At a press briefing Thursday in Hanoi, World Bank country director Victoria Kwakwa said Vietnam should strengthen reforms and take advantage of its competitiveness to record more successes.

She said she believes Vietnam will be able to maintain its growth rates at high levels soon.

According to a report released prior to the meeting, Vietnam is among a few Asian countries doing “reasonably well” with gross domestic product expanding 3.1 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier.

Among several recommendations made in the report is for Vietnam to phase out the second part of the interest rate subsidy scheme, improve the quality of reporting on budget planning and implementation so as to avoid confusing markets, and speed up official development aid disbursement.

Reported by Huong Giang