Vietnam not to seek growth at any cost
Print 
Vietnam will adopt a sustainable and environment-friendly development model rather than seek to grow at all costs, the central bank governor said at the annual meeting of the Asian Development Bank being held in Hanoi this year.
The ADB itself has laid out two scenarios for Asian development until 2050 in a report titled “Asia 2050—Realizing the Asian Century”.
They include an optimistic one in which more than three billion Asians will enjoy a better life with a per capita GDP of $38,600 when regional GDP reaches $148 trillion, or 51 percent of global GDP.
A more pessimistic one says since China, India, Indonesia, and Vietnam will fall into the middle-income trap, regional GDP will grow sluggishly, only reaching $61 trillion, or $23,300 per capita.
So ADB experts urged the four fast-growing economies to switch from their cheap-labor and investment-intensive growth model to one of well-trained and skilled workforce and efficient investment.
The report identifies six key drivers of transformation in the region: technical progress, capital accumulation, demographics and the labor force, the emerging middle class, climate change mitigation and the competition for resources, and the communications revolution.
Asia’s long-term competitiveness will depend heavily on how it controls the intensity of its resource use, including water and food, and manages its carbon footprint.
“Asians face formidable challenges. Our leaders must be aware that future prosperity will need to be earned in the same way that developed economies have earned their success,” ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda said.
Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said overcoming the middle-income trap needs sustainable growth.
Chinese Deputy Finance Minister Li Yong concurred, adding that economic growth should benefit all people, improve the quality of public service, and boost harmony between social classes.
Financial security and strengthening legal frameworks for fighting corruption should also be prioritized in Asia for future growth, French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde said.
ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda has also called on Asian governments to harmonize efforts to build more resilient and stable financial systems at the ADB’s 44th annual meeting. “The global financial crisis has highlighted the importance of enhancing financial stability via measures taken at national, regional and global levels,” Mr. Kuroda said. “Much progress in this area has been made, but more still needs to be done.” The joint ADB/Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI) seminar, “Working Together Towards Better Financial Regulation and Stability in Asia,” looked at weaknesses exposed during the recent global financial crisis. These included insufficient macro-prudential supervision, still underdeveloped regional financial markets, and high vulnerability to volatile capital flows. Mario Lamberte, Director of Research at ADBI, noted that Asia’s financial systems held up relatively well to the strains of the recent crisis, in part because of reform and restructuring taken after the region’s own financial crisis a decade earlier. “However, policymakers need to do much more to develop and deepen the region’s financial markets and, at the same time, protect still-vulnerable financial systems from future threats,” Mr. Lamberte said. |
