Industrial Policy Symposium

International Symposium

Industrialization Strategy of Vietnam toward 2020

On 19-3-2008, VDF and Vietnam Institute of Economics (VIES) held a symposium on industrialization strategy of Vietnam with an aim to create inputs for future Five-year Socio-economic Plans and Ten-year Socio-economic Strategy up to 2020.

(From left: H.E. Mr. Sakaba Mitsuo, Prof. Kenichi Ohno, Dr. Vu Tien Loc, Prof. Do Hoai Nam,
Prof. Nguyen Van Thuong, Dr. Tran Dinh Thien, and Prof. Nguyen Thanh Do)

Chairmen:	Dr. Do Hoai Nam, President of Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences (VASS), and Prof. Nguyen Van Thuong, Rector of National Economics University (NEU)
Guests:	- H.E. Mr. Mitsuo Sakaba, Ambassador of Japan in Vietnam, - Dr. Vu Tien Loc, Chairman of Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) - Dr. Nguyen Quang A, President, Institute of Development Studies (IDS)
Speakers:	- Dr. Kenichi Ohno, VDF Co-leader and Professor of National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS) - Dr. Tran Dinh Thien, Deputy Director of Vietnam Institute of Economics (VIES) - Dr. Vu Thanh Tu Anh, Director of Research, Fulbright Economics Teaching Program (FETP)
Commentators:	- Dr. Vo Tri Thanh, Central Institute of Economic Management (CIEM) - Prof. Nguyen Ke Tuan, National Economics University (NEU) - Dr. Luu Bich Ho, Former Director of Development Strategy Institute, Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) - Dr. Le Dang Doanh, Former President of CIEM.

(From left: Dr. Le Dang Doanh, Prof. Kenichi Ohno, Dr. Tran Dinh Thien, Dr. Vu Thanh Tu Anh, and Dr. Vo Tri Thanh)

Summary of Speeches and Comments

Prof. Kenichi Ohno	Industrial Strategy for Vietnam's New Era To achieve the goal of becoming an industrial country by 2020, Vietnam should consolidate three pillars of industrial strength: supporting industries, industrial human resource, and efficient logistics. Vietnam has two unique problems in policy formulation method, which are lack of business involvement and lack of inter-ministerial coordination. It is necessary to create an elite technocrat group under Prime Minister acting as a coordinator between ministries, as well as a channel to work with business. Slides-Eng (PDF381KB) Slides-Vie (PDF789KB) More
Dr. Tran Dinh Thien	New Era, Opportunities and Orientation of Vietnam's Industrial Strategy A new era of integration and global value chain is opening in Vietnam that brings opportunities and challenges. As a latecomer, Vietnam can learn from pioneers' experiences. Geographical location and potential human resource are advantages of Vietnam. However, for the success of industrialization, existing obstacles, such as undeveloped infrastructure, unskilled human resources, incomprehensive market institution, and weak management at both micro and macro levels, should be removed in the next few years. Slides-Vie (PDF335KB) Paper-Vie (PDF576KB)
Dr. Vu Thanh Tu Anh	Vietnam's Industrial Policy: Designing Policies for Sustainable Development Vietnam's industrial policy still has many bottlenecks that should be removed quickly, such as (i) bias against the private sector, (ii) regional imbalance in industrial location that might threaten social and political stability, (iii) weak transport infrastructure, and (iv) misallocation of resources. To move up the industrial supply chain and technology ladder, Vietnam should convert industrial policy to a more outward oriented policy, improve human resource, create more equal investment climate for all sectors, reconsider the strategy of establishing state conglomerates, and strengthen overall physical and regulatory infrastructure. Paper-Eng (PDF582KB) Slides-Eng (PDF274KB)
Dr. Vo Tri Thanh	Industrial agglomeration is in good progress, especially in Ho Chi Minh City, however, Vietnam should be careful of overinvestment. In contrast, fragmentation is not well implemented. Vietnam has not participated much in regional and global value chain. Linkage between local SMEs and TNCs must be strengthened. A main problem of Vietnam's industrial policy lies in formulation method, and review/monitoring process. Reforming the former can produce a good industrial strategy, and the latter is essential to achieve the goals of the strategy.
Prof. Nguyen Ke Tuan	Vietnam has not learned much from pioneer countries. It still faces the problems that occurred in Thailand and Malaysia, such as lack of supporting industries, traffic congestion in large cities... Vietnam needs a breakthrough in leadership's thinking and vision, infrastructure development, education and training system, and administration reform.
Dr. Luu Bich Ho	If Vietnam follows the way that advance countries have passed, is there a possibility for Vietnam to catch up with them? Questions for Vietnam's industrial policy are where Vietnam should start and how it should realize presenters' recommendations.
Dr. Le Dang Doanh	The symposium contributed new ideas in the formation of industrial policy. "Glass ceiling" () should be analyzed more specifically. Vietnam should learn from Korea and Taiwan to achieve continuous successes, and learn from other ASEAN countries to avoid "syllogism" of miracle - recession - crisis. () The glass ceiling refers to the middle income trap that ASEAN countries fell into. To avoid this, Vietnam should level up its industrial capability by strengthening supporting industries, industrial human resource, and logistics.