2022 apec economic leaders meeting

The Hanoitimes – The data collection period is set to take place from March 1 to July 30, 2021 on various economic component groups.

Result from the national 2021 economic census would serve as the foundation for the calculation of the country’s GDP and GRDP data.

Automatic production chain at Vinfast. Photo: Tuan Minh

“The main objective of the economic census is to collect data from different economic components and assess their development in terms of quantity, scale and number of employees,” stated the Head of Hanoi’s Statistics Office Dau Ngoc Hung at the meeting marking the launch of the national 2021 economic census in Hanoi on February 5.

According to Mr. Hung, the economic census will also evaluate the efficiency in Vietnam’s process of economic restructuring and revising growth model.

“Throughout the process, the government will have a better understanding on the application of IT and modern technologies under the Industry 4.0 in the business community,” noted Mr. Hung, saying this is an opportunity for enterprises to inform the authorities of their difficulties in accessing financial resources or integrating into the global economy.

The target in this national 2021 economic census include manufacturing facilities, businesses, public-non business units, associations, non-governmental agencies in Vietnam, and religious groups.

The National Statistics Office will collect information via 22 questionnaires in online platforms or direct interview.

The data collection period is set to take place from March 1 to July 30, 2021 on various economic component groups.

Vice Chairman of the Hanoi People’s Committee Ha Minh Hai, who also heads the Steering Committee on 2021 economic census in Hanoi, said statistics data holds great significance to support the city’s leaders in the process of management.

Mr. Hai requested the municipal Statistics Office to enhance the quality of analysis and economic forecast to better meet the demand for information in the current environment.

The municipal Statistics Office is set to announce the result of the economic census in December 2021, and the official result in the first quarter of 2022.

On behalf of the real estate enterprises, Mr. Le Hoang Chau, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Real Estate Association (HOREA), said that compared to the previous year, there was an additional petition of Gamuda Land Joint Stock Company. The petition states that while waiting for the Prime Minister to decide on a VND514-billion deduction following the recommendations of the Government Inspectorate, over the past time, construction investment and business activities of the company have been stagnant, affecting the reputation and brand of this company in 10 years of operation in Vietnam.

As for the matter of social housing, Mr. Le Huu Nghia, CEO of real estate developer Le Thanh, said that they were considering whether to develop social housing again. Because of too many difficult procedures, many people advised him to play safe by switching to develop commercial real estate. At the Le Thanh Tan Kien social housing project in Binh Chanh District, although the HCMC People’s Committee had directly instructed to remove obstacles, after three years of implementing the project, now it backs to square one.

Although the regulation for the processing time of the application by authorities is 215 days, in fact, the processing of the application can take a lot longer than that because the application must be transferred between departments and districts. Even a document from the urban management office to the district People’s Committee takes several months. Moreover, although the social housing projects are invested by enterprises from start to finish, they are audited as projects using capital from the State budget. Meanwhile, the auditors are too strict. They slap them with high fines on petty mistakes, discouraging investors, Mr. Le Huu Nghia explained.

Le Thanh Company is one of 20 enterprises that have petitioned the city through the summary of HOREA. This list shows that many petitions had been raised by investors at meetings with the city leaders in the past years, but they kept repeating because they were not resolved, or resolved sluggishly.

For Novaland Group Corporation, out of a total of 14 problematic projects, only 4 projects were solved. Seven projects that have handed over houses to customers in Phu Nhuan District and have been facing obstacles in the past years, merely stay at the stage of “being actively considered and settled by the Department of Natural Resources and Environment and relevant departments”.

Entanglements at the Dragon City project in Nha Be District of Phu Long Real Estate Company have lasted for 16 years. In 2004, the company won the auction of 14 land plots with a total area of 44.49 hectares, which are clean land. The investor has fulfilled all financial obligations as prescribed, at the same time embarked on implementing the housing project as planned. However, one subdivision of the project still has a house that refuses to move, causing the company to be unable to deploy the rest of the project. Although the company has sent many petitions to the People’s Committee of HCMC, the People’s Committee of Nha Be District, and relevant authorities over the past years, so far, there has been no progress in compensation settlement.

The HOREA raised a hot issue that although the project does not include public land, the Department of Planning and Investment still requests the investor to supplement the documents many times. Up to now, the department has not submitted to the municipal People’s Committee for issuance of the decision on investment policy for the project, causing enterprises to face many difficulties. The representative of the Department of Planning and Investment explained in writing as follows: In the process of handling documents, the department does not require investors to amend and/or supplement their documents many times. However, in the case that after consulting the departments, if there is a request, the department will ask the investor for additional documents following the opinion of these agencies. The Department of Planning and Investment also suggests that in the future, if there is an unreasonable request for additional documents many times by the Department, the HOREA should inform the department so that it can respond promptly.

So for public land, which are roads, trails, canals scattered and interlaced in the projects, how will it be handled? The representative of the Department of Planning and Investment answered that the department can only review and process dossiers for investment policy approval after the Department of Natural Resources and Environment submits to the City People’s Committee to handle the issues related to the receiving of transfer, capital contribution, renting agricultural land use rights to implement projects and small land parcel managed by the State.

HCMC People’s Committee Chairman Nguyen Thanh Phong asked relevant agencies to focus on solving difficulties and speeding up the progress of real estate projects because the implementation was extremely slow. This delay is due to the inspection and auditing work. The city had had to work a lot, with the Government Inspector alone inspecting 164 projects. When being inspected, the projects must halt, affecting greatly the operation of enterprises. Besides, there are some projects related to public land, the city also had to stop.

“I understand that currently, real estate businesses are facing many difficulties. It costs a lot if the project is behind schedule, so departments must understand and share this,” Mr. Nguyen Thanh Phong noted.

HCMC now has 13 million people. After five years, it will increase by 1 million people, so the pressure on technical and social infrastructure is tremendous. This is also a great potential for real estate enterprises. The real estate industry plays an important role and position and has a close relationship with many industries and many other markets, such as capital, labor, and construction materials. Since 2000, real estate is considered one of nine important service industry groups of HCMC. Up to now, out of 10,200 businesses with a capital of VND100 billion upwards, real estate enterprises account for 32 percent and 35 percent of the capital. Statistics also show that in the nine important service industries contributing 56.5 percent of the gross regional domestic product of HCMC, real estate accounts for 4.2 percent, contributing 8.2 percent to domestic revenue.

Mr. Nguyen Thanh Phong affirmed that removing difficulties for real estate is to remove difficulties for the economic development of the city. The city leader felt concerned after hearing that most real estate businesses have been encountering difficulties. He requested that based on the petitions of enterprises, Vice Chairman of the People’s Committee Le Hoa Binh should schedule to work with departments to resolve each issue and give specific conclusions. As for the 61 projects facing difficulties in investment procedures, the Director of the Department of Planning and Investment was assigned to study and report to the investment working group of the city. These works must be completed by April 15.

The Hanoitimes – The main objective of the national economic census is to serve as the foundation for the calculation of the country’ GDP and GRDP data.

The General Statistics Office (GSO) today [March 1] starts conducting the national 2021 economic census, which is taken every five years, with the preliminary result set to publish in December 2021 and the final one in the second quarter of 2022.

The data collection period is set to take place from March 1 to July 30, 2021 on various economic component groups. Source: GSO

“The main objective of the national economic census is to evaluate Vietnam’s socio-economic development process in the past five years, serving as the foundation for the calculation of the country’ GDP and GRDP data, as well as the formulation of strategies in the 2021-25 period,” Director General of GSO Nguyen Thi Huong said in an interview on the national television yesterday [February 28].

According to Huong, the statistics authorities will be able to collect data from different economic components and assess their development in terms of quantity, scale and number of employees, in turn having a better understanding on the structure of the economy and the efficiency of the current economic restructuring process.

One of the key changes for this economic census is the use of advanced methods for data collection and processing, including computer-assisted personal interview (CAPI) for surveys, which helps to shorten time for surveying and ensure information transparency, said Huong.

The target in this national 2021 economic census include manufacturing facilities, businesses, public administration service units, associations, non-governmental agencies in Vietnam, and religious groups.

The GSO will collect information via 22 questionnaires in online platforms or direct interviews.

The data collection period is set to take place from March 1 to July 30, 2021 on various economic component groups.

The 2017 national economic census revealed out of 5.86 million economic and administrative units, the business sector recorded the highest growth with 517,900 enterprises and 14 million employees, reflecting the effective realization of the 2012-2017 socio-economic development plan in creating favorable condition for the growth of the private sector.

Business households made up a lion’s share of 5.1 million units with 8.7 million workers.

The previous economic census also reflected shortcomings of the business community, including a declining trend in size of enterprises and number of workforce, or weak linkage among business households.

As a leading financial newspaper run by Japanese media giants Nikkei Inc., Nikkei Asia have stated that, “Southeast Asia’s growth leader in 2021 may well be Vietnam”, during a recent article detailing ASEAN’s GDP forecasts for the year ahead.

The Hanoitimes – Statistical data remain objective, accurate and in compliance with laws, said Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc.

Never a government leader has asked for falsifying statistical data during the process of gathering socio-economic information, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has stated.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc speaks at the meeting. Source: VGP.

Statistical data remain objective, accurate and complies with laws, said Phuc at a conference of the General Statistics Office (GSO) on January 6.

Referring to the GDP revision, Phuc said the GSO has done a good job, ensuring full compliance with international practices.

“This is not for the sake of achievement that the government decided to revise the GDP revision,” said Phuc, adding the objective of the revision is to have a clearer basis to set up development strategies for the next five and ten years.

Head of the GSO Nguyen Bich Lam said the move was necessary to reflect the country’s economic performance more accurately, and enhance Vietnam’s status on the regional and international stages.

PM Phuc said in 2019, Vietnam’s nominal GDP stood at US$262 billion, which is based on existing data.

Phuc said the 13%-credit growth showed the country’s economy is developing at a healthier, depending less on credit, while social investment capital accounted for 33 – 34% of the GDP.

Statistical capacity of Vietnam in 2018 was ranked 19th out of 145 countries and territories by the World Bank, placing Vietnam at second place in Southeast Asia and higher than the average score of the Asia – Pacific region.

Last August, Head of the GSO Nguyen Bich Lam announced the GDP revision that resulted in an enlargement of 25.4% annually of Vietnam’s economy in the 2010 – 2017 period compared to the previous data, in which 2011 recorded the highest growth rate of 27.3% and 2015 grew the lowest rate of 23.8%.

As such, GDP growth rates from 2011 to 2017 are 6.41%; 5.50%; 5.55%; 6.42%; 6.99%; 6.69%; and 6.94%, respectively.

Finance expert Pham Dinh Cuong said GDP revision only serves the purpose of comparison with other countries, instead of having a substantial impact on the economy itself.

Meanwhile, economist Vo Tri Thanh said GDP revision may impact the economy in the long term by leading to changes in a number of economic targets.