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ADB: Vietnam needs efficiency and productivity improvement
2011-0505
Vietnam should improve efficiency and productivity for its long-term economic development while coping with challenges such as inflation and climate change, heard an Asian Development Bank (ADB) working session in Hanoi on Tuesday.
Asia Development Bank President Haruhiko Kuroda speaks at the Vietnam Business Summit during ADB's 44th annual meeting in Hanoi on Tuesday. The 44th annual meeting of ADB takes place in Hanoi from May 3 to 6 - Photo: Reuters HCMC, HANOI – Vietnam should improve efficiency and productivity for its long-term economic development while coping with challenges such as inflation and climate change, heard an Asian Development Bank (ADB) working session in Hanoi on Tuesday.
In the first day of the four-day 44th annual meeting of the bank’s board of governors, Haruhiko Kuroda, president of the regional lender, urged Vietnam to improve the efficiency and productivity of its economy.
“Efforts are needed to address the shortage of skilled labor, reduce the road, power and port bottlenecks affecting the efficiency of business, and lower transaction costs through better governance,” he said at the Vietnam Business Summit as part of the meeting.
Kuroda also emphasized the importance of the domestic private sector in the nation’s economic development, with the sector contributing 47% of the country’s GDP and absorbing some 1.5 million workers per year that entered the labor market in the last several years.
He suggested Vietnam fully tap the potential of the private sector by addressing cumbersome administrative and taxation systems, as well as difficult access to land, credit, and business information. “In this context, we highly appreciate the efforts to streamline government procedures under Project 30, which is led by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung himself.”
For their part, business communities should remain fully engaged, play a proactive role, and be innovative in seizing opportunities to move up the value chain, and engaging the Government in policy dialogue in improving the business environment, he said.
“The private sector could also assume more responsibilities in expanding and improving opportunities for human resource development and in providing goods and services to the public that used to be provided by public agencies only.”
At the summit, Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai said Vietnam would need more time for economic transformation and labor quality improvement.
In its 2011-2015 social and economic development strategy, Vietnam will focus on the quality of growth, and the efficiency and competitiveness of the economy before it basically becomes an industrialized economy by 2020.
To get the job done, the country will require around US$300 billion in 2011-2015 for investment and development, Hai said.
The country now basically depends on agriculture and labor in the farming sector but the labor force is increasing in the industrial sector, so efforts are being made for high-skilled labor training, he said. For the time being, the country still needs to develop labor-intensive industries, he added.
Inflation was also touched upon by ADB President Kuroda as the region is facing this challenge that needs to be carefully managed via a package of policy measures to mitigate the negative impacts of the rising inflation on the poor.
The minister of planning and investment, Vo Hong Phuc, acknowledged at the summit that inflation, which increased 9.64% in January-April compared to end-December last year, was a challenge for the country to keep it at one digit.
Therefore, the Government is looking to an inflation rate of 11.75% this year, which Phuc said is still a tough job to do in the current economic conditions. The original inflation target for 2011 is 7%.
Phuc told the media that the Government was now prioritizing the inflation control effort rather than economic growth as in previous years, so the growth target for the year had been adjusted to a moderate 6.5%.
The ADB meeting is being attended by nearly 4,000 delegates, including top policymakers, business leaders, media, academics, and civil society and development institution representatives.
Asia Development Bank President Haruhiko Kuroda speaks at the Vietnam Business Summit during ADB's 44th annual meeting in Hanoi on Tuesday. The 44th annual meeting of ADB takes place in Hanoi from May 3 to 6 - Photo: Reuters HCMC, HANOI – Vietnam should improve efficiency and productivity for its long-term economic development while coping with challenges such as inflation and climate change, heard an Asian Development Bank (ADB) working session in Hanoi on Tuesday.
In the first day of the four-day 44th annual meeting of the bank’s board of governors, Haruhiko Kuroda, president of the regional lender, urged Vietnam to improve the efficiency and productivity of its economy.
“Efforts are needed to address the shortage of skilled labor, reduce the road, power and port bottlenecks affecting the efficiency of business, and lower transaction costs through better governance,” he said at the Vietnam Business Summit as part of the meeting.
Kuroda also emphasized the importance of the domestic private sector in the nation’s economic development, with the sector contributing 47% of the country’s GDP and absorbing some 1.5 million workers per year that entered the labor market in the last several years.
He suggested Vietnam fully tap the potential of the private sector by addressing cumbersome administrative and taxation systems, as well as difficult access to land, credit, and business information. “In this context, we highly appreciate the efforts to streamline government procedures under Project 30, which is led by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung himself.”
For their part, business communities should remain fully engaged, play a proactive role, and be innovative in seizing opportunities to move up the value chain, and engaging the Government in policy dialogue in improving the business environment, he said.
“The private sector could also assume more responsibilities in expanding and improving opportunities for human resource development and in providing goods and services to the public that used to be provided by public agencies only.”
At the summit, Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai said Vietnam would need more time for economic transformation and labor quality improvement.
In its 2011-2015 social and economic development strategy, Vietnam will focus on the quality of growth, and the efficiency and competitiveness of the economy before it basically becomes an industrialized economy by 2020.
To get the job done, the country will require around US$300 billion in 2011-2015 for investment and development, Hai said.
The country now basically depends on agriculture and labor in the farming sector but the labor force is increasing in the industrial sector, so efforts are being made for high-skilled labor training, he said. For the time being, the country still needs to develop labor-intensive industries, he added.
Inflation was also touched upon by ADB President Kuroda as the region is facing this challenge that needs to be carefully managed via a package of policy measures to mitigate the negative impacts of the rising inflation on the poor.
The minister of planning and investment, Vo Hong Phuc, acknowledged at the summit that inflation, which increased 9.64% in January-April compared to end-December last year, was a challenge for the country to keep it at one digit.
Therefore, the Government is looking to an inflation rate of 11.75% this year, which Phuc said is still a tough job to do in the current economic conditions. The original inflation target for 2011 is 7%.
Phuc told the media that the Government was now prioritizing the inflation control effort rather than economic growth as in previous years, so the growth target for the year had been adjusted to a moderate 6.5%.
The ADB meeting is being attended by nearly 4,000 delegates, including top policymakers, business leaders, media, academics, and civil society and development institution representatives.
Source: SGT
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