‘Technology transfer’ sparking debate
‘Technology transfer’ sparking debate
Whether foreign invested enterprises have transferred high technology to Vietnam or not remains controversial.
At a recent seminar on announcing two in-depth studies on enterprises’ technology and competitiveness organised by the Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM) and Denmark’s Copenhagen University, Theodore Talbot from this university said Vietnam-based foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs) had been transferring high technology to Vietnam.
He said this conclusion was made based on recent direct surveys over FIEs and other relevant studies.
However, Nguyen Tu Anh, vice head of CIEM’s Macro-economic Policy Section, said based on studies over FIEs’ data and operations over the past more than two decades, there had been no convincing evidence showing that FIEs had transferred high technology to Vietnamese enterprises.
This meant either FIEs did not do that or local enterprises did not want to receive technology from FIEs and they were even incompetent in receiving such technology, Anh said.
One of the Vietnamese government’s prime targets to lure foreign direct investment (FDI) is to attract high technology from FIEs. However, whether FIEs have transferred such technology and in what level such technology has been transferred remains a question. As a result, this has made it difficult for the Vietnamese government to devise a suitable policy to coax more FDI in the coming years.
According to Talbot, such advantages as low-cost labour and materials for enterprises in Vietnam are becoming gradually limited. Enterprises would then have no choice rather than invest much more in improving technology in order to enhance their competitiveness. He said that technology transfer had helped increase business profits, but it could not be implemented by enterprises themselves and it would need more help from the government.
However, experts said Vietnam lacked a good environment for technology transfer between FIEs and local enterprises. Anh ascribed this lack to macro-economic instability.
Such instability had prompted enterprises and investors to boost speculation activities, which would help them both lessen risks and rake in profits swiftly, rather than implement long-term investment activities, he said.
Meanwhile, technology transfer would need a stable macro-economic climate, in which enterprises would feel secure in investing into bettering technology and staff quality to enhance their competitiveness.
“Therefore, the Vietnamese government would need to persistently pursue macro-economic stability, if it wants the technology transfer process between FIEs and local enterprises to be implemented quickly and effectively,” Anh stressed.
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