Hanoi (VNA) - Strong economic growth in 2017 is fuelling investorconfidence in the Vietnamese economy in 2018, with many investmentopportunities on the horizon, experts said at a conference held in Thanh HoaProvince on January 5.

Theconference held by VTV24 and BizLIVE discussed investment and businessopportunities in 2018 in the finance, real estate and securities sectors.

TranDinh Thien, Director of the Vietnam Institute of Economics, said the businessclimate was improving together with the development of the private economicsector, which boosted the economy.

However,focus must be placed on growth quality, Thien said.

Hesaid it was essential to hasten the handling of bad debts, equitisation ofState-owned enterprises and tackle cross-share holding at banks, together withmechanisms to promote domestic enterprises through simplifying procedures andcutting costs for business.

Thiensaid that special mechanisms for HCM City and special administrative-economiczones must create breakthroughs to fuel economic growth.

Mostparticipants at the conference predicted that GDP growth in 2018 would be about6.7-7 percent, which Thien said showed optimism.

FormerDeputy Minister of Planning and Investment Dang Huy Dong said: “Vietnam postedhigher-than-target economic growth in 2017. Still, greater efforts arerequired.”

“It’stime to accelerate economic growth,” Dong said, adding that Vietnam can achievegrowth of 8-9 percent in the next decade.

Investmentopportunities

Therestructuring of the banking system was promising brighter prospects forfinancial investment.

ExpertLe Xuan Nghia said that 2017 was a successful year for the financial industry,including the banking, securities and insurance sectors.

Stabilitywould continue in 2018, Nghia said. However, it was necessary to createresources to reduce interest rates.

However,Can Van Luc, senior advisor of the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam,said lowering interest rates was not easy because bad debts could not be solvedquickly, but the rates would be stable.

Inthe property sector, experts said that 2018 would be a year for the mid-endsegment due to high demand.

Regardingcondotels, Nguyen Manh Khoi, Deputy Director of the Ministry of Construction’sHousing and Real Estate Market Management Department, said that this propertyproduct had attracted significant attention in recent years.

However,there was a lack of clear regulations to regulate condotels which might causeunexpected problems for investors, Khoi said.

Headded that the ministry was compiling regulations to regulate condotels, inwhich legality and ownership would be clarified.

TrinhVan Quyet, chairman of developer FLC Group, urged the early promulgation of regulationsfor condotels to help developers and encourage investment in the resortproperty market.

Forinvestments in the securities market, Pham Hong Son, Deputy Chairman of theState Securities Commission, said that focus would be placed on enhancing markettransparency and market discipline in 2018 to protect investors and ensure themarket would develop sustainably. - VNA