Vietnam eyes 7.5-pct GDP growth in first quarter of 2006

Vietnam has targeted a gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 7.5 percent in the first quarter of 2006, after recording an economic growth of 8.4 percent in 2005, the highest level over the past nine years, local newspaper People reported Wednesday.

The country with per capita income of 640 U.S. dollars this year has also planned to post industrial and agricultural production growths of 15 percent and 3.8 percent, respectively, in the quarter, Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Khai said at a government regular meeting on Dec. 26-27.

Vietnam has eyed export revenues of 9 billion dollars in the quarter, up from 6.7 billion dollars in the same period this year.

To this end, the country will focus on boosting production and export, stabilizing prices of goods and services, and revising and building legal documents to facilitate production, business and investment activities, he said.

In 2005, Vietnam is estimated to reap export earnings of more than 32.2 billion dollars, posting year-on-year surge of 21.6 percent, and import turnovers of nearly 36.8 billion dollars, up 15.4 percent.

Meanwhile, it is set to lure around 6 billion dollars of foreign direct investment.

Vietnam is estimated to generate 1.6 million jobs this year, reducing the urban unemployment rate to 5.4 percent, he said, adding that over 400,000 Vietnamese people are working abroad, and annually send home some 1.7 billion dollars.

The country saw a 7.79-percent growth in GDP last year.

Source: Xinhua