UN Resident Coordinator Pauline Tamesis addresses the meeting in Hanoi on April 19. (Photo: VNA)

Vietnam makes steady progress in innovation, says UN official

Vietnam has achieved steady progress in realizing its vision of innovation, technology and digital transformation, said Pauline Tamesis, UN resident coordinator, at a meeting in Hanoi on April 19 marking World Creativity and Innovation Day.

Tamesis cited the World Intellectual Property Organization saying Vietnam clinched two notches up in the Global Innovation Index 2023 compared to the 2022 edition, ranking 46th out of 132 listed economies.

This progress is critical for Vietnam to achieve its vision of becoming a high-income developed country by 2045, and the United Nations supports the country’s endeavor towards this goal, she affirmed.

According to Minister of Science and Technology Huynh Thanh Dat, the United Nations General Assembly has since 2017 chosen April 21 every year as World Creativity and Innovation Day, aiming to raise awareness of the role of creativity and innovation in sustainable socio-economic development.

The Ministry of Science and Technology has since 2022 organized activities in response to World Creativity and Innovation Day and received enthusiastic attention and participation from many ministries, sectors, localities and organizations throughout the country, said Dat at the meeting.

He went on to say the 2024 event themed ‘Inspire’ was held to encourage organizations and individuals to join hands to promote innovation activities in all social and economic sectors, cited VOV.

Currently, the legal system on intellectual property in Vietnam is increasingly improving, creating motivation to promote and support innovation activities, including the application of scientific and technological research results to business production, contributing to the country’s socio-economic development.

The World Bank held that Vietnam still has much room to step up innovation in businesses, especially amongst small and medium-sized enterprises.

In the context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, innovation is considered a new driving force for rapid and sustainable development of the country. Experts said Vietnam needs to focus on developing high-quality human resources and improving research capacity on innovation. To achieve the goal, they suggested Vietnam should address difficulties in mechanisms and policies for developing innovation and creative skills, and at the same time solve urgent practical problems.

Minister Dat also said Vietnam should continue to improve its innovation capacity in the coming period, in order to directly contribute to increasing labor productivity and product quality, ensuring environmental protection, and spurring sustainable development.

Deputy PM visits Venezuela, aiming to deepen friendship

Deputy Prime Minister Tran Luu Quang on April 17 paid floral tribute to President Ho Chi Minh at his monument in Caracas capital city, the first activity of his three-day official visit to Venezuela. Speaking at the event, the Deputy PM recalled the late President’s diplomatic viewpoint, in which he attached importance to relations with Latin American nations, adding that the President’s monument in Caracas shows his reputation and stature, as well as Venezuelan people’s respect and love for him.

According to the Deputy PM, his ongoing visit aims to deepen the friendship and cooperation with Venezuela, thus contributing to peace, cooperation, development and progress of both countries and the world at large.

Venezuelan Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs for Asia, Middle East and Oceania Tatiana Pugh Moreno affirmed that Venezuela treasures President Ho Chi Minh’s image, career and life, according to VNA.

At the ceremony in tribute to President Ho Chi Minh at his monument in Caracas capital city, Venezuela. (Photo: VNA)

Moreno, who once worked as Venezuela Ambassador to Vietnam, expressed her admiration for Vietnam’s development, saying the country has steadily moved forward and remained steadfast with the principles left by President Ho Chi Minh.

The official highlighted historical similarities shared by the two countries, reiterated Venezuelan people’s sentiments towards, solidarity with and understanding of Vietnam, and noted her wish for a green, sustainable relationship between the two sides.

Later the same day, Quang visited the Vietnamese Embassy in Venezuela, and laid a wreath at the monument dedicated to late President of Venezuela Hugo Chávez Frías.

Global leading retailers to sound out market opportunities in Vietnam

A number of global leading retailers such as Walmart, Amazon, AEON, and Central Retail are set to come to Vietnam in June to seek supply sources for quality commodities from local businesses, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

Vietnam International Sourcing 2024 to be held in Ho Chi Minh City from June 6 to 8 í expected to attract attention from domestic manufacturing and exporting businesses, as well as international distribution and import corporations from many countries around the world.

As many as 500 firms operating in different fields in the international supply chain, such as food, garments, footwear, bags, sporting and outdoor goods, household appliances, and processing and manufacturing, will take part in the event, said Ta Hoang Linh, head of the European-American Market Department of the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

The exhibition will welcome the presence of large corporations, including AEON and Uniqlo of Japan, Walmart and Amazon of the United States, Safeway of Canada, Falabella of Chile, Carrefour and Decathlon of France, Central Group of Thailand, Coppel of Mexico, IKEA of Sweden, and LuLu of the United Arab Emirates that will seek sources of supply of quality commodities from the Vietnamese market, revealed Linh.

He said that Vietnam is transforming strongly as it becomes a major global manufacturing hub that is able to supply the world market with many diverse, quality, and highly competitive products.

Furthermore, after the COVID-19 pandemic and geopolitical-economic instability, many retail and wholesale distribution channels are striving to promote diversification strategies to ensure a stable supply. In line with this, many enterprises have chosen the Vietnamese market as their strategic destination in their global supply chain.

Nguyen Duc Trong, head of the division in charge of developing new suppliers for Walmart in Vietnam, said that Vietnam is viewed as a hub in the supply chain of goods for Walmart in 10,500 stores around the world.

“Vietnam has so far exported US$7 billion worth of electronics, garments, toys and other goods to Walmart supermarkets globally. In addition, Walmart is diversifying all products from consumer goods to food such as frozen mangoes, tea, and coffee because these products are well known in the world market,” he revealed.

However, Trong pointed out that Vietnamese goods distributed to Walmart still have to go through its major trading partners, and the US retailer’s goal is to work directly alongside Vietnamese suppliers. To do this, he said that Walmart is stepping up support for local suppliers by working directly with the firm to help them to learn about US consumer tastes and US market standards.

Not only Walmart, a series of other large distribution corporations operating in Vietnam such as AEON, Uniqlo, Decathlon, and Central Group have launched ambitious and detailed strategies aimed at expanding their distribution chains in the near future, cited VOV.

Fruit and vegetables are available for sales at a Central Retail supermarket in Vietnam. (Photo: Central Retail)

Paul Le, vice president of Central Retail, said that all supermarket chains of this brand currently have up to 95% Vietnamese products. In his opinion, Vietnam boasts many good quality products such as coconuts, lychees, mangoes, and coffee which are favorites among global consumers.

Meanwhile, Yuichiro Shiotani, director of AEON Topvalu Vietnam and China, shared that the firm selects the best potential suppliers to bring products to its stores in 48 countries around the world, and Vietnam is a prime choice.

“Many Vietnamese businesses are our partners and many contracts have been successfully executed. Since 2017, the export turnover of Vietnamese goods through Aeon has doubled, and we are aiming to export US$1 billion of Vietnamese goods through the Aeon system by 2025,” Yuichiro Shiotani shared.

At Vietnam International Sourcing 2023, large foreign corporations operating in various fields held a more positive view of the Vietnamese market, with a number of contracts being signed immediately after the event. The 2024 edition will be double in size compared to last year and is expected to cater to the diverse taste of foreign corporations whilst helping local businesses to penetrate deeper into the global supply chain.

Localities get ready for fourth FDI boom

As the year 2024 is expected to witness the start of the fourth wave of foreign direct investment (FDI) to Vietnam, localities nationwide are getting ready to absorb foreign capital flows.

The shift in global production chains, especially in core technology, chip technology, and future technology industries, is opening up many opportunities for Vietnam to attract high-tech FDI capital.

In the first quarter of 2024, Vietnam registered 6.17 billion USD of FDI capital poured in 17 out of 21 economic sectors, an increase of 13.4% over the same period, VNS reported.

Automobile components are made at foreign-invested Pim Vina Ltd Co, Ltd in My Trung industrial park, My Loc district, Nam Dinh province. (Photo: VNA)

During a working session with Vietnam's Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung in China late last month, Chinese Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao said that some Chinese production chains in textiles, household appliances and wooden furniture have moved to Vietnam. Chinese investment in Vietnam is increasing rapidly, particularly in the electronics sector. Many Chinese supporting businesses that supply products to major global electronics companies like Samsung and Apple have also set up factories in Vietnam after surveying other competing countries.

As part of the shifting trend, Taiwanese Quanta Computer Inc Group - one of the largest computer manufacturers in the world, specializing in assembling MacBooks for Apple - decided to build its ninth computer factory in My Thuan industrial park in Vietnam's northern province of Nam Dinh with a registered capital of 120 million USD and a capacity of 4.5 million products per year in Phase 1.

Tran Anh Dung, Vice Chairman of the Nam Dinh provincial People's Council said that to attract investors, the province has made preparations in all aspects from land funds for infrastructure development in industrial parks and economic zones, human resources, energy infrastructure and supporting industries to procedures. As a result, investment registration procedures for the project were completed within just 24 hours after receiving the dossier and only 15 days after the signing of the project development agreement. This shows the importance of a supportive ecosystem in attracting investment.

Do Nhat Hoang, Director of the Foreign Investment Agency (FIA) under the Ministry of Planning and Investment said that a new wave of FDI is coming to Vietnam. In the new southern policy of the Republic of Korea (RoK), Vietnam is placed at the top position in attracting investment. Many MoUs between businesses of the two countries have been implemented since the official visit of the RoK President to Vietnam in June 2023.

Hoang affirmed that in this period, Vietnam looks for investment in high technology, and new technology and says “No” to projects with outdated technology, environmental risks or labor-intensive ones.

The fourth FDI wave to Vietnam is expected to bring US investment capital flows as many US business delegations are surveying the semiconductor chip ecosystem in Vietnam. Many European business delegations are also surveying opportunities in Vietnam with special attention to the country’s green growth strategy and its commitment to net-zero emission reduction by 2050.

Vietnam has been concentrating on preparing clean land funds through infrastructure development in industrial parks, training high-quality human resources, developing new electricity sources, and logistic services and improving business climate, Hoang said.

He added that in the past, it was difficult for FDI investors to meet provincial leaders and officials, but now top provincial leaders are willing to meet, discuss and support investors to solve their business problems.

To attract high-tech projects, economists recommended that the Government improve competitiveness by building an appropriate investment incentive policy framework, especially when Vietnam started applying the global minimum tax regime on January 1, 2024.

In particular, Vietnam needs to have policies to support domestic enterprises so that they can participate deeper in the supply and production chains of FDI enterprises, especially in the high technology segment.

HCM City moves towards Net Zero

Ho Chi Minh City is building a project to restructure its industry towards sustainable development in the 2025-2030 period, with a vision to 2050, prioritizing the use of high technology and reducing emissions towards net zero emissions by 2050.

According to the Board of Directors of the Hiep Phuoc Industrial Park, there are currently 30 businesses here participating in the pilot project of converting to a cleaner production model to effectively use environmentally sustainable raw materials and fuel. It is part of a cooperation program between the Ministry of Planning and Investment and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO).

This transformation and the "greening" of production have helped the park reduce water consumption by 151,220cu.m per year out of a total potential of 461,252cu.m a year, greenhouse gas emissions by 5,820 tonnes out of 27,076 tonnes of CO2 equivalent a year, and electricity consumption by 6,854 MWh a year.

Xuan Mai Paper Company Limited in the Hiep Phuoc Industrial Park uses modern machinery to achieve cleaner production and reduce emissions (Photo: nhandan.vn)

Meanwhile, the Quang Trung Software City in District 12 is promoting solutions to concretise its goals of digital transformation and green transition in the entire park, with an aim of becoming a model green industrial zone.

Tran Huu Dung, CEO of the Quang Trung Software City Development Company Limited, said that the software city, always positioned as a green-smart urban area, commits to promoting dual transformation activities (digital transformation and green transition) through increasing environmental and social protection activities.

This includes investing in green technology, building green urban infrastructure, saving energy and resources, and promoting campaigns to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, added Dung.

President of the University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City Su Dinh Thanh said that exploiting specific mechanisms and policies under a resolution on special mechanisms and policies for the development of Ho Chi Minh City effectively will help the city make use of opportunities, reduce challenges and achieve the goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and scoring a sustainable socio-economic development, cited VNA.

This is an outstanding advantage for the city administration to affirm its leading role with dynamic, creative, and effective operations; and support businesses in their development while still prioritizing environmental benefits and sustainable development.

Nguyen Thi Thanh Phuong, Director of the Environmental Industry Institute under the Ho Chi Minh City Union of Science and Technology Associations, proposed the city work out orientations and solutions to support businesses in green production, promote the recovery of economic sectors in a green and circular direction, and continue to implement measures to mobilize and effectively use financial resources for sustainable development goals.

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