The Digitalization of Business: Vietnam’s Perspective.

Вьетнамские исследования. 2019. No. 2 (1). P. 35–46.

Kanaev E., Nguyen Quаng T., Vi Thi Huong H.

As the digitalization becomes the key factor to raise the competitiveness of companies, as well as of the investment attractiveness of recipient countries, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV) may find it difficult to benefit from this process. The research question is why Vietnam, in spite of successful efforts to increase its investment attractiveness, may miss opportunities presented by the emerging digital business environment. The academic novelty of the paper account for the reveal of the repercussions generated by the global trend towards the digitalization of businesses for Vietnam. The approach to the research question is based upon general academic methods like observation, study of documents and comparison. The primary sources of the paper, a significant part of which is published in the Vietnamese language, include the statistics of Ministry of Finance of Vietnam, Ministry of planning and investment of Vietnam, interviews with the SRV’s government officials, as well as the UNCTAD and the World Bank reports. The principal findings of the study reveal that while Vietnam has succeeded in strengthening its attractiveness as an investment destination, the country still possesses insufficient resources to respond to the forthcoming global digitalization of businesses and incentivize companies to continue investing in the SRV. In this connection, a set of recommendations on how to rectify maters is presented by the authors.

Keywords: investment attractiveness, Vietnam, competitiveness, e-commerce, business, digitalization, FDI inflows