Viet Nam needs a comprehensive competition policy to ensure fair competition in the market economy, said Nguyen Dinh Cung, director general of the Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM).

Speaking at a seminar on competition policies held in Ha Noi yesterday, Cung said Viet Nam’s economy had obtained achievements in the last 30 years. However, there were still shortcomings.

Cung reviewed the 2011-15 period when Viet Nam carried out many measures to move to the market economy, including priorities to stabilise the macro economy, restructure the economy and change to the growth economy model.

The country also reformed regulations and policies for the market economy, focusing on administrative reform and improving the business environment, developing human resources and a modern and synchronous infrastructure.

Although the country had reached positive results, the macro economy’s stability was not firm and economic growth was below targets, said Cung, adding that the country had not yet made a breakthrough in socio-economic development and economic restructuring.

Agreeing with Cung, Dang Quang Vinh from the CIEM said State mechanisms had not considered the market and competition when building regulations, leading to an economy of low competitiveness.

Professor Michael Woods, an international expert in competition, said the government of Viet Nam had been focusing on sustainable economic growth. However, the government needed to clarify the principles of competition and build equality among businesses. 

According to international rules, checks on public policies should have objectives, transparency and be in the public interest, said Michael.

The professor said to reach a market economy, Viet Nam needed to check the Law on Competition and other laws and policies to ensure competitiveness and sustainable results.

Competition was important for Viet Nam, said economic expert Pham Chi Lan as she was showing the fact that Viet Nam had lowest competitive capacity in Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), both in regulations and businesses.

25 years after entering ASEAN, Lan said Viet Nam still ranked the 7th in competitive capacity out of 10 ASEAN member countries. Even the lower ranked nations Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar, had certain facets better than Viet Nam.

According to Lan, Viet Nam has long prioritised State-owned enterprises over foreign direct investment businesses and domestic private businesses were behind further.

VNS