Seminar aims to boost firms’ ability to compete globally
HA NOI (VNS) — Vietnamese officials and entrepreneurs as well as top experts from the World Economic Forum (WEF) shared opinions on ways to promote the role of enterprises in enhancing national competitiveness in the context of increasing regional and international integration during a conference in Ha Noi yesterday.
The seminar, which the Viet am Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs organised, aims to help representatives of domestic businesses and government policymakers come up with effective measures that will enable domestic businesses to resolve their shortcomings and upgrade their competitive ability, thereby ensuring Viet Nam‘s smooth and effective integration into the global economy.
Vu Tien Loc, the VCCI chairman, revealed that in the process of implementing Government Resolution No. 19 / NQ-CP on the improvement of the business environment and enhancement of national competitiveness the VCCI has offered numerous support activities to help businesses improve their competitiveness.
Every month, the VCCI has been getting the opinions of various businesses regarding the competitiveness mechanism and related policies and have submitted these to the Government for review.
The VCCI has also implemented numerous projects to help improve the business environment, including enterprises’ campaign against corruption, business associations’ capacity-building scheme and support for businesses’ access to and exploitation of new markets and opportunities.
According to Loc, Viet Nam should conduct a social programme to improve judicial reform and strengthen legal institutions to make the business environment more favourable to and safe for people and businesses.
According to the VCCI, in recent years, Vietnamese companies and large corporations have begun doing business globally.
However, they accounted for only a miniscule percentage of the total number of enterprises in the country. About 95 to 96 per cent of the more than 500,000 enterprises that remain operational are small businesses with very limited competitive ability, the VCCI added.
Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister Bui Thanh Son said the country’s economic development remained unsustainable while productivity and competitiveness remained low.
Son explained that businesses were considered constituent cells of the economy and therefore, their level of competitiveness was crucial in deciding the entire country’s level of competitiveness.
Apart from restructuring the economy, renovating infrastructure facilities and raising the quality of human resources, the Government has carried out drastic and concerted measures to improve the business climate and raise competitive ability.
Philipp Rosler, World Economic Forum (WEF) managing director and managing board member, said Viet Nam ‘s largest advantage is a young workforce.
Therefore, promoting the education and training development and equipping knowledge and skills in combination with market and business demands are the best ways to improve the competitiveness.
He also emphasised the need to better fiscal policy, invest more in infrastructure, connect rural areas and economic hubs, and develop information technology. — VNS