Vietnam's economic growth goal for 2016-2020 ambitious: economist

A Vietnamese economist said in capital Hanoi on Tuesday that the country's average economic growth set for the 2016-2020 period at 6.5-7 percent annually is "very ambitious and hard to realize."

Nguyen Duc Thanh, President of Vietnam Institute for Economic and Policy Research (VEPR) under the Hanoi-based Vietnam National University, made the remarks at a launching ceremony of Vietnam Annual Economic Report 2016 held in Hanoi on Tuesday.

Thanh, editor of the report titled "Forging new foundations for economic growth," said at the launch that Vietnam's economic productivity has been shrinking constantly in the past five years, along with the country's failure to realize 10 out of 26 socio-economic goals set by the National Assembly (NA).

This requires urgent demand for establishing new effective foundations for mid-term and long-term economic growth, according to a press release by VEPR.

Among 27 economic prospect scenarios that the report brings out for Vietnam during 2016-2020, the country's gross domestic product (GDP) expansion is largely forecast to stay at around six percent per year.

In addition, the report estimates that by 2020, Vietnam's GDP per capita will reach 2,756-3,219 U.S. dollars per year, lower than earlier set target of 3,200-3,500 U.S. dollars, said the press release.

In late 2015, the NA targeted Vietnam's GDP growth at 6.7 percent in 2016. Endit