Vietnam enhances competitiveness to realize SDGs

VCCI Chairman Vu Tien Loc (Photo: Giang Huy/vepf.vnexpress.net)

Improving competitiveness and realizing sustainable development goals amidst the Fourth Industrial Revolution are obvious trends in the world. 

In 2015, Vietnam and 192 UN member states committed to 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs) under the 2030 Agenda. Last May the Vietnamese Prime Minister signed a National Action Plan to implement the 2030 Agenda on Sustainable Development which encourages businesses to integrate SDGs into their business strategies.

President of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry Vu Tien Loc said that the Vietnamese Government and the World Bank released the Vietnam Report 2035 with hopes of turning Vietnam into a mid-income country with an average income of over US$10,000 by 2035.

The report identified six major economic transformations which are almost equal to major targets of the 2030 agenda. They include national innovation and competitiveness, private sector development, efficient urbanization and sustainable development for the environment, capacity improvement to adapt to climate change, and economic modernization.

Loc said the Vietnamese government considered sustainable growth the exclusive pathway for development.      

“The Vietnamese government has issued a resolution on improving the business environment and enhancing national competitiveness, to place Vietnam in the top 4 ASEAN countries in terms of competitiveness and institutional quality. The Prime Minister has issued a directive on increasing Vietnam's access to the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The 17 UN sustainable development goals are considered the foundation for the national development program,” Loc said.

Vietnam's position has been enhanced in the international arena after it became a UN member 41 years ago and resumed relations with the World Bank in 1993.

Vietnam has developed an incorruptible, transparent, and innovative government with great efforts to renovate its economic governance to accelerate the international integration process.

Vietnam also has a dynamic business community which is ready to apply the latest technologies, take advantages of the 4.0 revolutionary industry’s achievements, and change ways of thinking about doing business to match new economic models.

Nguyen The Phuong, Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment (Photo: baodauthau.vn)

Last year the Vietnamese economy’s size reached more than US$220 billion and ranked 134th in the world, with an income per capita of more than US$2,300. The economic growth rate was 6.81%, the highest in the last decade.

In 2016, Vietnam advanced 2 positions on the Global Human Development Index (HDI), a marked improvement from its place on the rankings two years prior, to be now situated at 115th out of 188 countries and territories.

Its rankings in competitiveness capacity, innovation capacity, and e-government have remarkably improved.

“Vietnam’s efforts to improve the business environment over the past years have been justified by the results. During the four year period the government resolution has been implemented, Vietnam’s business environment and competitiveness capacity in 2017 were internationally praised," Phuong said.

The set of three index targets was moved up. In particular, the competitiveness capacity stood at 55 out of 137 countries, up 5 positions; the business environment ranked 68 out of 190 countries, rising 14 positions; and innovation and creativeness moved up 12 positions in comparison with its ranking in 2016," he added.

Vietnam is positioning itself in the race of global competition in which the business community plays an important role as the center of the sustainable development goal and the enhancement of the national competitiveness.