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Firms urged to invest in technology
Vice President Nguyen Thi Doan on Wednesday urged local enterprises to enhance innovation and use of new technology, restructure their organisation and map out suitable business strategies to attain sustainable growth after last year's economic crisis.
Addressing a conference titled "Viet Nam economy after the crisis: opportunities and challenges," Doan said the economic crisis had created both opportunities and challenges for Vietnamese enterprises.
Several Vietnamese enterprises have used the crisis as a chance to improve their technology, upgrade management systems, develop human resources and adjust business strategies, she said, adding that these businesses had also achieved encouraging results.
The world economy has showed signs of recovery, but it is still unstable, Doan said, noting that many key import markets for Viet Nam were yet to get out of recession while some others were reacting with measures to protect the local economy.
These factors would cause many difficulties for local enterprises in expanding their export markets this year, she said.
Therefore, besides finding ways to boost exports, local firms should also craft strategies to increase domestic sales, Doan said.
Domestic firms should also invest more in research to increase labour productivity, develop brands, diversify products and improve service quality to add value to their products, she said.
"Doing business in the current situation is not an easy task, so local enterprises should unite with each other and contribute more to the country's industrialisation and modernisation," she added.
She also called on businesses to increase their social role and share the financial burden thereof with the State.
Victoria Kwakwa, World Bank Director in Viet Nam, agreed with Doan, saying that local companies should use new technologies to boost productivity, reduce dependence on human labour and explore new markets.
Assisting businesses
Victoria Kwakwa said Viet Nam was less impacted by the economic crisis than other countries.
The global financial crisis and economic recession had slowed economic growth in Viet Nam but the Vietnamese economy had fared better compared to other economies, she said.
Since the first quarter of last year, the country's economy has begun showing signs of recovery, she said, noting that " industrial and manufacturing performance has been steadily improving since April 2009 with their growth rate increasing month after month."
To support businesses in medium and long term, the Government should find measures to "reduce costs and raise the efficiency of domestic intermediation through reforms of the financial sector; and improve regional cooperation to strengthen financial services by capturing economies of scale and facilitate risk sharing by pooling reserves."
The Government should continue to address remaining sources of inefficiency and low productivity in the real economy by restructuring State owned enterprises, furthering administrative reforms and improving the business climate with a focus on small-and-medium-d enterprises, she said.
She called for greater Government support for formal public research and development systems for creating and adopting new technologies.
Special measures and legislation were necessary to address specific constraints faced by women entrepreneurs, Kwakwa said, adding that these included training in basic business skills and support for networking between Vietnamese women entrepreneurs and their counterparts in other countries.
Seok Kyun Yoon, Deputy Chairman of the South Korea-based SK Construction Company, said the driving forces for Viet Nam to develop after the crisis would be foreign investment, long-term planning to promote industry and greater investment in improving human capital, infrastructure, and science and technology applications.
Policies to stimulate domestic consumption are also crucially important, he added.
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