New York (VNA) – Politburo member and head of the Party CentralCommittee’s Economic Commission Nguyen Van Binh on December 9 had a workingsession with the Permanent Mission of Vietnam to the United Nations (UN) andrepresentative agencies after attending the Vietnam Executive LeadershipProgramme (VELP 2019) at Harvard University in Boston.

Binh, who is also Secretary of the Party Central Committee, highlighted severalimportant issues that were discussed with US professors at the VELP 2019 fromDecember 2-6, including the need to develop a digital economy as well asinvestment in technology and high-quality human resources.

Vietnam is working towards the goal of 1 million businesses by 2020, and thetarget is feasible as the country already has around 734,000 firms, he said,adding it is crucial to ensure the quality and scale of enterprises.

He also stressed that scientific and technological capacity of Vietnamesecompanies still lags behind the requirements needed to join the global valuechain even though the country is integrating deeply into the global economy.

Regarding the adjustment to GDP calculation, Binh said the current calculationmethod is not a suitable measure of economic growth as it does not reflectvalue of the underground economy.

Only when the GDP is properly calculated will the Government be able tounderstand the true economic scale to outline economic development roadmaps forfive years and ten years as well as adopt suitable macro-economic managementpolicies, he said.

The Party official described macro-economic stability as Vietnam’s largestachievement in 2019. However, he said more efforts should be made to ensure thedomestic economy remains resilient to global shocks.

Besides, the Government should renew management for the market economy andcreate favourable conditions for the private sector to become a driver for thelocal economy, he said.

Meanwhile, Ambassador Dang Dinh Quy, Head of the Vietnamese Permanent Missionto the UN, said that meticulous preparations are underway as Vietnam willassume the role of the UN Security Council (UNSC) Chair in January 2020.

Quy said that differences among the five UNSC permanent members, including theUS, the UK, France, Russia and China, pose great challenges for Vietnam in itsnew position at the world’s largest multilateral organisation.

He explained that the divide between the permanentmembers has meant the UNSC’s legally-binding resolutions have not been carriedout for years, placing a great burden on Vietnam to handle sophisticatedmissions which have surged 175 percent compared to the workload a decade ago./.