Three fulcrums to promote Vietnam’s growth post-pandemic

Three fulcrums to promote Vietnam’s growth in post-pandemic

This was stated by Prof. Philippe Aghion, former lecturer at Harvard University at the webinar titled “Post-Covid-19 global economic growth and policy implications for Vietnam” organised at the cutting-edge integrated operating centre of the Ministry of Planning and Investment.

Philippe Aghion said that France and numerous countries in Europe as well as the US are increasing the application of digital transformation and promoting innovation to expand trade relations with new partners as the pandemic prevents transportation between countries.

“Vietnam should not pay much attention to re-positioning the production chain because Vietnam works on this mission quite well. Now, it is important to continue to promote your strengths,” Philippe Aghion said.

The COVID-19 pandemic showed that numerous countries depend on raw materials while others focus on innovation. Thus, governments should have flexible policies to train human resources so that they can adapt to many sectors.

Responding to questions about the relocation of foreign investment from China and how the country can improve its position as well as join the digital transformation, Aghion said that Vietnam has great potentials and a premise to benefit in these areas. In addition, the country has reformed its policies numerous times to match international regulations.

“In my opinion, it is necessary to train labourers methodically and proactively to approach technology and machines imported from Europe,” he said.

“In general, the training programme of Vietnam’s education system is quite complete, so the important part now is to invest in Vietnam’s leading universities to open faculties relating to innovation with support from the government. In addition, academic freedom should be guaranteed to encourage inventiveness,” he said.

Last but not least, in order to recover economic growth and attract foreign investment, it is necessary to comply with international regulations.