Seminar discusses improving business competiveness

In a keynote address leading off the seminar, MoIT Deputy Minister Do Thang Hai said since Vietnam joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2007, the national economy has been competing in an increasingly complex global setting.

During this same period of time, the global economy has seemed to be in a perpetual state of volatility, said Mr Hai. 

However, since 2007, total commercial trade for FDI and local businesses increased 2.94 fold to US$327.8 billion in 2015.

The trade figures demonstrate there are ample opportunities for local businesses to cash in on an equal footing with FDI companies if they do their homework and become competitive in foreign marketplaces.

To succeed, local companies must take the initiative to transform themselves from small scale companies utilizing backward technologies to full-fledged commercial enterprises with savvy expert management capabilities.

The global economy can best be understood as a complex of networks, said Mr Hai, noting that companies interact through relationships that make up supply-chains, social networks and interactive platforms.

Competitiveness thus aims to control, regulate and enhance the networks businesses participate in. It will take a lot of hard work by companies to actively grasp and understand the foreign markets in which they operate.

To survive, said Mr Hai, companies will need to have the switch turned on to thinking proactively, nurture capacity of production, and focus their efforts to improving the quality of products, in accordance with the tastes and standards of export markets.