Enhancing competitiveness through digital transformation is vital for enterprises in a digital economy to create the foundation for transforming growth models and building an independent and autonomous economy, Deputy Chairman of Việt Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry Hoàng Quang Phòng said at a forum on Wednesday in Hà Nội.

 

 

“Developing the digital economy is a long journey, while the efficiency of economic integration depends largely on the competitiveness of the economy and enterprises,” Phòng said.

 

“Hastening solutions to improve competitiveness for businesses is urgent, and will be the key for Việt Nam to promote innovation and digital technology application, thereby better capturing opportunities from the digital economy.”

 

Trịnh Minh Anh, Chief of the Office of the Interdisciplinary Steering Committee for International Economic Integration, said non-traditional business models were arising during the formation of the digital economy, which created opportunities for start-ups.

 

However, there were challenges, including the lack of capital, governance experience, technology and human resources, coupled with the shortage of capacity to deploy digital technologies which were hindering the transformation of production and business models.

 

Enterprises should be proactive in digital transformation while the Government should create favourable conditions for businesses to participate in the digital economy.

 

Minh Anh said digital transformation should be sped up in sectors such as energy, transport, education and training, medical treatment, e-commerce and agriculture.

 

He urged investments in improving the digital infrastructure system, platforms for online payments and cross-border transactions.

 

“Digital transformation is not the same for every enterprise. Each should have a different method, depending on its business strategy and capacity,” Anh said.

 

Taking advantage of new-generation FTAs was important to expand markets and promote cooperation for technology transfer, developing new business models and playing a role in the global supply chain, he said.

 

According to Nguyễn Trọng Đường, an expert in digital transformation from the Ministry of Information and Communications, the Vietnamese economy was significantly affected by global uncertainties due to a high degree of economic openness.

 

Đường cited the forecast of the Asian Development Bank that Việt Nam’s GDP growth rate would narrow from 8.02 per cent to 5.2 per cent this year.

 

While three growth drivers, including investment, export and construction, were struggling, it was necessary to renew growth drivers through digital transformation, he said.

 

Đường said experiences from previous crises showed that enterprises which were active in making transformation would be able to adapt quickly to the new circumstances, recover faster and develop better in the post-crisis period.

 

With more than 71 per cent of the population regularly accessing the Internet, the most effective way to reach customers was through the digital environment, he said, urging firms to be customer focused, and data and automation driven.

 

Bùi Thị Hải Yến, general director of the electronics company Hanel, said the competitiveness of enterprises in a digital economy is the ability to create high labour productivity. “The only key is digital transformation.”

 

It seemed that Vietnamese enterprises had not been well-prepared for participation in the global digital economy, Yến said, citing a report of the Ministry of Planning and Investment in 2022 that nearly 50 per cent of domestic enterprises temporarily halted digital transformation.

 

The first step was to increase enterprises’ understanding of digital transformation to have appropriate solutions, she said.

 

“The biggest challenge in digital transformation is changing mind-set and production methods that have been formed for decades, to accept completely new ways of thinking and doing,” Yến said. “However, all challenges can be small before the once-in-a-thousand-years opportunity. Only in the digital era could we have the opportunity to make giant leaps forward.”

 

The support from the Government was important for enterprises to implement digital transformation successfully, she said.

 

With a majority of firms being small and medium size, the Government should provide preferential policies to encourage SMEs to implement digital transformation, Bùi Bích Liên, director of EMcom Joint Stock Company, said. — VNS