ABSTRACT
To achieve the draft Strategy’s goals of growth, employment-creation and poverty-reduction, Vietnam will have to raise both the quantity and quality of investment. This chapter explores the economic framework for growth and poverty-reduction that underlies the Government’s ten-year Strategy. It examines whether its investment, savings and external balance are consistent with its growth and poverty-reduction objectives and whether the projected sources of investment and savings are plausible. The target of rapid growth with equity will require a higher level of investment and an improved quality of investment. Productivity improvements in Vietnam will also be generated if Vietnamese enterprises adopt newer technologies in their production processes. International advances in information technology could have significant implications for Vietnam’s productivity performance in the future. To improve the quality of public investment and its utilization, improvements in the management and equity of public spending will be critical.
