The level of economic growth and labour productivity of Vietnam has been slow in recent times. What to do and how to recommend the government to find a sustainable economic model for growth and improve labour productivity as well as national competitiveness are the main themes of the conference "Building market economy framework in the context of economic integration: the international experience and suggestions for Vietnam", recently held by the Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM) in Hanoi.
According to Professor Kim Jeung Ho, School of Public Policy and Management, the Korea Development Institute, in recent times, Vietnam has been maintaining economy and society stably so the nation has made satisfactory economic progress. Looking into the future, Vietnam is totally conditioned to become a dynamic country. However, in parallel with economic advantages, Vietnam is facing many challenges from the processes of economic reform, industrialisation and rapid urbanisation, macroeconomic volatility, and trade that depend on fluctuations on the international market. On that basis, Professor Kim Jeung Ho gave some suggestions based on the study of market economy and the role of the state, as well as the prospect of Vietnam in the future, which emphasizes the necessity of human resources to achieve the economic goals outlined above. Professor Kim Jeung Ho said that the experiences to build a market economy require a sustainable rule of law, political freedom and civil society expanded with the economy based on market. At the same time, the country needs to keep innovating through invention of new ideas in new production technologies, and environmentally friendly products for higher added value.
Accordingly, Professor Kim Jeung Ho recommends that Vietnam should reach three pillars to build an economy with global scale, with goals in politics, society and economy. Regarding the economy, being a latecomer to the fast pace, Vietnam can rely on traditional industries to grow but when the economy reaches maturity, Vietnam will have to rely on the technology industry with high value-added and high knowledge content products to become "a leader" for the economy. Linking to the experiences of economic reform in South Korea, according to Prof. Kim Jeung Ho, recently, the Korean government has also reduced priority for the chaebol (conglomerates) and instead, focusing on developing the system of small and medium enterprises to establish a more competitive market. In addition, the government does not interfere too deeply into the market but only those areas that really need a new appearance.
According to Raymond Mallon, Senior Project Advisor at Restructuring for a More Competitive Vietnam (RCV), the factors that slow down the growth of GDP and productivity are due to Vietnam's economy slow transition to a competitive market economy, lack of creativity and innovation in business development, slow growth of small and medium enterprises and business community in general. Therefore, to keep up with other countries with developed economies in the world, and to be deeply involved in the process of international economic integration, Vietnam needs to build an open economic institution and business environment to attract investment resources; the government should focus on building institutional frameworks based on two aspects: to ensure ownership and promote competition as well as encourage innovation, creativity, productivity growth and rising incomes. Besides, according to Mr Raymond Mallon, reducing business risks is the core mission of the government to develop businesses; besides, it is necessary to change awareness of the role of the government in order to facilitate business development for the benefit of the people, sustaining efforts to promote the reform of regulations and administrative procedures to reduce costs for business (e.g. simplification, increasing use of information technology, improvement of mechanisms to ensure accountability in the public sector).
In addition, Mr Raymond Mallon said, Vietnam needs to strengthen institutional capacity to monitor and evaluate the consistency of the overall regulatory environment and compliance and enforcement of the legal system, promoting the separation of management functions and regulations of the state agency with commercial interests from private agencies that benefit from the results of management and regulatory agencies, strengthening institutional capacity improvements related to land, including establishment of registration and information system to access national land, building institutional regulations that require a public tender for the land, and not distributing based on current administration system.
According to Dr Nguyen Dinh Cung, Director of the Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM), Vietnam is in the process of putting forth its best efforts to restructure and reform the economy. The government has learned from international experiences and lessons and recommendations contributed by international consultants to apply to the current status of the country. The facts show that in recent years, there have been many changes in the field of economic management in Vietnam. However, Vietnam still needs to pay more attention to those policies to promote efficiency in practice and bring practical results to increase the quality of the growth and competitiveness of countries as well as of Vietnamese enterprises.
According to Dr Le Dang Doanh, the economic reforms of Vietnam need to be fully implemented, which includes direct public monitoring or indirect supervision through representatives, elected bodies, newspapers, and associations, enhancement of the accountability and the rights to question and remove the appointed positions, removal of "interest groups" to avoid the distortion of economic incentives, the arbitrage exploitation and speculation of land as well as the exploitation of forest resources, mineral. If these issues are not resolved, there is not healthy competition in accordance with the law. This will lead the difference between the rich and the poor and other issues related to increasing environmental pollution, which negatively affect the economy and hamper the sustainable development of the country.
Anh Phuong
Vietnamese
