Vietnam invests in improving productivity   In the context of Vietnam’s extensive international integration in 2016, the Vietnamese government is paying special attention to improving the national competitive edge and people’s living standards. Vietnam has investment in capital, science, technology, and human resources to improve its productivity. Since 2000 Vietnam’s labor productivity has increased 3% annually. The largest increase occurred in the industrial and construction sectors. The labor productivity gap between Vietnam and other ASEAN countries has narrowed but the gap with more developed countries remains wide. It’s vital to invest in science and technology Nguyen Anh Tuan, Director of the Vietnam Productivity Institute, says many countries have focused on increasing capital investment in modern equipment to increase labor productivity. Vietnam needs more capital to promote economic growth. Tuan said Vietnam needs to pay more attention to science, technology, labor quality and efficient resource allocation to improve productivity.  He said investment in science and technology is vital: “The general productivity will be low if we have many sectors with low productivity, using a lot of workers to produce low values. That’s why it’s necessary to invest in equipment, improve managerial capacity, and promote innovations”. It’s important to restructure sectors Theoretically, the focus should be on sectors with high added value. But Vietnam is still focused on processing, mining and construction rather on investing in equipment. The agricultural sector is heavily dependent on manual labor and household production. The service sector has low added value. One way to increase productivity would be to shift from low to high productivity sectors. It’s also important to improve the quality of human resources, increase the application of science and technology, expand markets, and promote the export of high added value products. Nguyen Minh Phong is an economist: “We have increased investment in the support industry, especially the sectors that can participate in the global supply chain. Vietnam also needs to boost information technology, processing, and precision technology. The agricultural sector needs to focus on high tech agriculture and ecological agriculture. The service sector needs to promote banking, financial and telecommunications services which use advanced technology and create high added values”. Focusing on human resource training Duong Duc Lan, General Director of the Vietnam General Department of Vocational Training of the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs, says technology and workers’ skills are the two main factors in increasing productivity. Lan stressed the importance of vocational training: “Workers in manufacturing, business and services determine the productivity. If we pay due attention to and invest in vocational training, we can increase productivity. So far, investment in vocational training accounts for only 9% of the total budget allocation for education and training”. Vietnam is now focusing on fine-tuning production mechanisms, improving human resource training, advancing science and technology, increasing national competitiveness, achieving rapid and sustainable growth, and narrowing development gap with other countries in the region. Kim Thanh/VOV5