Vietnam urged to become a more competitive market
7/8/16
The Vietnam Chamber of
Commerce and Industry (VCCI), the Ministry of Planning and Investment and the
World Bank jointly held a seminar in Hanoi on the role of the business
community as well as need of institutional reform in the Vietnam 2035 Report.
The report “Vietnam 2035:
Toward Prosperity, Creativity, Equity and Democracy” lays out a path for the
country to reach upper-middle income status by 2035.
In the report, Vietnam sets
goals for modernising the economy, increasing the competitiveness of the
private sector, the effectiveness of urbanisation and the capacity of climate
change response, ensuring social equality for vulnerable groups, and building a
modern rule-of-law State.
To that end, Head of the
Central Institute for Economic Management Nguyen Dinh Cung said that Vietnam
should become a more competitive, transparent and democratic market.
Pham Dinh Toan, Chairman of the
Phu Thai Group, said that business will decide the success of institutional
reform.
From now to 2035, employers
should improve their knowledge and capacity as many businesses cannot grow as
the awareness of their leaders has yet to meet the requirements of the
integration process, he added.
At the event, delegates
recommended Vietnamese enterprises pay more attention to exports, particularly
in Vietnam’s strongest fields like seafood processing, garment and textiles and
electronics.
They were also advised to
associate with foreign businesses to gain higher competitiveness./.
All comments [ 10 ]
During the past quarter century, Vietnam has emerged as one of Asia’s great success stories.
In a nation once ravaged by war, the economy has posted annual per capita growth of 5.3 percent since 1986—faster than any other Asian economy apart from China.
Vietnam has benefited from a program of internal restructuring, a transition from the agricultural base toward manufacturing and services, and a demographic dividend powered by a youthful population.
The country has also prospered since joining the World Trade Organization, in 2007, normalizing trade relations with the United States and ensuring that the economy is consistently ranked as one of Asia’s most attractive destinations for foreign investors.
Given the past decade’s rapid rate of migration from farm to factory, it seems unlikely that the pace can accelerate further to raise productivity enough to offset the slowing growth of the labor force.
Deep structural reforms within the Vietnamese economy and a strong and sustained commitment from policy makers and companies will be necessary
many companies have prospered in Vietnam because of the country’s strong and stable growth and inexpensive, abundant labor.
In the near term, Vietnam must cope with a highly uncertain global environment.
Vietnam has a larger challenge. Since the key drivers that powered its robust growth in the past—a young, growing labor force and the transition from agriculture to manufacturing and services—are beginning to run out of steam, Vietnam now needs new sources of growth to replace them.
Vietnam should identify sources of growth to replace those now becoming exhausted. Manufacturing and service industries ought to step up their productivity growth performance.
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