(VOVworld) – The World Bank in Vietnam launched the Vietnam Development Report 2016, entitled “Transforming Vietnamese Agriculture: Gaining More from Less”, in Hanoi on Tuesday.

At the World Bank's ceremony to release the report (Photo: VNA)

Ousmane Dione, World Bank Country Director for Vietnam, said the agriculture needs to change to overcome the current difficulties to ensure the sector’s future growth and meet demand.

The report details challenges and opportunities facing the sector and stresses that in order to remain competitive in the international market, Vietnam needs to improve product quality and food safety.

It notes that the agricultural sector has made enormous progress. Vietnam has emerged as one of the world’s leading exporters of agro-food commodities and is among the top five for aquatic products, rice, coffee, tea, cashews, black pepper, rubber, and cassava.

On the same day, the Asian Development Bank released Asian Development Outlook 2016 update with its projections on Vietnam’s economic development prospects for this year and next year.

According to the report, Vietnam’s economy will continue to run smoothly regardless of challenges caused by the decline of the agricultural and mineral sectors in the first half of 2016.

The report forecasts that Vietnam’s economic growth is expected to reach 6% this year and 6.3% next year.

The growth in 2016 is expected to happen in the second half of the year, thanks to the increase in foreign direct investment, exports, domestic credit, the low recovery of agriculture, and the disbursement of basic capital for national infrastructure investment programs. The ADB report says that trade remains a bright spot of Vietnam’s economy, with a surplus of goods estimated at 8.2% of the GDP.