Speaking at the "Stakeholders Workshop: Productivity Ecosystems for Decent Work", Mr. Hoang Quang Phong, Vice Chairman of VCCI emphasized that Vietnam is in the process of restructuring the economy associated with sustainable employment. with the innovation of sustainable growth model in the context of deep integration into the global economy.

Stakeholders Workshop: Productivity Ecosystems for Decent Work jointly organized by VCCI and ILO.

The workshop was jointly organized by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) and the International Labor Organization (ILO) with the support of the Swiss Federal Economic Service (SECO) and the Development Cooperation Agency. Norway (Norad).

Accordingly, the Vice Chairman of VCCI said that, with the increasing requirements of comprehensive renovation, increasing labor productivity is a key factor contributing to sustainable economic growth.

Meanwhile, Vietnam's labor productivity in recent years has increased, but in terms of absolute value, Vietnam's labor productivity is much lower than that of ASEAN countries. “Up to 90% of businesses in Vietnam are small, medium and micro enterprises. Enterprises participating in the supply chain are often at the end of the chain, with low added value. Management capacity and effective use of resources are still limited,” said Mr. Hoang Quang Phong.

VCCI’s Vice Chairman - Mr. Hoang Quang Phong.

Nearly 74% of the trained workforce do not have diplomas and certificates; the shortage of basic skills, core skills and common technical and professional skills; meanwhile, macro factors such as the size of the economy, institutions, mechanisms and policies, etc., or micro factors such as the size and capacity of enterprises, the quality of human resources, and the skills of people labor; the enterprise's ability to manage human resources, apply science and technology, innovate, etc. in production and business; … and other factors all have an important influence on the rate of labor productivity growth.

Therefore, the Vice Chairman of VCCI commented: "Improving labor productivity is a difficult problem not only for Vietnam, but it is even more difficult due to the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic".

Facing with the current situation of labor productivity in Vietnam, the Party and government have also actively adopted policies and solutions to improve labor productivity, creating a premise to promote the sustainable development of the economy.

“Therefore, Vietnam needs to clearly identify the key issues related to increasing labor productivity in order to find the shortest way to create a breakthrough to increase labor productivity. The cooperation and commitment of stakeholders in this process is very important,” emphasized Mr. Hoang Quang Phong.

Vietnam's labor productivity has increased in recent years, but in terms of absolute value, Vietnam's labor productivity is much lower than that of ASEAN countries.

In fact, Vietnam's labor productivity growth rate is among the highest in Southeast Asia. Vietnam is also one of the countries with the highest productivity growth rates in Asia over the past decade. Efforts to improve productivity have brought Vietnam encouraging results in terms of productivity growth, contributing to gradually narrowing the productivity gap with other countries in the region.

Total factor productivity (TFP) is constantly improving. In the period 2011-2015, increasing TFP contributed about 33.5% to economic growth. In the 2016-2020 period, increasing TFP contributes about 45.7% to economic growth. On average, for the whole period from November 20 to 2020, increasing TFP contributes about 39.6% to economic growth.

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) 2020 ranked Vietnam 42nd out of 131 countries/economies on the innovation index, up 20 places compared to 2016. Vietnam ranks third in the ASEAN region and first in the group of 26 low-middle-income countries on this index. Science, technology and innovation have been focused on investment and application, making an important contribution to helping the economy, industries and businesses overcome shocks, continue to promote productivity growth during the unstable period of the world economy.  

Although after two decades, Vietnam's labor productivity has tripled and the gap with other countries has narrowed significantly, but Vietnam's labor productivity is still low in Asia. Compared with Asia's leading productivity country- Singapore, the productivity gap between Singapore and Vietnam has decreased significantly, from 21 times higher in 1990 to 11.3 times now.

Over the past two decades, Vietnam has made many efforts to improve labor productivity. In which, the economic restructuring from agriculture to industry plays an important role. However, up to now, this contribution has probably reached the saturation point, so Vietnam has to find a new solution to increase labor productivity.

Therefore, Ms. Tran Thi Lan Anh, General Secretary of VCCI said that it is necessary to have a flexible solution to create a breakthrough in productivity growth in the new period.

According to the General Secretary of VCCI, from the experience of other countries, it is clear that labor productivity is measured by the sum of two macro and micro factors. In the macro factor it depends on the size of the economy, institutions, mechanisms and policies. The micro factor is the size, internal resources of the enterprise, the ability to apply scientific and technological achievements to production and business; quality of human resources, skills of workers, ability to use human resources of enterprises and employers...

Experts believe that Vietnam needs to continue to promote the development of high-quality human resources associated with innovation.

Therefore, Vietnam has been implementing national science and technology tasks, supporting businesses in research, innovation, technology transfer and application to improve productivity. Develop and implement science and technology tasks, plans to improve labor productivity and total factor productivity (TFP) based on science, technology and innovation.

At the same time, promote institutional reform, continue to promote the development of high-quality human resources associated with innovation. In particular, the first solution is to quickly increase the size of the economy (the size of GDP), maintain a high and stable average economic growth rate. The economic structure must shift rapidly in the direction of progress, whereby the structure of industry - construction and services in the economy must account for a larger proportion than the agro-forestry-fishery sector (increasing the industries/fields that have high added value).

Along with that, it is necessary to create many jobs and create jobs to ensure full employment. Maximize the mobilization of the labor force within the age group to participate in economic activities; reduce unemployment.

VCCI Secretary General also emphasized the need to accelerate institutional reform, continue to build a constructive and actionable Government. Building Digital Government. A startup ecosystem must be formed. Creating a transparent and favorable business investment environment, putting businesses and people at the center of development. Businesses and people are the main actors that decide to improve labor productivity.

“Therefore, on the one hand, it is necessary to continue to promote investment attraction, on the other hand, it is necessary to encourage the development and formation of many businesses, especially those dealing in goods and services that create high added value. The ones that can create a breakthrough are the pioneering, leading and proactive enterprises in innovation, applying the achievements of the 4.0 Industrial Revolution to production and business activities, creating a driving force for development. economy", Ms. Lan Anh emphasized.

Along with the solutions, it is necessary to combine the experience of countries with high labor productivity like Japan. The experience of the Japanese is to support workers to "reset" their awareness and requires close commitment from both sides to improve labor productivity.

General Secretary of VCCI emphasized that the important issue is training to improve the quality of human resources in a systematic way, which is strictly scientifically managed from vocational training, to university or higher, suitable for all subjects and ages. Currently, Vietnam is also implementing many programs and projects to improve the quality of human resources from countries such as Japan, Australia, etc.