, and contribute to the successful implementation of the 5-year Socio-Economic Development Plan for 2021-2025.
The full content of the article was published in the Vietnam Economic Journal, Issue 7+8-2024 released on February 12-25, 2024. Please find the complete article at here
https://postenp.phaha.vn/chi-tiet-toa-soan/tap-chi-kinh-te-viet-nam
