Securing technology transfer agreements with foreign partners represents a strategic avenue for Vietnam to rapidly acquire essential technologies. The aspiration of fostering collaboration with foreign direct investment (FDI) enterprises, particularly in the realm of technology, has long been a goal for Vietnam. However, the harsh reality was underscored during a seminar held on September 7 in Hanoi. Startling data from the seminar revealed that between July 2018 and the end of 2022, there were just 400 technology transfer agreements involving FDI enterprises. Most of these agreements centered on technology exchanges between parent companies and their subsidiaries, with little spillover into local businesses. Reflecting on three decades of FDI attraction, experts lamented that the much-anticipated technology transfer and its positive impacts on local enterprises have yet to materialize. It is imperative to acknowledge that FDI enterprises lack significant incentives for transferring technology to local counterparts. Over nearly four decades of economic reform (known as doi moi), Vietnam’s domestic industrial sector has primarily relied on subcontracting, with a labor-intensive workforce as its mainstay. An industrial sector built on the foundation of low labor costs for competitive advantage, rather than on technology and productivity, lacks the impetus for meaningful technology transfer. The prevalence […]