The Vietnam Annual Economic Report 2013 (VAER) continued to receive the interest of many government agencies, policy makers, theoretical and research institutes of the country and abroad as well as Government Office, Presidential Office, National Assembly Office, the Central Theoretical Council, Vietnam National University Hanoi; leaders of universities and research institutes, together with representatives of many embassies in Vietnam, international organizations such as UNDP, World Bank, IMF, ADB. DFID, IrishAid etc. and other associations, businesses, banks and the media.

VAERs are published annually, aiming at summarize major issues of the economy in the last year and discusses about the next year’s scenarios and recommends policies for the current economic context.
VAER 2011 entitled “The economy at a crossroad” and 2012 report entitled “Facing challenges ò structual reform” have pointed out the fundamental issues causing macroeconomic instability and weakening the growth of Vietnam’s economy in the medium term. Following the previous reports, VAER 2013 under the title “On the bumpy road to future” reflected the concerns about the risk of Vietnam’s economic recovery in the coming years without strong commitments, drastic enforcement of economic restructural policies, the transformation of growth model, and above all, a clarified picture of overall socio-economy for Vietnam in the future.

Speaking at the workshop, VNU President Assoc.Prof.Dr. Phung Xuan Nha - VNU said “The series of Vietnam Annual Economic Reports is a major study of the of VNU strategic research program on Theory and macroeconomic policy in Vietnam economic integration which was authorized to the VNU University of Economics and Business and implemented by Vietnam Center for Economic and Policy Research. There have been four reports ror nearly five years. The features of the VAER are the inheritance from year to year with each theme sticked to the country’s development. In early 2013, the series have been awarded Bao Son Prize for the item of sustainable development - a prestigious award and great value for scientists, whose studies have high practical applicability, contributing to the development of economy, culture, society and human beings of Vietnam. The series was welcomed by researchers community and recognized by colleagues. Receiving Bao Son Prize marked the successful development of the study for the past years. The increasing prestige of the VEPR research team has showed the right direction of VNU in terms of forming and developing of the research program.”

Afterward, Dr. Nguyen Duc Thanh - Chief author has presented the summary of the VAER 2013 research findings. Accordingly, the VAER 2013 includes seven chapters and two appendices. Apart from the first two chapters which described a panorama of the world and Vietnam economy, the VAER 2013 provided findings in many fields, such as characteristics of inflation in Vietnam during the post-WTO accession period, the non-performing loans of commercial banking system, the risk of the de-industrialization of Vietnam after accessing trade agreement between ASEAN - China Free Trade Area, the adjustment of the labor market during the fluctuations of economic and financial structure. In the last chapter, the report pointed out Vietnam’s economic prospects in 2013 and policy recommendations.
As suggested by economic experts like Dr. Vu Viet Ngoan, Dr. Le Dang Doanh, Dr. Vo Tri Thanh, VAER 2013 remained its quality with a thorough analysis of the socio-economic issues of Vietnam in implementing restructural policies. Besides high appreciation of the policy recommendation in the study, Dr. Vu Viet Ngoan suggested the research team to add more specific recommendations for each issue, or assess the other side of the current policy. Dr. Le Dang Doanh and Dr. Vo Tri Thanh provided detailed comments for each chapter and a number of issues that need to be clarified in the report.
In addition, the experts also discussed about the report title of his year and content of the chapters. 

At the workshop, the delegates raised some questions for the research team on current situation assessment and deeper analysis of monetary, gold and exchange rates policy; the impact of policies on the market; the integration issue in East Asia and China’s role, etc. Some people suggested that the team should pick out the major topics to conduct in-depth and more specific study.
Closing the workshop, on behalf of UEB leaders and the authors, UEB Rector Assoc.Prof.Dr. Nguyen Hong Son thanked comments and contributions of the experts and participants at the workshop. He confirmed these suggestions would be useful reference for the authors for further study and complete the report.