Vietnam’s investments in innovation to fuel growth
Vietnam’s investments in innovation to fuel growth
Vietnam is seeing positive growth as a knowledge economy as investments from government complement those coming in from international technology firms, according to latest Economic Insight report of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW), a world leading professional membership organisation that promotes, develops and supports over 142,000 chartered accountants worldwide.
The report also points that the country’s capacity is taking off with economic growth projection hitting 5.8 per cent by 2017.
Mark Billington, regional director of ICAEW South East Asia, said “Investment in education and skills is key to building a knowledge economy. As one of the developing economies of ASEAN, Vietnam still lags behind its regional peers in the provision of basic education at the primary and secondary level.”
Mark added that “This is an area the Vietnamese government can look to improve, especially as it is the foundation needed in order to eventually develop a highly-skilled, qualified workforce.”
“Knowledge and skills are the best investment for a country looking to build long-term prosperity,” he underscored.
The report states that once the foundation of a highly educated workforce is set in place, the extent to which the economy will thrive will depend partly on the amount of inflow of foreign direct investment which is an area Vietnam is flourishing in.
Accordingly, the country has seen a recent bout of investments from international technology firms to set up a chip-testing and assembling facility in Ho Chi Minh City, a partnership programme with Finland to fund innovation as well as government efforts to establish a cluster of high-tech small and medium enterprises in the country; this presents a hopeful outlook for Vietnam.
The ICAEW Economic Insight report is produced by Cebr, ICAEW’s partner and economic forecaster.
Commissioned by ICAEW, the report provides its 142,000 members with a current snapshot of the region’s economic performance.
The report undertakes a quarterly review of South East Asian economies, with a focus on the following countries, namely Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
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