Vietnam is expected to continue posting cargo volume growth in 2015 in line with predictions of overall strengthening of the country’s economy.
Consulting firm Business Monitor International (BMI) forecasts that strong foreign direct investment into Vietnam, healthy export growth, and ongoing efforts by the government to improve macroeconomic fundamentals will keep the Vietnamese economy growing strongly this year.
This, it added, will bode well for the Vietnamese shipping industry. Real GDP growth is set to accelerate to 6.4% in 2015, from 6% in 2014, while total trade real growth is forecast to increase 6.65%.
As for the country’s key ports, BMI keeps its predictions from the previous quarter, believing that the port of Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) will continue to lead the way in tonnage throughput handled in 2015. It forecasts growth of 7.6% to 45.06mn tonnes for the port. Container throughput is forecast to rise 8% to 4.99mn twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs).
The port of Da Nang is pegged to have a 2015 tonnage throughput growth of 6.5% to 5.70mn tonnes. It is, however, expected to outperform the HCMC port in container throughput with a forecast increase of 10% to 206,320 TEUs.
First-quarter economy to accelerate
Meanwhile, Vietnam’s financial watchdog the National Financial Supervisory Commission (NFSC) expects Vietnam’s economy to quicken in the first quarter of 2015 to an annual rate of 5.4%, reports VietnamNet Bridge.
In a recently released report, the commission said the uptrend will continue in the next three quarters to enable the government to achieve its growth target of 6.2% for the whole of 2015.
Despite enormous bank bad debt and the inefficiencies of the state sector , the Southeast Asian nation is expected to benefit from a raft of free trade agreements it will sign during the year, opening up opportunities for local businesses and forcing them to improve their strategies to effectively compete in the expanded markets, added the report.
The NFSC also said that business and investor confidence has been consolidated and has kept steady. This is attributed to strong administration and institutional reforms, bringing about a more transparent investment environment.
Photo: Milei.vencel
