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Vietnam 's economy will grow 8.2 percent this year, when foreign direct investment is expected to hit a record $9.5 billion, government ministers said on Wednesday.
That would suggest a modest slowdown after growth in 2005 of 8.43 percent but would compare with a 2006 growth target of 8 percent. Next year, Hanoi aims to achieve growth of between 8.2 percent and 8.5 percent.
"The economy achieves a high growth this year of 8.2 percent," Deputy Prime Minister Pham Gia Khiem told donors and foreign and domestic investors at an annual business forum.
Foreign direct investment in both new pledges and increased funds for existing projects in the communist-ruled country is estimated to rise to a record $9.5 billion this year, Planning and Investment Minister Vo Hong Phuc told the meeting.
"We are preparing the most favorable conditions ahead of a new investment wave in Vietnam," he said at the Vietnam Business Forum, which is held to help foreign and domestic investors voice their opinions, complaints and proposals with the government.
Vietnam will join the World Trade Organization on Jan. 11 and aims to become an industrialized nation by 2020.
While Vietnam has passed a number of laws in recent years aimed at improving the investment and business environment, it needed to speed up guidelines to implement the laws, Khiem said.
"This is a pressing requirement during the process of economic integration after Vietnam joins the WTO," he said.
The Vietnam Business Forum has been in place to review progress in implementing government commitments to the business community over the past year.
"The general perception of the enterprises surveyed, both domestic and foreign, is that the business environment in 2006 is satisfactory for conducting business in Vietnam," the forum's secretariat said in a survey of around 200 companies, 76 percent of them foreign firms.
The survey produced a 2006 rating of 2.25 on a scale of 1-to-4, with four meaning excellent, below a rating of 2.35 in 2005.
The report said the lower result was because "expectations were always more optimistic than actual performance results" and that "there was no significant change in the business environment over the past 12 months".
Diplomats and foreign investors say endemic corruption in government and society and lack of international auditing standards for companies remained their concern.
The World Bank chairs a Consultative Group meeting on Dec. 14-15 when donors will announce aid for Vietnam for the following year.
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