Income

Institutions have become a major impediment to the nation’s aspiration to reach high income by 2045. Vietnam needs to shift its economic growth model and improve the government’s capacity to implement economic policy reforms and public investments, realizing its aspiration of reaching high-income status by 2045, a World Bank Group report says. Overview of the report launch. The World Bank Group’s Systematic Country Diagnostic Update, themed "How Will Vietnam Blossom? Reforming Institutions for Effective Implementation,” emphasizes that Vietnam's traditional growth model faces major challenges from the Covid-19 pandemic, slowing globalization, and the country’s increasing vulnerability to external shocks, especially climate risks. After identifying a series of policy responses and reform priorities, many of which are not new, the report argues that adapting institutions will be the key to success. “Vietnam’s GDP per capita has increased fivefold over the … [Read more...] about Effective policy implementation crucial for Vietnam to reach high-income status by 2045: WB

Low-income housing projects will be prioritised in major cities, particularly Hanoi and HCM City. Real estate giant Vinhomes has announced plans to build 500,000 social housing apartments priced below VND1 billion across the country over the next five year. In August this year, the firm will start its first project. Low-income housing projects will be prioritised in major cities, particularly Hanoi and HCM City Housing and Urban Development Corporation has recently started work on a social housing project in the northern province of Hanoi to offer 564 apartments priced at just VND380 million (USD16,521) each. Thanh Hoa provincial authorities have approved a low-income housing project in Thanh Hoa City which will provide up to 2,400 apartments. Meanwhile, Ninh Binh Province has agreed on a project to build 2,153 apartments at Gian Khau Industrial Park and neighbouring areas. Four low-income housing projects in the country were completed in the first … [Read more...] about More low-income housing projects to be carried out

Pfizer Inc will make all of its patented medicines including COVID-19 treatment Paxlovid and big-selling breast cancer drug Ibrance available at a not-for-profit price to 45 of the world's poorest countries, the drugmaker said on Wednesday. These countries lack good access to innovative treatments. It can take four to seven years longer for new treatments to become available in low-income countries, according to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, if they become available at all. Pfizer said its plan includes 23 wholly-owned, patented medicines and vaccines that treat infectious diseases, certain cancers, and rare and inflammatory diseases. In addition to Paxlovid and Ibrance, the list includes pneumonia vaccine Prevnar 13, rheumatoid arthritis drug Xeljanz and cancer treatments Xalkori and Inlyta. The COVID-19 vaccine Comirnaty developed with BioNTech SE was also on the list. Chief Executive Albert Bourla said in an interview that all the medicines being made available … [Read more...] about Pfizer to sell all its patented drugs at nonprofit price in low-income countries

Speakers at a conference discuss how improving institutional performance can help Viet Nam achieve its target of reaching high-income status in 2045. — VNA/VNS Photo Viet Nam must seek to adapt its economic growth model while drastically improving the Government's capacity to coordinate and implement economic policy reforms and public investments to realise its objective of reaching high-income status by 2045, said a recent World Bank (WB) report. The report emphasises the major challenges faced by Viet Nam's traditional growth model during the COVID-19 pandemic, slowing globalisation and the Southeast Asian economy's increasing vulnerability to external shocks, especially climate risks. The key to addressing said issues, according to WB, is for the country's institutions to adapt and improve. “Viet Nam's GDP per capita has increased fivefold over the past three decades, while its institutions have not adapted at the same speed since the Doi Moi (Renewal) course of the late … [Read more...] about Institutional reforms key to reaching high-income status

A nurse takes care of a patient at the Vĩnh Cửu District Medical Station in the southern province of Đồng Nai. The province faces doctor shortage due to low income. — Photo baodongnai.com.vn ĐỒNG NAI — Doctor shortages have been growing across many provinces, despite efforts from the health sector to attract human resources. In the southern province of Đồng Nai, both downgraded medical stations and new ones cannot find for doctors to work, mainly due to the low income offered, said the provincial Department of Health. The province has 170 ward medical stations, but many of them do not have any doctors. The province must assign doctors from other upper-level medical stations to support, Vietnam News Agency reported. The Hưng Lộc Commune Medical Station in Thống Nhất District was built 22 years ago and its infrastructure has been seriously downgraded. It has eight medical workers to serve more than 17,000 residents. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the station received … [Read more...] about Provinces lack doctors due to low income

After finishing her work at a shoe factory run by Pou Yuen Vietnam Co. Ltd in Binh Tan District at 4 p.m., Ly Thi Nghiem, 38, rushed back to her rented apartment to make dinner for her two children aged nine and 11. She did not join them though. As soon as the food was ready, she left for a restaurant around 5km away to work as a waitress. Nghiem’s husband also works at the shoe factory. Together, they earn more than VND16 million (around $700) each month. "If we don’t work overtime, we can’t earn enough to raise the kids," said Nghiem. Every month, the couple spends more than VND3 million on rent and utility bills, and it costs more than VND5 million to send the kids to school. The factory does not regularly have workers stay back and work overtime and even if it does, the shift lasts only one hour, and the extra income is not enough to raise their total income, said Nghiem. Nghiem’s husband is in charge of taking the kids to school early in the morning and picking them up … [Read more...] about HCMC factory workers eke out a living with additional jobs