Vietnam sees stable socioeconomic development

 Vietnam has so far this year gained fairly good and stable socioeconomic development, with an estimated GDP growth of 6.28 percent in the first half, the country's General Statistics Office said Friday.

Vietnam's GDP is estimated to have grown 6.28 percent in the first half of this year against the same period last year, including growth rates of 6.08 percent in the first quarter and 6. 44 percent in the second quarter.

Of the GDP growth of 6.28 percent, 0.42 percent came from agriculture, forestry and seafood sector, 2.98 percent from industry and construction sector, 2.22 percent from service sector, and 0.66 percent from taxes on products (excluding subsidies), said the office.

Among sectors that are estimated to have recorded the highest growth rates in the January-June period, manufacturing and processing industry has so far this year posted a growth of 9.95 percent, wholesales and retails 8.35 percent, mining 8.18 percent, forestry 8.07 percent, construction 6.60 percent, and finance, banking and insurance 5.85 percent.

Regarding the economic structure in the first half, agriculture, forestry and seafood sector made up 16.73 percent, industry and construction 33.45 percent, service 39.61 percent, and product tax 10.21 percent.

Regarding agricultural production, Vietnam has over 3.1 million hectares of winter-spring rice crop this year, down 4,300 hectares against the previous crop, said the office.

According to preliminary reports from cities and provinces nationwide, the total winter-spring rice output is estimated at 20. 7 million tons, down 153,300 tons. The Mekong Delta alone has so far this year gained a rice output of 11.1 million tons, down 61, 000 tons due to heat waves and disease and pest outbreaks.

According to preliminary reports from localities across Vietnam, the country has so far this year made total outputs of 442,000 tons of tea, up 2.4 percent; 315,000 tons of rubber, up 0.6 percent; 126,000 tons of pepper, up 5.4 percent; 336,000 tons of cashew nuts, up 1 percent; 249,000 tons of orange, up 1.4 percent; and 350,700 tons of litchi, up 14 percent.

As of April 1, Vietnam had housed 27.2 million pigs, 327.1 million fowls, 2.6 million buffaloes, 5.3 million bulls, and 253, 700 cows. The country has so far this year secured total seafood output of nearly 3.1 million tons, up 3.8 percent.

Since the beginning of this year, Vietnam has seen 45,406 enterprises established with total registered capital of 282,400 billion Vietnamese dong (13 billion U.S. dollars), posting respective year-on-year rises of 21.7 percent and 22.3 percent, according to the country's Ministry of Planning and Investment. Meanwhile, 4,708 enterprises stopped operation, most of them had registered capital of below 10 billion Vietnamese dong (461,000 U. S. dollars).

Vietnam has so far this year lured foreign direct investment of nearly 5.5 billion U.S. dollars, down 19.8 percent, said the office. Specifically, the country licensed 757 new FDI projects with total registered capital of over 3.8 billion U.S. dollars, up 15.4 percent in project number, but down 21 percent in capital; and saw 281 operational FDI projects raise combined capital by nearly 1.7 billion U.S. dollars.

Between January and June, Vietnam is estimated to have secured total export turnovers of 77.7 billion U.S. dollars, up 9.3 percent, and import turnovers of 81.5 billion U.S. dollars, up 17. 7 percent against the same period last year, said the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

The number of Vietnamese working people aged 15 upward in the first half of this year is estimated at nearly 52.6 million, with 45.1 percent working in agricultural, forestry and fishery sector, 21.8 percent in industry and construction sector, and 33.1 percent in service sector. The unemployment rate in the six-month period is estimated at over 2.4 percent, said the office.

Vietnam is estimated to welcome 3.8 million foreign visitors in the first half of this year, a decline of 11.3 percent over the same period last year, according to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism. Numbers of visitors from most of Asian markets, excluding China's Taiwan, South Korea and Singapore, dropped.