Strong economic growth in 2017 is fuelling investor confidence in the Vietnamese economy in 2018, with many investment opportunities on the horizon, experts said at conference held yesterday in Thanh Hoa Province. — Photo vtv.vn

HÀ NỘI — Strong economic growth in 2017 is fuelling investor confidence in the Vietnamese economy in 2018, with many investment opportunities on the horizon, experts said at a conference held yesterday in Thanh Hóa Province.

The conference held by VTV24 and BizLIVE discussed investment and business opportunities in 2018 in the finance, real estate and securities sectors.

Trần Đình Thiên, Director of the Việt Nam Institute of Economics, said the business climate was improving together with the development of the private economic sector, which boosted the economy.

However, focus must be placed on growth quality, Thiên said.

He said it was essential to hasten the handling of bad debts, equitisation of State-owned enterprises and tackle cross-share holding at banks, together with mechanisms to promote domestic enterprises through simplifying procedures and cutting costs for business.

Thiên said that special mechanisms for HCM City and special administrative-economic zones must create breakthroughs to fuel economic growth.

Most participants at the conference predicted that GDP growth in 2018 would be about 6.7-7 per cent, which Thiên said showed optimism.

Former Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Đặng Huy Đông said: “Việt Nam posted higher-than-target economic growth in 2017. Still, greater efforts are required.”

“It’s time to accelerate economic growth,” Đông said, adding that Việt Nam can achieve growth of 8-9 per cent in the next decade.

Investment opportunities

The restructuring of the banking system was promising brighter prospects for financial investment.

Expert Lê Xuân Nghĩa said that 2017 was a successful year for the financial industry, including the banking, securities and insurance sectors.

Stability would continue in 2018, Nghĩa said. However, it was necessary to create resources to reduce interest rates.

However, Cấn Văn Lực, senior advisor of the Bank for Investment and Development of Việt Nam, said lowering interest rates was not easy because bad debts could not be solved quickly, but the rates would be stable.

In the property sector, experts said that 2018 would be a year for the mid-end segment due to high demand.

Regarding condotels, Nguyễn Mạnh Khởi, Deputy Director of the Ministry of Construction’s Housing and Real Estate Market Management Department, said that this property product had attracted significant attention in recent years.

However, there was a lack of clear regulations to regulate condotels which might cause unexpected problems for investors, Khởi said.

He added that the ministry was compiling regulations to regulate condotels, in which legality and ownership would be clarified.

Trịnh Văn Quyết, chairman of developer FLC Group, urged the early promulgation of regulations for condotels to help developers and encourage investment in the resort property market.

For investments in the securities market, Phạm Hồng Sơn, Deputy Chairman of the State Securities Commission, said that focus would be placed on enhancing market transparency and market discipline in 2018 to protect investors and ensure the market would develop sustainably. — VNS