Businesses urged to innovate, catch up with digital transforation

Hanoi (VNA) – Innovation is the shortest way for countries and businesses to catch up with the digital transformation trend, Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue has said.

Addressing the CEO Forum 2019, the Deputy PM underlined that enterprises should take renovation as the motivation and an optimal solution to improve their competitiveness amidst the increasingly intensive and comprehensive international economic integration.

The future will not be extension of the past

Innovation in businesses can be understood as the using of technology, mostly digital technology, to promote automation and make the whole production and business process smarter from the stage of management, production, marketing to selling.

[Vietnamese SMEs need more backing to enter supply chains: workshop]

Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung said that a revolution is happening, in which the future will not be the extension of the past.

Regarding the innovation in Vietnam, Minister Hung held that many things can be done, including making a reverse in mindset.

“For example, in the past, we learn before practice, but now we practice first and learn latter,” he stated.

The minister explained that the “new things” is not to be learnt, but to be tried.

He underscored that managers of companies should explore new approaches in the current period.

Deputy Prime Minister VuongDinh Hue addresses the forum (Photo: Organising board/VietnamPlus)

New technologies and their destructive strength

Today, what has sent successful “regimes” in the past to a collapse, such as the case of Nokia?

Minister Hung held that normally, new and breakthrough technologies are first developed by most successful companies. However, in the next steps, after their marketing staff find that the new technologies do not receive positive response from the market as the old ones which are more popular and still effective, the firms will return to maintain technologies that can maintain and improve product quality and productivity to increase revenue and profit.

For new companies, they are often formed on the foundation of new and breakthrough technologies. Their way is to explore the market and customers. Their target customers are often in the low section. They experience a trial process and accept failure. But from the process, a series of new applications and products with strong influence will be introduced, helping these companies win higher market section, he said.

As a result, big firms will be late for the game and lose their customers, thus the position is changed, he concluded.

Hung pointed out that innovation often brings about new chances for new companies who own new and breakthrough technologies.

This means even big companies should renovate their way of approach in three steps – developing new technologies and new markets; waiting for the shaping and growing of the new technologies and market; and commercializing the technologies, he said.

Slow companies will lose customers (Photo: Organising board/VietnamPlus)

Creative renovation is the key

According to the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Vietnam ranked 45^th out of 126 countries in innovation performance in 2018, up two places compared to 2017 and 14 places over 2016.

However, Minister of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs Dao Ngoc Dung said that Vietnam is still weak in input indexes for innovation, including rankings of universities, knowledge employments, theratio of qualified female workers, international creation registrations, and export/import of ICT services.

Amidst the current fierce competition, innovation has become a crucial factor for businesses, held Dung, adding that Vietnamese companies should increase investment in new technologies, especially IT, as well as research and development (R&D) activities.

The Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs will focus on completing and developing the labour market comprehensively to mobilize and optimize human resources, creating a real transformation in a comprehensive and healthylabour market, he stated.

He said that the ministry will also improve the quality of vocational training, while training high quality human resources to meet the socio-economic development demand.

At the forum, Deputy PM Hue said that as Vietnam is deeply integrated into the world economy, the country faces many challenges but also has multiple opportunities to narrow the development gap with other countries. Therefore, digital transformation is a vital step for businesses to stay afloat in the Industry 4.0 era.

Deputy PM Hue said in recent years, the Party and State have advocated the transformation of the growth model based on the application of science, technology and innovation to improve productivity, quality and competitiveness of the economy.

In 2019, the first National Innovation Centre is expected to be set up, he revealed.

“I can feel positive and strongmovements in businesses’ innovation from the mindset and actions of CEOs who bring their firms to development,” stated the Deputy PM.

The CEO Forum 2019 is part of the Festival of Golden Dragon Awards and Vietnam Excellent Brands Awards 2019 held by the Vietnam Economic Times from April 5-6./.