April 2021 marked a great milestone for Vietnam when the next generation of leaders was elected by the National Assembly who will play the role of the architects of the country's economy and is expected to put into effect the ambitious development plans for at least the next five years.
The smooth transition took place in the context of Vietnam being the only country in Southeast Asia to have positive growth in 2020 and forecasted to reach 6.7 per cent by 2021, making it the fourth-largest economy in Southeast Asia. More optimistically, market researchers at Fitch Solutions believe Vietnam's economy will grow 6.5 per cent each year over the course of the next 10 years as the government diversifies markets and improves infrastructure, thanks to newly-signed free trade agreements that will help the country expand market access while avoiding any overdependence on a single trade partner. Due to the impact of Covid-19, Vietnam's GDP grew 2.9 per cent last year but it was one of only a few countries to post positive growth.
The present economic outlook is considered to be an opportunity for the new cabinet that will be led by PM Pham Minh Chinh, the experienced politician born in 1958, who has been a successful leader in a variety of areas. He spent a large part of his career in the public security sector and was appointed to be Vice-Minister of Public Security in 2011 before being assigned by the Communist Party of Vietnam with the Secretary of Quang Ninh, a northeastern coastal province which was struggling due to impact of the world financial crisis, and facing many environmental issues. After taking office, with boldness and vision, Pham Minh Chinh came up with a plan that eventually turned the fossil fuel-dependent province into a sustainable and tourism-oriented economy, based on the proposals from consulting firms such as McKinsey, BCG (USA), Nikken Sekkei, Nippon Koei (Japan) etc., a move that is not commonly seen in local leaders of Vietnam. He also laid the foundation and initialised the project of building an e-government mechanism that effectively served the people. Notably, during his term in Quang Ninh, Vietnam-UAE commercial ties witnessed growth thanks to the signed investment agreements between the province leader and UAE giants - Nakheel and Limitless.
After the successful result in Quang Ninh, in April 2015, he returned to Hanoi to take the task as Vice-Chairman of the Central Commission for Organisational Affairs (CCOA), the supreme body managing the human resource sector in Vietnam's political system in the context of an ongoing anti-corruption campaign in the whole government until appointed as head of the CCOA in February 2016.
The Political Report of the 13th Congress lays out three key development goals between 2021 and 2045 of which the immediate one for the new cabinet is to turn Vietnam into a developing nation with a modern-oriented industry and raising GDP per capita to $5,000 by 2025 up from $2,750 at the end of 2020. Towards these goals, the new government aims to achieve an average economic growth rate of 6.5 to 7 per cent in the next five years as well as to maintain success in containing Covid-19 and remaining economic stability. Despite the challenges relating to infrastructure, human resources, and sustainable development, the new government shows great ambitions to boost reforms relating to inclusive development whilst keeping pace with ongoing global trends.
With a new cabinet, Vietnam's government is promised to set out in the right direction, helping Vietnam become more prosperous and affirm its important position in resolving common issues of the region and the world.