Việt Nam will continue to hasten business environment reforms and develop human resources to attract quality foreign direct investment (FDI) for green, smart, and sustainable growth, Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyễn Chí Dũng said at the OEDC – Việt Nam Investment Forum on Friday.

The forum was co-organised by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Ministry of Planning and Investment as a part of the OECD Southeast Asia Regional Programme.

With a stable macroeconomy and improved business environment, Việt Nam was having significant opportunities to attract FDI and become a centre in the global supply chain, Dũng said. “Especially, the country’s commitment to a carbon-neutral economy and green growth opened Việt Nam to a new era of attracting quality foreign capital towards sustainability and prosperity.”

Besides opportunities, the Vietnamese economy with high openness to the world economy was also anticipating a number of challenges arising from global uncertainties, economic slowdown, rising inflationary risk, and strategic competition among major economies, Dũng stressed.

All these challenges were pushing Việt Nam to renovate thinking the way of attracting FDI to regain its growth momentum, he added.

Việt Nam was now more selective in attracting FDI, with the focus on quality, efficiency, and sustainability and the priority in attracting flow in science and technology, innovation, green economy, circular economy, knowledge economy, electric automobiles, renewable energy, biotechnology, green finance, and the semiconductor industry.

Stressing the important role of FDI and international organisations like OECD in the country’s pathway towards sustainable development goals, Dũng said Việt Nam would continue to strengthen three strategic breakthroughs in institution, infrastructure, and human resources to create favourable conditions for investors.

According to Fares Al-Hussami, FDI Qualities Lead, OECD Investment Division, FDI in Việt Nam and ASEAN was shifting from labour to skill-intensive projects, requiring a focus on improving the quality of human resources.

He said that FDI also played a role in support of innovation, upskilling, and gender equality, citing statistics that foreign firms in Việt Nam were 70 per cent more likely to spend on research and development (R&D) than their domestic counterparts while 71 per cent more likely to provide on-the-job training to their workers. Foreign investment could further support a just green transition in Việt Nam.

It was necessary to leverage OECD standards on FDI qualities for policy action in Việt Nam, he stressed.

Hong Sun, Chairman of the Korean Chamber of Commerce in Việt Nam, said that Việt Nam needed to improve the legal framework for FDI to create a favourable business environment.

Foreign investors were worried about problems such as power shortages, which had happened severely earlier this year; he said, adding that ensuring energy security was of critical importance.

Besides, Việt Nam also needed to revise policies to adapt to the global minimum income tax to remain attractive to foreign capital.

Cấn Văn Lực, Chief Economist of the Bank for Investment and Development of Việt Nam, said at the forum that Việt Nam was not only facing external challenges, including global uncertainties, economic slowdown, geopolitics, and climate change, but also internal problems such as the lack of a high-skilled labour force.

In the short term, Việt Nam needed to focus on strengthening the enforcement of support policies to ensure it really worked to benefit enterprises, Lực said.

In the long term, it was important to capitalise on the ongoing trends which were taking place globally, especially greening, digitalisation, and investment shift, to create breakthrough developments, he said.

Viet Nam News