Vietnam is estimated to post gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 8.3 percent in 2007, and 8.5 percent in 2008, compared with the annual average of 7.3 percent in the last 10 years, an official from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said Tuesday.

"If Vietnam accelerates reform, a sustainable high level of growth will follow," ADB Country Director to Vietnam Ayumi Konishi said at a press conference on launching the Asian Development Outlook (ADO) 2007, the annual ADB publication that forecasts economic trends in Asia.

Equitization of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), financial sector reforms, simplification of public administration for greater efficiency, transparency and infrastructure improvement are all important to Vietnam, he said.

Developing Asian economies are forecast to post GDP growth of 7. 6 percent in 2007 and 7.7 percent in 2008, according to the ADO.

The growth of Southeast Asian economies is projected to slow down somewhat to 5.6 percent in 2007 from 6 percent in 2006.

Source: Xinhua