Tien-Dung Nguyen

One of the remaining challenges in explaining differences in total factor productivity is heterogeneity between sectors and within a specific sector in terms of labor and capital. This paper employs the generalized method of moments (GMM) to identify factors that affect total factor productivity across 21 manufacturing sectors and to clarify the heterogeneous determinants of total factor productivity within manufacturing sectors for the period 2010–2015. Our estimations show that large firms have significantly greater total factor productivity levels than small firms in some fragmentations of firms in terms of both labor and total capital and in some manufacturing sectors. It is suggested that firm characteristics should be considered by the government in establishing relevant policies for enhancing firm productivity.

The paper, using a three-wave unbalanced panel of 3252 observations of young small and medium-sized firms in 2011–2013, examines the effect of direct linkages between firms with foreign direct investment and young small and medium-sized firms on technology adoption strategies and the further influence of technology transfers from such linkages on technology adoption strategies. Moreover, the paper analyzes the extent that economic obstacles may cause young small and medium-sized firms to choose different adoptions. Our analysis shows that exporting firms do not tend to conduct embodied backward/forward adoptions, but more likely adopt the embodied backward purchasing. In addition, the impact of competitiveness follows an inverse U-shaped pattern for the embodied backward adoption, but a U-shaped pattern for the disembodied adoption. In terms of market power, there exists an inversed U-shaped pattern for the embodied backward adoption. Under the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) linkages and vertical spillovers, it is found that technology transfer through backward/forward linkages is associated with the embodied ones, whereas a linkage with FDI domestic customers/suppliers is less likely associated with the embodied ones. In addition, under technology transfer, firms facing economic constraints may overcome these by looking for other financial sources and embodied technology transfer. The paper suggests the path for FDI firms, young small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and technology adoption strategies in the future.

Trans - Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) is a high-standard free trade agreement with a far-reaching influence in many important sectors of the economy. This Agreement is considered as the agreement of the 21th century. Vietnam has a lower development level compared with the remaining 11 countries. Therefore, accession into TPP brings about plenty of opportunities to Vietnam as well as great challenges. The opportunities and challenges in sectors are also different as their competitive advantages are varied. Agriculture has always been one of the three pillars of the economy. Seafood is expected to have the greatest advantage while husbandry is the weakest and lagged behind other countries in PPP. The husbandry needs extensive and drastic restructuring to develop and integrate into the common market. From the analysis, the author offers some suggestions for the husbandry in the international integration era.

This study examines the tourism-led growth hypothesis (TLGH) in Vietnam during the period 1992–2011. The authors use two-step procedures to test the hypothesis. They first apply cointegration and the Granger causality test to identify the relationships between tourism earning and gross domestic product (GDP). Second, they use growth decomposition methodology to measure the contribution of tourism to economic growth. The results indicate that it is worthwhile for the government to implement economic policies to stimulate economic growth through the tourism sector in Vietnam.

The state sector playing the leading role is the perception that has been consistently specified in documents of the Communist Party, since the seventh National Congress. The affirmation of the state sector’s leading role is to clarify the nature and characteristics of the socialist-oriented market economy. The leading role of the state sector means the state sector pioneers and leads in the market economy which is reflected by the holding of crucial positions and activities in the economy. After nearly 30 years of reform, the connotations of the leading role of the state sector and the key position of state-owned enterprises have been gradually defined; the state sector and state-owned enterprises have been differentiated. The state sector plays a leading role in a multi-sector economy in which the state-owned enterprises keep a “crucial position” and are a material condition to orient socialism. The state sector, however, is yet to clearly show this role. The state sector has a tremendous influence with some components of it directly affecting the whole economy, which are resources, infrastructure, state budget etc. Because of the above - mentioned reasons, the state sector is the foundation to the social and economic development in the socialist-oriented market economy of Vietnam.