Joining AEC, Vietnam needs to overcome many difficulties and challenges

Entering AEC, Vietnam still has many concerns and worries about the difficulties and challenges of the country's economy.

Besides the opportunities for expansion, the excitement and enthusiasm of the people when the ASEAN Community and one of its three pillars, the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), were officially formed - of which Vietnam is one of the 10 member countries, there are still many concerns and worries about the difficulties and challenges of the country's economy.

Former Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Le Cong Phung analyzed and looked back at the process of Vietnam's participation in ASEAN to date, showing that ASEAN is the bridge for Vietnam to integrate with the world. During that process, Vietnam has not only contributed to ASEAN economically but also developed and grown strongly.

Vietnamese enterprises have the agility to quickly integrate with new things, but human resources are a weakness.

Vietnam has made important contributions to all ASEAN economic development programs, including Vietnam's highly appreciated initiatives on regional economic development.

However, Vietnam has not yet escaped the position of the poorest country in the region, this is something to think about: “We are worried because we are still one of the four poorest countries in ASEAN. If we can withdraw from the group of four poor countries - often called VLCM (Vietnam - Laos - Cambodia - Myanmar), it will raise Vietnam's level. Until now, we have not overcome that. This raises a big question: what all Vietnamese people must do to escape being one of the poorest countries in ASEAN”.

Experts also pointed out the limitations in the development of the current Vietnamese economy. Economist Luu Bich Ho acknowledged that the Vietnamese economy is still in the old growth model and can be said to have reached its limit, relying too much on capital, cheap labor, domestic resources, so the quality of goods is low, designs are not diverse, and prices are high. Large enterprises are more powerful but still not really good, still relying on many non-competitive factors such as the mechanism of asking - giving, taking advantage of certain incentives from certain relationships. The most difficult are small and medium enterprises, which do not have enough capacity in terms of capital, technology, human resources, management, etc.

The new integration context requires timely changes in mechanisms and policies, continuing to remove difficulties for businesses, creating a healthy competitive environment so that the Vietnamese economy can gradually approach the leading countries in the region.

Economist Luu Bich Ho said: “Along with solving those difficulties with institutions, policies, mechanisms, and some support, the more important thing is to achieve the business environment index. Our business environment requires us to keep up with the leading countries in ASEAN. This is a very heavy task, we must fully support businesses, and businesses should not rely on support from the State and from outside but must rise up on their own.”

Mr. Nguyen The Diep, Vice President of the Vietnam-Germany Small and Medium Enterprises Association, Hanoi, said that while Vietnamese enterprises have the agility to quickly integrate with new things, the human resource factor is the weak point. Large corporations and companies in Vietnam basically have to hire foreigners to operate and control, especially real estate, hotel, luxury office rental businesses, etc.

When joining the ASEAN Economic Community, there will be more and more large foreign economic corporations entering Vietnam. Therefore, in addition to improving management capacity, Vietnamese enterprises should aim to integrate into value chains in the region and the world: "Vietnamese enterprises should integrate into corporations as well as large companies with value chains from A to Z, contributing a part of it, gradually improving so that we can complete the entire value chain.

Nowadays, we are integrating not only with Southeast Asian countries but also with the world, so large, professional corporations, when they enter Vietnam, also need domestic partners, partners in the value chain. Obviously, we must have a strategy to catch up and cooperate with global value chains to make a breakthrough.

When it comes to the human factor, we are not only talking about the management team, but also about the workers in general. Vietnamese workers are mostly weak in terms of technical skills, soft skills and foreign language ability, while these are important requirements when Vietnam joins the ASEAN Economic Community. Low labor productivity is also one of the major challenges for Vietnam when integrating more and more deeply.

Ms. Vu Thi Thanh Lieu - Deputy Director of Hanoi Employment Service Center (Hanoi Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs) is concerned that the fact that Vietnamese workers are highly appreciated when going abroad, so the reason why Vietnam's labor productivity is still low is also due to the treatment and management of domestic enterprises. This is an issue that needs to be properly recognized for timely change.

Joining the ASEAN Economic Community, Vietnam has many opportunities for development, but to grasp those opportunities, it needs to overcome challenges, limitations, and shortcomings. In order not to lose right at home, in addition to the initiative and self-improvement of the business management team and employees, there needs to be breakthrough mechanisms and policies to create a healthy competitive environment, encourage creativity and advancement of businesses, as well as provide the right training to have human resources to meet the requirements of the new labor market./.

According to VOV.VN