Solutions to Becoming an Industrialized Nation (26/01)
26/01/2011 - 12 Lượt xem
Could you give a brief introduction to Vietnam's economy in 2010?
Source: VEN.
2010 is the last year of the 2006-2010 plan and the 2001-2010 socioeconomic development strategy and a year in which many important events took place.
The Vietnamese economy was influenced by many outside factors in 2010: The world economy has recovered but its recovery was still slow, unsustainable and uneven between countries and territories; new challenges and difficulties including public debts and budget deficits in Europe, the US and Japan, high unemployment rates, and more were also made clear.
Advantages that the economy faced as soon as the 2010 plan was implemented include: The economy grew again as soon as 2009 passed; inflation was put under control; macroscopic balances were stabilized; solutions that the Government set to fulfill 2010 targets were realized effectively; the whole country, the whole nation and the entire Communist Party were encouraged, united and tried their best to fulfill targets set by the 10th National Congress of the Communist Party as well as meetings of Party cells at different levels and prepare for the 11th National Congress of the Communist Party that took place in early 2011. However, Vietnam faced many difficulties and challenges: The economy grew but its growth was not really stable; inflation was in a danger of increasing; the trade deficit was still high; and the economy's competitiveness remained low. But, with the Government's thorough instruction and agreement and cooperation of the people and businesses, the Vietnamese economy continued being stable and went through positive changes. Macroeconomic balances were basically stable. Exports continued growing. The country's gross domestic product (GDP) grew 6.7 percent, of which industry and construction increased 7.6 percent (industry alone improved about 6.9 percent) to make a 41.1 percent contribution to the country's GDP in late 2010 (industry alone made a contribution of 34.2 percent). Total industrial production value in 2010 is 14 percent more than in 2009.
What major targets will the industry and trade sector realize to make Vietnam basically become a modernity-oriented industrialized nation by 2020?
To approach the target of making Vietnam basically become a modernity-oriented industrialized nation in 2020, the industry and trade sector set six major targets and is to prioritize the fulfillment of these targets.
The first target/solution is to transform the industrial sector's economic structure towards increasing the contribution of high-technology-oriented processing industry and high-added-value product production and decreasing the contribution of low-added-value products, products made according to the order of foreign partners and products whose production relies on imported materials and accessories. This is the most basic solution.
The second target/solution is to solve planning-related problems and improve planning activities. Although Vietnam is interested in improving planning activities it still faces difficulties in realizing and revising plans in accordance with actual development demands. Many plans, which had been approved and issued, were not followed leading to imbalances in resources and investment between regions and sectors. There were regions or sectors receiving investment larger than their actual demands and regions or sectors receiving investment much smaller than their actual demands. Hence, in the coming time, it is necessary to assure that a plan is made based on actual demands and satisfies overall demands for forces of production disposition, production capability improvement, employment generation and employee income improvement, all to promote domestic production and export market development.
The third target/solution is to improve the workforce quality. Workforce quality is a problem faced by the industrial sector in particular and the national economy in general. Vietnam has a plentiful, young but less-skilled workforce, with the number of skilled and qualified workers remaining humble. If this problem is not solved demand for skilled workforce in different fields will not be met and Vietnam's investment environment will lag behind that in other countries and territories in Southeast Asia and the rest of the world.
The fourth target/solution is to construct industry and trade development promotion policies. The Prime Minister is interested in constructing a legal framework for industry and trade development. However, Vietnam still needs some more legal documents for this field. A number of existing legal documents still have guidelines that are no longer compliant with actual development demands and not yet improved and revised. Industry and trade will be deterred from development if the related legal framework is not improved.
The fifth target/solution is to construct an industry and trade development strategy under which the Communist Party's and the State's policies on increasing international economic integration are implemented and Vietnam's self-control and independence in the development process is assured so Vietnam can assure domestic production and meet domestic daily life and economic development demands in cases of unexpected situations happening. This solution/target needs to be well-perceived to harmonize international integration and independent and self-control development.
The sixth solution/target is to reach an agreement between the community and the State and the business community as well as cooperation between sectors and among localities in industry and trade development.
I believe that well implementing these six solution/target groups will make Vietnam's target of basically becoming a modernity-oriented industrialized nation in 2020 feasible.
Support industry development is essential. What will be done to promote support industry development in the coming time?
The Ministry of Industry and Trade many times worked with other ministries and sectors to draft a government decree on support industry development. However, this is still controversial. Some say that well implementing the existing economic development policies is enough to develop support industries, while others say that the current policies are not attractive enough to attract investors to support industry development. The Ministry of Industry and Trade shares the latter point of view thinking that support industry development needs the State's assistance in the form of appropriate policies and concrete solutions.
After many times of drafting a government decree on support industry development, the Ministry of Industry and Trade is working hard to approach the final version of the draft for submission to the Prime Minister for approval. We believe that that Government will consider approving the draft soon because support industry development is an urgent need. Businesses should not seek perfection while demanding a legal document that satisfies all support industry development demands because things are to be done step by step. In the short run, a basic legal framework needs to be constructed. If this legal framework needs changes, those changes will then be made. This process needs to be realized based on actual development demands and step by step./.
Source: VEN.
