Hanoi(VNA) - The outlook for Vietnam’s economic growth in 2018 is quite brightthanks to positive economicperformance in the first quarter, said Tran Quoc Phuong, Director of the Ministry of Planning and Investment's National Economic IssuesDepartment.

However, many experts said Vietnam’s economic growthin the first months of 2018 was high but not sustainable due to the dependenceon the foreign direct investment (FDI) sector, as the sector’s exports in thefirst five months accounted for about 70 percent of the country’s total exportturnover.

Phuong said:“After 30 years of attracting FDI, we cannot deny the role played by FDIenterprises as they already have the value chain and take Vietnam’s advantagesto export”.

Measuresshould be devised to promote links between domestic and FDI firms, thus helpingVietnamese deeply join the global value chain and access more markets, hesuggested.

Concerning the quality of Vietnam's growth, Phuong said that the quality ofgrowth was improved by looking at the index of growth.

From 2011until now, Vietnam’s average growth is over 6 percent per year, a quite good growthrate for a developing country, he noted.

TFP (aggregate factor productivity) is improving, while labor productivity andper capita income have been fine-tuned, at 2,385 USD/year, almost double thatof 2010 and three times higher than those in 2007, he added.

Although praising the economic prospect in 2018, Phuong also stated that theeconomy still faces many challenges. In addition, he also shared concerns aboutinflation.

Vietnam’s inflationin 2018 is forecasted to suffer pressure due to the complex fluctuation of oilprices in the global market and policies related to salary increase, price adjustmentof health and education services, he said.

High inflationwill adversely affect Vietnam’s efforts to ensure macroeconomic stability,Phuong said.

The stable macro-economy,strong improvement in policy mechanisms related to institutional reform,investment climate, administrative reform, reduction of business costs, will continueto effectively support domestic enterprises, thus promoting the development of theprivate sector.-VNA