Hanoi (VNA) – Orientations aimed at speeding up the restructuring processof Vietnam’s economy amidst the Fourth Industrial Revolution was the focus of aworkshop held by the National Centre forSocio-economic Information and Forecast (NCIF) and the Ministry ofPlanning and Investment in Hanoi on November 22.

It was an open forum for domestic and foreign scientists, experts, and managersto discuss and announce the latest studies on Vietnam's economic restructuringin general, and some specific sectors, in the context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

In his opening speech, Director of the NCIF Tran Hong Quang said that the digitalrevolution is happening fast with a strong impact on all aspects of theeconomy, adding that Vietnam’s economic growth model is still based on the exploitationof natural resources, the assembly and manufacturing industry, and productionand export of labor-intensive and low-skilled sectors.

Heunderlined the need for each sector to make careful preparations in order to makefull use of new opportunities and to minimise the challenges arising from therevolution.

Luong Van Khoi, Deputy Director of NCIF, said that the restructure of Vietnam’seconomy for the 2016-2020 period has focused on changing the composition andability of the economy; improving the efficiency of the use of social resources,labour productivity, and economic competitiveness; and gradually modernising individualeconomic sectors.

Attention has been given to forming a more rational and dynamic economicstructure, and extensively promoting the growth transformation model.

Le Huy Khoi, from the market research andforecast division of the Industrial Policy and Strategy Institute (IPSI) underthe Ministry of Industry and Trade, highlighted some of the opportunitiesfrom the revolution for the industry and trade sector. He said that it willcreate motivation for enterprises to change their mode of production and business,as well as boost innovative production and market thinking towards increasing productivityand the quality of labour force in industrial production.

In particular, the revolution will also promote innovative capabilities inindustrial production thanks to the application of new technologies.

He, however, also pointed out some of the revolution’s challenges to theindustry and trade sector, saying that the Vietnamese business community’s awarenessand concern towards the revolution is limited.

Moreover, technical infrastructure and information technology application, alongwith internal weaknesses in enterprises operating in the industry and tradesector hinder them from taking full advantage of Industry 4.0.

Economic experts said it is necessary to widely promote the mobility, opportunities,challenges, and impact of the revolution, as well as fine-tune the institutionalsystem towards fostering the development of the digital economy and investment liberalizationso as to tap opportunities from the revolution.

Conor O'Toole from Ireland’s Economic and Social Research Institute,emphasised that it is necessary to build important policies for economicrestructuring in Vietnam.


Moreattention should be paid to education and training, especially in science andtechnology; ensuring a stable investment environment and effectively managing publicfinance; and increasing investment for infrastructure development and ITapplication. –VNA