Vietnam will carry out digital transformation and green transformation in parallel.

On the afternoon of September 25, within the framework of the 5th Ho Chi Minh City Economic Forum (HEF) 2024, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh chaired a policy dialogue session. This was also the first time the Ho Chi Minh City Economic Forum had a direct dialogue session with the head of the Government.

Innovation is imperative for dual transformation

Speaking at the opening of the dialogue session, Vice Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Vo Van Hoan raised the issue: Besides the achievements, Ho Chi Minh City's industry is facing challenges; unsustainable development; processing and assembly still account for a high proportion; low added value. There is technology that has become outdated after more than 30 years of investment and development. Meanwhile, the development process still uses a lot of resources, is labor-intensive and supporting industry develops slowly. In particular, the distribution of export processing zones and industrial parks is no longer suitable, some industrial parks are currently located in the core area of the city. Therefore, to overcome this, the transformation of the city's industry is extremely urgent and necessary.

*Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh chairs policy dialogue at 5th Ho Chi Minh City Economic Forum 2024*

At the discussion sessions, many international experts shared their experiences on successful transformation models. Unlike the development model of Penang (Malaysia) which depends on multinational companies, Professor Keun Lee, an economist at the University of Canada and former Vice President of the National Advisory Council of Korea, said that Taipei (Taiwan) and Shenzhen (China) have succeeded in building strong domestic enterprises, helping them quickly catch up with advanced markets. Professor Keun Lee emphasized that Ho Chi Minh City can learn from the experiences of Taipei and Shenzhen in the context of the city's efforts to promote technological development and promote the development of domestic enterprises. Specifically, the governments in Taipei and Shenzhen have issued many strong "public intervention" policies to promote the development of domestic enterprises, including the strong development of professional and skills training and the provision of quality human resources. In addition, to increase technological innovation and the ability to own domestic technology, experts recommend that Ho Chi Minh City in particular and Vietnam in general need to have a transformation strategy after the initial stage of learning from external knowledge sources. At the same time, promote technology transfer from foreign investors to domestic enterprises. "This is an important step to help Vietnam quickly catch up with technologically advanced countries," emphasized Professor Keun Lee.

Similarly, another successful model of industrial transformation city is Chongqing (China), Mr. Trinh Huong Dong, Vice Mayor of Chongqing, said that Vietnam needs to establish a land-sea corridor transit center in two major cities, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. The purpose is to expand the export scale of high-quality agricultural products of Vietnam to domestic markets of China. Previously, Mr. Vo Van Hoan shared the determination of Ho Chi Minh City to build 180 km of urban railway by 2035 and invited Chongqing to participate in investing in one of the components of this system. Commenting on scientific and technological research products, experts from Israel said that the reason their country has a strong scientific and technological development is because the research results, whether private or public, are brought to the market and become commodities. As the moderator of the policy dialogue session, economic expert, Dr. Tran Du Lich raised the question directly: What priority policies has the Government had, is having and will have to support large and small enterprises to accelerate the process of economic transformation, first of all with the industrial sector? What are the national action plan on circular economy; policies and breakthrough solutions in science and technology in all three areas of information technology, biotechnology and new materials? In addition, representatives of foreign investors and Dr. Tran Du Lich also raised the issue with the Government about new policy mechanisms to promote localities to participate with the Government in the Net Zero commitment to 2050; about preferential policies in attracting new generation foreign direct investment (FDI), especially after applying global minimum tax. At the dialogue session, Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Tran Quoc Phuong said that going deeper into industrial transformation is a dual transformation process: digital transformation and green transformation. To do so, innovation is urgent. In the coming time, the Ministry of Planning and Investment will submit to the Prime Minister the plan to soon establish a fund to support businesses in the fields of innovation, digital transformation, and green transformation. Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Le Cong Thanh informed that Vietnam will aim to amend the law on environmental protection to limit the import of scrap and encourage the collection and use of domestic scrap as raw materials for production. Representative of the Ministry of Science and Technology, Deputy Minister Le Xuan Dinh said that the Ministry is building and amending the draft law on Science, Technology and Innovation, replacing the current law on Science and Technology. In particular, the biggest change is the regulation on using the budget for public units to do research projects, this draft law will be replaced by using socialized resources for science and technology activities. Thereby, creating conditions for businesses to absorb technology and increase innovation.

*Many international delegates attended the dialogue*

In addition, for effective green transformation, Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Truong Thanh Hoai said that the Power Plan 8 was approved by the Prime Minister in the spirit of not investing in additional thermal power projects, moving towards gradually reducing coal power. At the same time, it is necessary to minimize emissions, identify alternative power sources with less emissions such as liquefied natural gas, solar power, renewable energy, onshore and offshore wind power sources.

Must build and perfect institutions

Expressing his opinion, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said that the important task is to carry out energy conversion, from energy that emits a lot of carbon such as coal-fired thermal power to clean energy, green energy, with a roadmap to end the operation of coal-fired thermal power plants. Regarding economic development, the Government identified external resources as important and breakthrough. Since the beginning of the year, global FDI attraction has decreased, but Vietnam still brought in 21 billion USD, especially disbursement of up to 14 billion USD, the highest level ever. That shows that Vietnam's FDI attraction is effective. "To attract FDI, three factors are needed. First, the mechanism must be open, removing obstacles and obstacles in investment procedures, reducing procedures, decentralizing and decentralizing more to localities. Second, open infrastructure to help reduce logistics costs to the level of advanced countries. Third, meeting the demand for high-quality human resources for emerging fields such as chips, semiconductors, artificial intelligence, cloud computing...", the Prime Minister stated. Speaking at the conclusion of the dialogue session, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh emphasized that industrial transformation must both renew traditional industries (such as mechanical engineering, chemicals, etc.) and develop new industries with a broader concept, related to new fields such as digital economy, green economy, sharing economy, circular economy, knowledge economy, night economy. To be successful, institutions must be built and perfected. Recently, the National Assembly issued a resolution on a number of specific mechanisms and policies for Ho Chi Minh City. Along with developing synchronous and modern infrastructure, it is necessary to focus on training high-quality human resources and smart management. There must be solutions to mobilize resources through promoting public-private partnerships and with conditions like Ho Chi Minh City, it must be done.