Support should be given to encourage start-ups, promote innovation and technology application to accelerate the transformation towards an innovation-driven economy. (Photo: tuyengiao.vn) Nguyen Duc Hien, deputy head of the Party Central Committee’s EconomicCommission, spoke at a workshop about economic restructuring held in Hanoi onApril 26, saying the transformation of the growth model remained slower thanexpected.
Vietnam’s growth model was still mainly based on input factors, includingcapital, labour and resources, he said, adding that the contribution of thetotal factor productivity (TFP) to economic growth was limited, much lower thanother countries in the region which were also at the same development stage.
He also pointed out that the labour productivity increase remained dependent ofthe increase in investment capital and the use of low-cost labour while capitalmainly came to labour-intensive economic activities.
“Labour productivity is still low and the gap in labour productivity between Vietnamand other countries continues to widen,” he said.
Another problem was that the efficiency of public investment remained low andthe disbursement was disappointing. The process of restructuring State-ownedenterprises was below expectation while corporate governance had not beenimproved much, he said.
“The private sector has not been developed strongly enough to play an importantrole in the economy.”
Former Director of the Institute of Policy and Strategy for Agriculture andRural Development Dang Kim Son said that Vietnam should be an economy ready forinnovations with the restructuring of economic sectors in accordance withregional advantages.
Enterprises, economic organisations and the resource market must berestructured in a healthy way to catch up with other countries through thebuilding of a development government, he stressed.
Tran Tho Dat, former president of the National Economics University, said thatdigital economy would be the new driver for growth model transformation andeconomic restructuring.
Vietnam needed to develop a strategy framework for digital transformation andcreate conditions to attract investment in developing digital infrastructureand services.
The education and training system should also be renewed and closely associatedwith digitalisation, Dat said, adding that support should also be given toencourage start-ups, promote innovation and technology application.
Former director of the Vietnam Institute of Economics Tran Dinh Thien said Vietnamneeded to attach special attention to the synchronous development of inputresource markets, such as land and labour markets.
In addition, an appropriate foreign direct investment (FDI) attraction strategywould be important for the country to bring into play its advantages. “Scienceand technology and human resources will be the most important drivers forgrowth in the next period,” Thien said.
Vo Tri Thanh, director of the Institute for Brand and Competition Strategy,said that Vietnam should move from a brown economy to a green economy. Problemsrelated to basic issues of the economy must be reviewed for adjustments, suchas the Law on Land, while the framework for new issues must be put into considerationsuch as developing a law on data, cross-boder data flow and cross-border humanresource management.
According to Jonathan Pincus, UNDP Senior International Economist, besidesmaintaining export growth, it was important to create a fair playground fordomestic and FDI enterprises with special attention paid to financialmechanisms for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, he said./.
VNA
