The dialogue was jointly held by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Vietnam Initiative and chaired by the Prime Minister. This event was one of many consultancy meetings that are held by the Government to provide platforms for overseas Vietnamese think tank to contribute to the Government’s policy-making process. The conference focused on three main issues including Vietnam’s position in the global value chain, Vietnam’s industrialization policies in the future, and removal of bottlenecks and development promotion.
At the conference, the Prime Minister said that over 30 years of innovation, Vietnam has accomplished impressive achievements that were highly regarded by the international community. However, he underlined the need for the Government to realize the weaknesses and limitations that have been exhibited during the national development process, especially the growth bottlenecks.
The Prime Minister said that intelligence is a critical resource. Vietnam wants to close cooperation with experts at home and abroad and the Government will pay careful attention to their ideas when it comes to making policies and regulations, he added. He also asked scholars, especially, overseas specialistwith profound knowledge and experience to contribute to the development of Vietnam.
Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Nguyen Quoc Dung reaffirmed the Government’s commitment to building a constructive government marked by integrity, especially when the country is in the transitional period of changing its growth model.
Associate Professor Tran Ngoc Anh from Indiana University Bloomington in the U.S. pointed out the “bottlenecks” that constrict sustainable growth of Vietnam’s economy such as those related to financial expenditures, human resources, infrastructure and the State administrative apparatus. He suggested the government establish effective self-assessment system with clear and detailed performance indices to evaluate the efficiency of administrative agencies’ operations, noting that this will showcase the commitment towards building a constructive and supportive government. According to a research of Associate Professor Tran Ngoc Anh, if the administrative system improves its operation by 10%, gross domestic product (GDP) could grow by an extra 3.6%.
Speaking at the dialogue, Professor Tran Van Tho from Waseda University in Japan stressed the need to pursue industrial development extensively and intensively. He pointed out challenges faced by nations like Vietnam in the industrialization process, such as tough competition among newly industrialized countries amid tumbling demand after the 2008 global financial crisis and overcapacity in the manufacturing sector, and the automation-triggered decline in labor demand.
Professor Tran Van Tho noted that how to get out of the outsourcing trap in the global value chain and how to successfully avoid the “manufacturing trap” would prove to be challenges for the Government.
In addition, Professor Ricardo Hausmann delivered a presentation on the analysis model of the economy’s structure via the diversity assessment of products, complexity of exported staples and its close relationship to a country’s national development. The model will assist a country in devising development strategies for each region, for each type of product, with a view to boosting the competitiveness of the economy in all three levels – national, businesses and products.
Concluding the conference, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc praised the positive contribution of international experts and academics. He stressed that the Government would like to take more advice from professionals to work out suitable and effective policies. He reiterated that the Government must listen to people, businesses, scientists and experts at home and abroad in order to bring about substantive change.
He assigned the Government Office to cooperate with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Vietnam Initiative to establish a channel to call for international and domestic scholars to support the Government through policy consultancy and information sharing.
He told the Ministry of Home Affairs and relevant agencies to study models to evaluate the efficiency of administrative agencies, and ordered the ministry to coordinate with Vietnam Initiative to build a national evaluation system.
He also suggested maintaining an annual dialogue channel between international academics and overseas Vietnamese professionals to increase their collaboration and help the Vietnamese government promote innovation.
