At a regular press conference of the Government held in the afternoon of February 5, 2025, Mr. Tran Quoc Phuong, Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment, shared information about the economic growth target for 2025. Previously, when implementing the National Assembly’s resolution, the growth target was set at 6.5-7%, with an orientation to strive for 7-7.5%. However, the Central Committee has decided to adjust the growth target for 2025, requiring a minimum growth rate of 8%.
This target will not only help achieve the economic goals for the five-year period but also create a solid foundation for entering a new stage of development. Achieving a growth rate of 8% or higher in 2025 will be a prerequisite for aiming at a higher growth rate in the following years, with an expectation of reaching double digits, i.e., above 10%.
BOOSTING INVESTMENT AS A TOP PRIORITY
Given this requirement, Deputy Minister Tran Quoc Phuong said that the Ministry of Planning and Investment has prepared the necessary content and documents for the Government to submit to the National Assembly for approval at the upcoming extraordinary session. This includes adjusting some socio-economic growth targets for 2025, especially some balances related to investment, budget, and inflation.
At the same time, the Ministry of Planning and Investment has prepared a separate resolution for the Government to implement the concretization of the 8% growth task. This resolution assigns an average growth target of 8% or higher for 2025 to local authorities.
“To achieve the growth target of 8% or higher, we need a high level of determination, great effort, and decisive action,” emphasized Deputy Minister Tran Quoc Phuong. He also stated that comprehensive solutions across all sectors and fields have been outlined in the Government’s Resolution 01. However, with the requirement for higher growth, the intensity of implementing these solutions must also be raised accordingly. This requires all ministries, sectors, and localities to be determined to implement them at a higher level, even doubling their efforts compared to before. Simply put, each individual and unit must work with double the productivity to achieve the new growth target.
Regarding specific solutions, Deputy Minister Tran Quoc Phuong said that the Ministry of Planning and Investment proposes focusing on several key areas. Firstly, prioritizing resources for perfecting the institutions and laws, considering the institutions as the “breakthrough of breakthroughs” for development.
In terms of demand-side solutions, the focus should be on several key tasks, with investment promotion as the top priority. Investment has long been identified as an important driver with an immediate impact on economic growth. The following are some key areas of focus:
First, public investment. We need to continue to use public investment capital efficiently, ensuring that projects are implemented quickly, on schedule, and bring practical value.
Recalling the information at the regular Government meeting held on February 5, 2025, Deputy Minister Tran Quoc Phuong mentioned that the Prime Minister directed to save regular expenditures, cut unnecessary spending, and strive to reduce the proportion of regular expenditures to below 60% of the state budget. This will help allocate more resources for development investment.
Secondly, public investment should be further promoted, especially by early implementing some important projects. One of the typical projects is the standard-gauge railway, connecting internationally and to the northern region. Specifically, the focus will be on the Lao Cai – Hanoi – Hai Phong route to create a transport artery connecting domestic and international cargo and passenger routes. Next, the Hanoi – Lang Son and Hai Phong – Quang Ninh – Mong Cai routes will be considered for implementation to enhance regional connectivity and promote trade.
In addition, we also need to prepare other key projects, ensuring readiness to increase the scale of public investment, thereby promoting economic growth and improving the country’s strategic infrastructure.
Second, investment by state-owned enterprises. In the context of implementing the Central Committee’s Resolution 18, the rearrangement and restructuring of state-owned enterprises are being promoted, creating new space and development opportunities for this sector.
In the coming time, state-owned enterprises, especially leading and pioneering enterprises, need to proactively implement large-scale projects with strong spillover effects. This will contribute to promoting investment growth and positively contributing to the economic growth target in 2025.
Third, private investment, including foreign direct investment (FDI).
Looking back at 2024, Deputy Minister Tran Quoc Phuong said that FDI inflows into Vietnam achieved relatively positive results. In 2025, we need to continue this growth momentum by focusing on two important points to attract more foreign investment.
One, continue to remove obstacles related to institutions and laws and improve the investment and business environment towards more transparency and convenience to attract investors.
Two, immediately implement some important policies that the National Assembly has passed, especially the “green lane” policy to attract large-scale investment projects in high-tech fields.
Regarding attracting investment from the private sector, especially domestic private enterprises, in 2025, in addition to continuing to improve the investment and business environment to increase the number of new enterprises, it is necessary to implement macro-level solutions to create more favorable conditions for the development of the private sector.
One of the key tasks is to remove obstacles and unblock important domestic markets, including the real estate market, the corporate bond market, and the stock market.
EXPANDING EXPORT MARKETS IS CRUCIAL TO BOOSTING PRODUCTION
Regarding the growth momentum from exports, Deputy Minister Tran Quoc Phuong said that the Prime Minister assessed that exports in 2025 may face great challenges, especially from trade protection policies and tax policies of the US, one of Vietnam’s important export markets.
In addition, the risk of escalating global trade tensions due to retaliatory measures on tariffs among major economies could also negatively affect Vietnam’s export activities.
Given this situation, the Prime Minister requested that ministries and sectors closely monitor market developments, conduct thorough analyses, and take timely response measures to minimize the negative impact of fluctuations in world trade.
At the same time, the Prime Minister also emphasized the importance of maximizing the advantages of free trade agreements (FTAs) that Vietnam has signed and promoting the exploitation of new trade agreements. Notably, agreements with the Middle East region and some other FTAs under negotiation.
Particularly, the Prime Minister directed to ensure a close connection between the input and output of production. If the output is not stable, domestic production will face difficulties. Therefore, finding and expanding consumption markets is crucial to promoting production and stabilizing growth in the coming time.
Regarding domestic consumption, the Prime Minister has given specific directions, emphasizing boosting total demand and enhancing the purchasing power of the domestic market to ensure its stable development and positive contribution to economic growth.
In addition, two main growth drivers that need to be promoted are industrial production, especially processing and manufacturing industries, and the service sector, with tourism being identified as one of the key areas.
Besides traditional growth drivers, the Prime Minister has also directed the promotion of new growth drivers. Currently, Vietnam has a very good position on the global technology map, especially in artificial intelligence (AI) and other high technologies. This is an advantage and an important opportunity for Vietnam to break through in the field of science and technology, creating new growth drivers.
The Government has recently issued Resolution 03, proposing important solutions and assigning specific tasks to ministries and sectors to implement Resolution 57 of the Politburo on promoting innovation, science and technology, and digital transformation. Therefore, Deputy Minister Tran Quoc Phuong suggested starting the implementation from the early months of 2025 to create a foundation for the next five-year period, aiming at double-digit growth in the future.
