For nearly four decades of opening up, foreign investment has brought Vietnam large capital, creating millions of jobs and making important contributions to exports as well as economic growth.
But Vietnam has now entered a new stage of development. Therefore, attracting many projects, many billions of USD of FDI capital is still very necessary for the economy but not enough.
In the new phase, the value of a foreign investment project is not only viewed in terms of capital and the number of jobs created, but also in terms of technology level, added value, ability to link with Vietnamese businesses, human resource training and level of participation in the supply chain.
And that is the fundamental difference between "attracting investment" and "developing the economy with foreign investment", as Resolution No. 10-NQ/TW states.
The reality of many years in localities also shows that in many places, FDI enterprises are developing very strongly, but domestic enterprises are still struggling in stages with low added value.
Many localities have modern factories with large export turnover, but the localization rate is still modest, and the linkage with Vietnamese businesses is not as expected.
If that situation persists, the economy will find it difficult to create real momentum from the FDI sector. Therefore, the shift from the thinking of "attracting foreign investment" to the thinking of "developing the economy with foreign investment capital" aims to improve the quality of investment capital flows.
Vietnam still needs FDI, but needs investors who are willing to accompany for a long time, share technology, develop human resources and create opportunities for domestic businesses to participate more deeply in the global value chain.
This transformation will also contribute to changing preferential policies as well as the "race" of incentives between localities in attracting foreign investment.
A noteworthy point is that the Resolution does not stop at the general orientation but sets out specific measures. By 2030, the average localization rate in key industries is strived to reach 45-50%; about 10,000 Vietnamese enterprises participate in the value chain, supply chain of foreign-invested enterprises; the rate of trained workers in the labor structure reaches about 80%.
In the future, instead of competing to attract by cheap land rents or more tax incentives, localities will have to compete by infrastructure quality, human resource quality, transparent investment environment and management capacity.
When determining to shift from the thinking of "attracting foreign investment" to the thinking of "developing the economy with foreign investment capital", we will have the opportunity to turn FDI capital flows into a driving force to improve the competitiveness of the economy itself.
And it is expected that Resolution No. 10-NQ/TW when it comes into life will be a major boost for more and more Vietnamese businesses to mature in the global supply chain, more technologies to be mastered and more Vietnamese workers to take on higher value positions.
FDI will no longer be an area of development in parallel with the economy, but will truly become a part of endogenous strength, contributing to bringing Vietnam forward faster on the path of sustainable development.
