Vietnam's industries benefit from stimulus packages

There is no doubt that Vietnam's economy is on its way to recovery. The first nine months of this year saw economic growth at 4.59%, according to the website of Vietnam 's Ministry of Planning and Investment(MPI). Such performance is a concrete reflection of the favorable impact of the measures initiated by the government to ensure economic growth in the midst of the global economic crisis. The $8 billion stimulus package to boost the national economy has definitely made its mark on the country whose rapid industrial growth has been the focus of much investors' attention in the past few years. To ensure that such growth trend would continue, Vietnamese Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Cao Viet Sinh urged ministries, relevant agencies and local authorities nationwide to continue implementing measures to closely monitor price hikes and trade deficit while preventing exports from further deteriorating. While the MPI has expected the country's economic growth to reach 5.2% this year, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) also made an upward adjustment estimating Vietnam's economic growth to reach 4.7% this year. The positive assessment has been attributed to the Vietnamese government's initiative to minimize the adverse impact of the global economic downturn, according to Ayumi Konishi, ADB Country Director for Vietnam. These measures include a temporary 30% cut in the corporate tax rate for small and medium - sized companies, additional financial assistance to poor house holds, a four percent age point interest rate subsidy on certain bank loans, and a boos tin planned infra structure spending. Monetary policy was also eased. These paved the way for a 3.9% growth in the first half of this year. With such performance, the Vietnamese economy has definitely bottomed out and shows signs of a rebound that a second stimulus package would not be necessary, according to ADB. The institution has also praised Vietnam's efforts to integrate poverty alleviation components into its strategy for sustainable growth. Exports still struggling The positive economic forecast, however, still needs to trickle down to Vietnam's export sector. This is because the country's export value is expected to experience negative growth of 2.2% and 6.4% to $61.3 billion and $58.7 billion, respectively, according to the National Center for Socio-economic Information and Forecast (NCEIF) under the MPI. The estimate was based on the country's export trend in recent years, the performance in its key markets and the outlook for the world economic recovery. In response, the Vietnam central bank announced its plan to extend its subsidized-lending program by two years to the end of 2011. The State Bank of Vietnam said that the policy extension would support businesses and individuals requiring medium- to long-term capital. The subsidizedlending program helps offset four percentage points off interest rates on loans that enterprises take from commercial lenders. Since it was introduced in February as part of the government's multibillion dollar stimulus measures, domestic banks have made loans totaling 409.4 trillion dong ($22.9 billion), the central bank said. The plastics industry in Vietnam has been able to sail through the global economic crisis. Exports of plastic products in the first six months of this year recorded a 14% decline year- on-year to $371.26 million, according to the information center of Vietnam's Ministry of Industry and Trade. The decline was due to the falling prices of Vietnam's plastic products traded in the international markets. However, export of the country's plastic products showed steady growth in such markets as Indonesia, Spain and India. Although other marketAir Jordan VIII 8 Shoes