Agricultural development should be promoted as it is buffer against external shocks

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc chairs Cabinet meeting on September 4, 2020. Photo: VGP

The agricultural sector enjoyed the trade surplus of US$6.2 billion over the first eight months of 2020, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Addressing the Cabinet meeting on Friday, Phuc reiterated that the Government remains keen on pursuing the dual goal of COVID-19 containment and economic recovery in the rest of the year.

The newly-emerged COVID-19 clusters have been controlled, allowing Viet Nam to have restarted the economy, which have brought about positive signals, the Government chief said.

The country posted a trade surplus of US$11.9 billion in the first eight months, surpassing the record figure of US$11.2 billion in 2019, with four months to go.

Disbursed volume of public investment capital rose by 30.4% against the same period last year. The Government has repeatedly said accelerating disbursement of the capital is among key solutions to the country’s economic recovery amid COVID-19 pandemic.

Particularly, Viet Nam was placed as the 12^th strongest economy out of 66 emerging economies in the wake of the COVID-19 fallout, according The Economist.

Viet Nam is relatively strong and stable in all four indicators, namely public debt, foreign debt, cost of borrowing, and foreign reserve while its macro balances are stable, Phuc said, adding that this is a significant change from the 2008-2011 period.

He, however, warned that the complex evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic is the biggest challenge to the economic recovery process, not to mention other challenges like escalting trade tensions and natural disasters.

Phuc also urged subborinate levels to pay attention to warnings of volatility of global financial stability due to large amount of cash pumped into the global economy.

The COVID-19 pandemic signals the need to focus on fixing shortcomings of the economy and beefing up the development of digital economy./.

By Huong Giang