Support should be given to encourage start-ups, promote innovation and technology application to accelerate the transformation towards an innovation-driven economy. — Photo tuyengiao.vn

HÀ NỘI — Việt Nam needs to speed up transformation towards an efficiency and innovation-driven growth model to meet requirements of sustainable and inclusive development, experts have said.

Nguyễn Đức Hiển, deputy head of the Party Central Committee’s Economic Commission, spoke at a workshop about economic restructuring held on Tuesday in Hà Nội, saying the transformation of the growth model remained slower than expected.

Việt Nam’s growth model was still mainly based on input factors, including capital, labour and resources, he said, adding that the contribution of the total factor productivity (TFP) to economic growth was limited, much lower than other countries in the region which were also at the same development stage.

He also pointed out that the labour productivity increase remained dependent of the increase in investment capital and the use of low-cost labour while capital mainly came to labour-intensive economic acitivities.

“Labour productivity is still low and the gap in labour productivity between Việt Nam and other countries continues to widen,” he said.

Another problem was that the efficiency of public investment remained low and the disbursement was disappointing. The process of restructuring State-owned enterprises was below expectation while corporate governance had not been improved much, he said

“The private sector has not been developed strongly enough to play an important role in the economy.”

Former Director of the Institute of Policy and Strategy for Agriculture and Rural Development Đặng Kim Sơn said that Việt Nam should be an economy ready for innovations with the restructuring of economic sectors in accordance with regional advantages.

Enterprises, economic organisations and the resource market must be restructured in a healthy way to catch up with other countries through the building of a development government, he stressed.

Trần Thọ Đạt, former president of the National Economics University, said that digital economy would be the new driver for growth model transformation and economic restructuring.

Việt Nam needed to develop a strategy framework for digital transformation and create conditions to attract investment in developing digital infrastructure and services.

The education and training system should also be renewed and closely associated with digitalisation, Đạt said, adding that support should also be given to encourage start-ups, promote innovation and technology application.

Former director of the Việt Nam Institute of Economics Trần Đình Thiên said Việt Nam needed to attach special attention to the synchronous development of input resource markets, such as land and labour markets.

In addition, an appropriate foreign direct investment (FDI) attraction strategy would be important for the country to bring into play its advantages. “Science and technology and human resources will be the most important drivers for growth in the next period,” Thiên said.

Võ Trí Thành, director of the Institute for Brand and Competition Strategy, said that Việt Nam should move from a brown economy to a green economy. Problems related to basic issues of the economy must be reviewed for adjustments, such as the Law on Land, while the framework for new issues must be put into consideration such as developing a law on data, cross-boder data flow and cross-border human resource management.

According to Jonathan Pincus, UNDP Senior International Economist, besides maintaining export growth, it was important to create a fair playground for domestic and FDI enterprises with special attention paid to financial mechanisms for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, he said. — VNS