HCM City hosts trade and technology conference

Vietnam’s Trade and Technology Conference 2010 opened in Ho Chi Minh
City on October 13, attracting 200 representatives from businesses
operating in technology, banking and finance.

Speaking at the conference, Deputy Minister of Information and
Communications Tran Duc Lai said that over the past 10 years, Vietnam’s
Information Technology and Communications (ICT) sector has thrived and
obtained an annual growth in revenue of over 20 percent. This year, the
sector is expected to earn 8.8 billion USD.

According
to Deputy Minister of Science and Technology Nguyen Van Lang, the focus
of the development strategy on science and technology for the 2011-2020
period is to build and develop a sustainable sector, tap into the
country’s human resources, culture and natural resources and ensure the
country fully integrates into the international scientific community,
helping to improve local human resources in the long term.

During the two-day conference, the participants will take part in
group discussions on important issues for the future of the Vietnamese
technological sector, including the States role in developing
technologies and introducing the necessary legislation and tax policies.

Leaders from leading technology companies discussed
global technological trends in the next five years and shared their
views on opportunities and challenges that the companies are facing in
emerging markets.

The conference also witnessed the
signing of two cooperative agreements, between Hoa Lac Hi-tech Zone and
the company SAVVi and between the IDG Venture Investment Fund and DFJ
Vina Capital./.

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Experts discuss economic restructuring

With tariffs cut in line with Viet Nam's WTO commitments and lack of techical barriers, a huge volume of imports have entered the country. — VNA/VNS Photo Kim Phuong

HCM CITY — The importance of restructuring the economy from primarily agrarian to one centred on industry and services was highlighted at a meeting held in HCM City yesterday.

Viet Nam's accession to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) has been positive for the economy but it also poses big challenges, Tran Dinh Thien, director of the Viet Nam Economics Institute, said.

After joining the global trade body in 2007, foreign direct investment into the country rose dramatically as did exports, he said.

But the WTO accession has also revealed the weaknesses of the economy, including low quality of growth, poor infrastructure, high inflation, poor human resources, and low competitiveness, he said.

The quality of human-resources has yet to meet the need of development and co-ordination between businesses to achieve a combined strength remains poor, he added.

Nguyen Dinh Cung, deputy director of the Central Institute of Economic Management, said: "We need to restructure our economic mechanism."

Economic growth in recent years has been mainly due to the transformation from agriculture to industry-services, while productivity has barely increased, he explained.

With its weak economic structure, the country will find it very hard to become a modern economy by 2020, he added.

Tran Du Lich, deputy head of the HCM City National Assembly delegation, said the problem faced by the Vietnamese economy was not a shortage of capital but how to effectively absorb it.

"Our economy rests on three weak pillars – weak economic institutions, poor human resources, and poor infrastructure – that do not ensure stability for absorbing capital in the most effective way and developing in a sustainable manner," he said.

The country needs measures to strengthen these pillars, he said.

A programme to support economic restructuring in HCM City has yielded results in the last three years but progress remained slow, he said.

In restructuring the economy, the city should focus on improving its quality and urban infrastructure, he said.

It should create a level playing field for all business sectors, continue with administrative reform, improve human-resource training, and develop infrastructure, he said.

The Government should stabilise the macro economy to retain the people's and market's trust and improve the effectiveness of public investment and the role of State-owned groups, he said.

But the country had yet to assess the impact of Viet Nam's accession to the WTO, a task that required great skill, he said.

With tariffs cut in line with Viet Nam's WTO commitments and a lack of technical barriers, a huge volume of imports have entered the country, causing difficulties for local producers.

The country should therefore adopt measures to safeguard local producers from imports, Lich added. — VNS

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PM okays VND3 trillion for nuclear power training

HCMC - Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has approved a VND3-trillion project to develop human resources for the nuclear energy sector as part of the nuclear power development plan.

The plan that aims to ensure energy security and strengthen the country’s science and technology sector would train 2,400 engineers, 350 nuclear scientists, 650 engineers and 250 experts in nuclear management, safety and security by 2020.

The Government will invest in six universities currently involved in nuclear power training, comprising the Natural Science Universities of Hanoi and HCMC, Hanoi’s Polytechnic University, Dalat University, University of Electricity, and the Nuclear Training Center under Vietnam Nuclear Energy Institute.

The project would help Vietnam to achieve its skilled worker target for the nuclear power industry, the Government’s website reports.

Currently, there is a severe lack of human resources in the sector. According to the 2008 survey of the Ministry of Education and Training, there were 505 experts in nuclear science and technology working in 10 organizations.

The sector lacks highly trained scientists, while nearly all the scientists with PhDs in the field in Vietnam were over 50 years old.

Vietnam plans to have two nuclear power plants with the total capacity of 4,000 MW built in Binh Thuan Province within ten years. Of them, the Russian-invested Ninh Thuan 1 plant will break ground in 2014 to come on stream in 2020, with the total cost of VND200 trillion.

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