Digital economy a big issue for VN: expert

“We are not going to create prosperity purely on hard work. It will be smart work, which is connected to digital technology that increases the effectiveness of the work that we do,” Stefan Hajikowicz, senior principal scientist for strategy and foresight at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, said on the side-lines of a workshop on global trends and their implications yesterday in Hanoi.

Digital immersion is a global trend that will change the world, he said.

Vietnam was at the beginning of the digital revolution, which unleashes productivity and can change economic and social landscapes.

It was necessary for the country to build policies and strategies to ensure that its workforce is well connected to technologies and able to take advantage of them. 

This would help create more jobs for future generations in the context of depleted natural resources and a constantly changing economy.

Vietnam should build a startup culture where people are given a chance to experiment on new business models to attain their own form of success.

“Individuals should make their own jobs, create their own companies. And digital technology will let them do that,” he said.

Senior economic adviser Pham Chi Lan said Vietnam faces many challenges in order to keep pace with global technology development.

“Vietnam is at risk of falling behind, even compared with other countries in the region, which have found better solutions than us. 

“For example, Laos and Cambodia have surpassed us in some areas,” she said.

“Global trends of technology development have been raised many times, but the responses, which are reflected in policies, are still insufficient,” she said.

Policies on this issue have failed to stimulate creativity and encourage workers to make use of and develop technologies.

The country’s top policymakers still emphasise institution-related issues rather than use technology to boost economic growth.

The situation is also attributed to the fact that Vietnamese intellectuals, who play the role of think tanks for the government, fail to give strong recommendations in terms of technology development.

“Their research points out development trends, but not solutions to adapt to them,” she said.

Nguyan Van Vinh, vice president of the Development Strategy Institute at the Ministry of Planning and Investment, said Vietnam was still “groping its way” in terms of technology development strategy.

“We do have policies but a lack of concrete mechanisms to turn them into real actions,” he said.