Australian professor sees growth potential in Vietnam's apparatus streamlining policy

Emeritus Professor Carl Thayer, from the Australian Defence Force Academy at the University of New South Wales (Photo: VNA)

Sydney (VNA) - Emeritus Professor Carl Thayer, from the Australian Defence Force Academy at the University of New South Wales, praised the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV)'s leadership in the country's renewal, especially the role of late General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong.

In a recent interview granted to the Vietnam News Agency (VNA)'s correspondents in Sydney on the occasion of the CPV's 95th founding anniversary (February 3, 1930-2-25), Thayer recognised the late Party chief for his successful leadership of the CPV, overseeing sustained economic growth averaging 5.5% from 2011 to 2023, except during the COVID-19 pandemic. He also highlighted Trong’s leadership in tackling corruption and other negative phenomena, promoting Party building, addressing the pandemic, and earning global recognition for the CPV’s role in foreign affairs.

General Secretary Trong’s anti-corruption campaign made measurable progress raising Vietnam’s score on Transparency International’s Perceptions of Corruption Index from 2.9 in 2011 to 41 in 2023. The Perception of Corruption Index ranks over 180 countries on a scale from 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 very clean. Vietnam rose from 112th to 83rd from 2011 to 2023.

According to the Australian scholar, the campaign against corruption is a necessary but not sufficient requirement to achieve Vietnam’s development goals.

Vietnam needs to continue the corruption combat but something else must be done. Vietnam must streamline the state apparatus in order facilitate the modernisation of its means of production to take advantage of the Fourth Industrial Revolution such as technological innovation, digitisation, artificial intelligence, and quantum computing, said Thayer.

The CPV has identified that Vietnam is on the brink of entering a new era of growth. Regarding the goals that Vietnam has set for 2030 and 2045, he said the objectives are necessary to prevent Vietnam from falling into the middle-income traps, adding the factors that led to Vietnam’s current growth such as labour-intensive manufacturing is no longer sufficient to boost income and productivity to higher.

According to Thayer, the ongoing campaign to streamline the state apparatus provides Vietnam with the opportunity to develop the capacity needed to transition to technology-intensive production. This shift could foster a growing middle class and boost domestic consumption.

Vietnam has the potential to become a reliable player in the global supply chain for high-tech products like computer chips, solar panels, and electric vehicles, Thayer suggested. He recommended leveraging the country’s expanding network of strategic partnerships to achieve this.

Citing the myriad challenges Vietnam faces such as overcoming bureaucratic resistance to change, reforming its bureaucratic structures, and finding foreign investment to upgrade human resources for the new technological era, Thayer recommended developing a highly skilled technology-savvy workforce; developing well-integrated domestic value chains; proactively deepen regional trade integration; shifting from labour-intensive production to technology-intensive high-value production; and reducing carbon-intensive manufacturing to low-carbon production./.