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Don’t worry about Vietnam’s competitiveness: economist (15/11)

06/08/2010 - 197 Lượt xem

– “I can’t see anything that makes us worry about the competitiveness of Vietnam-made products,” said senior economist Le Dang Doanh at a workshop on the advantages and disadvantages Vietnam will have to face after joining the WTO.

Mr Doanh related a story to show that Vietnam has favourable conditions and its products can be competitive in the world.

He said that the owner of the fast food group McDonalds once came to Vietnam to seek business opportunities here and came to see the economist. Mr Doanh asked the fast food group’s owner if McDonald’s products can compete with Vietnamese pho, bun and mien (noodle soup). The answer, which the fast food group’s owner gave 10 days after surveying the market, was ‘no’.

Another example was also cited by Mr Doanh to protect his viewpoint. When Coca Cola announced its plan to make investments in Vietnam, many local soft drink producers were worried that they would be defeated by the giant drink group.

As a matter of course, local producers had to shift to produce soya milk and their products have been dominating the market.

“Competition should be seen as the driving force for development, which can help create a dynamic society,” said Mr Doanh.

He added that many Vietnamese enterprises proved to be very wise and dynamic when deciding to make investments in the fields where Vietnamese enterprises have advantages, for example, producing boiled corn’s water, or bottled boiled rau muong (spinach’s) water.

Of course, the fierce competition to come after Vietnam joins the WTO will lead many enterprises to bankruptcy. However, bankruptcy has been described by Mr Doanh as the ‘creative demolishment’, not the ‘absolute demolishment’, which will make the national economy healthier.

Enterprises themselves will know what they have to do to survive the competition and to raise the added value in their products. And the main task of the Government now is to create a business climate favourable for business development.

Source: VietnamNet