(VOVworld) – Vietnam is urged to increase its labor productivity 150% in order to maintain its current growth rate, according to a report on Vietnam’s macro economy presented at a Wednesday seminar in Hanoi to announce Vietnam’s reform and development achievements in 2014. Senior economist Truong Dinh Tuyen said it’s necessary to focus more on improving the macro-economy and reform the economic institutional system to make the most of the positive outcomes of business environment reforms: "Strong institutional reforms are essential to echo the pay-offs of business environment reforms. Otherwise, such reforms would become meaningless. Another weakness of Vietnam is its low labor productivity. We must create a market institution and a competitive environment to pressure the economy and businesses to restructure."

Nguyen Dinh Cung, Director of the Central Economic Management Institute, said better market disciplines are needed to improve the quality of national growth: "Pressing issues for 2015 include stepping up efforts to prevent the smuggling, production, and trading of fake or low-quality goods. Neutral agencies in charge of ensuring market disciplines and order must be established to ensure fair competition. Better market order can be achieved by improving the management capacity of Ministries and People’s Committees at all levels."