June 26, 2007	Tuesday	Jamadi-us-Sani 10, 1428

SINGAPORE, June 25: Vietnam, already growing at one of the fastest rates in the world, is set to continue that momentum for several more years, a senior government official said.

The communist nation's economy expanded nearly 8.2 per cent last year -- one of the world's fastest rates after China -- and First Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Sinh Hung said that pace of growth would continue for the period 2010-2015.

“We expect that we will retain such an economic growth of eight to 10 per cent per annum,” he told the World Economic Forum on East Asia.

Vietnam's economy grew 7.7 per cent in the first quarter compared to the same three-month period last year, the Government Statistics Office said in an early estimate.

Addressing a forum of close to 300 business leaders and other delegates, Nguyen provided other figures to demonstrate his country's transition from a centrally-controlled to a free market economy.

Vietnam abandoned strict Soviet-style central planning and began its “doi moi” market reforms 20 years ago after decades of war.

In January, the country joined the World Trade Organisation international trading system which it hopes will further accelerate growth.

More than $15 billion in foreign investment is expected this year, Nguyen said.

“We may even reach $20 billion,” the bespectacled Nguyen told a luncheon.

“This year we are going to issue about $1 billion in government bonds to the international markets,” he added, through a translator.

More than once, Nguyen said his country needed training assistance to help the growth continue.

“We need help from all the world community and our friends,” he said, appealing for help across a wide spectrum of fields including manual labour, high-technology and management.

The aim, he said, was to reduce poverty, improve health and education systems and generally raise living standards.

As the population neared 100 million, fewer than 20 per cent now lived below the poverty line, he said.

Nguyen said the country would have to cut corporate and personal tax rates to further encourage an inflow of foreign capital.

He said Vietnam was seeking cooperative relations with other countries, and the main factor ensuring continued growth would be peace. —AFP