EC official suggests Vietnam focus on quality of growth, investment

Hanoi (VNA) - Counsellor of the European Commission (EC) delegation in
Vietnam Willy Vandenberg has recommended the Vietnamese government to focus
on quality of growth and investment.

"Only environmentally sustainable industrial investments are good
investments in the long term," the official told the Vietnam News Agency.

Vandenberg said " Vietnam has a tremendous potential in tourism
development that require heritage and cultural preservation combined with
natural resource conservation."

He noted that Vietnam 's economic management has improved a lot and the
current challenge is to increase transparency for all economic sectors.

Increased equitisation will help the government to free up resources for
urgently needed infrastructure development and social services in health and
education, he stressed.

"We are confident that Vietnam is well on track to become an
industrialised country in the future through continued growth of the private
sector and further global integration into the trading system and free-trade
agreements such as the one currently negotiated with the EU," he said.

EU is Vietnam 's second largest ODA donor organisation with 962.8 million
USD of committed ODA in 2008.-Enditem