Finding solutions to attracting private investment in education

Investing in education not only benefits individuals, but also has a profound impact on the community and the nation - Photo: VGP/MT

When investing in the education and training sector, the biggest desire of investors is not high profits, but that those investments truly bring benefits to society and the community.

Currently, Vietnam's cooperation and investment policies in education and training have been improved to create attractiveness to attract private investment. The legal corridor on the socialization of education has also been gradually improved. However, many economic and educational experts still believe that, with a very important sector such as education, especially higher education related to the quality of human resources for the country's socio-economic development, this is still an unattractive field for private investors.

In the article: "Private economic development - Leverage for a prosperous Vietnam", General Secretary To Lam pointed out the shortcomings that the private economy is currently facing. These shortcomings are also the bottlenecks in attracting private capital.

To contribute to finding solutions to create motivation and attract more capital from private investors for the education and training sector, the Government Electronic Newspaper discussed with experts, education managers and economists to propose solutions and suggestions for the process of attracting private investment in general, including the education and training sector.

Lawyer Nguyen Van Quy, Head of Business Department, EY Auditing Company: Building culture in business

Lawyer Nguyen Van Quy, Head of Business Department, EY Auditing Company - Photo: VGP/MT

A transparent business investment environment, more specifically, the business culture of each country and each enterprise, will be the driving force to help the economies of each country increase investment capital flows into economic sectors, including education and training (an investment sector for the future), thereby promoting growth and development of the country.

In my opinion, we must first build a healthy business culture and create a transparent investment environment to create trust and attract investors.

For the education sector, an industry with large investment, long-term duration, and low profit margin, the failure to create a healthy and stable business environment will not only make it difficult to attract capital, but also lead to consequences: Parents and students lose faith in education and the value of learning, affecting their motivation to learn and develop themselves; affecting the psychology and ethics of those participating in and receiving education; reducing the quality of future human resources and reducing the attractiveness of the market and hindering investment capital flows, especially private and international investment.

Along with the revised and supplemented Law on Education, related decrees have opened a wide door to attract private sector investment in this field, typically Vingroup Corporation, FPT Corporation, EQuest Corporation, Nguyen Hoang Group (NHG)...

At the same time, Resolution No. 35/NQ-CP also pointed out that it is necessary to attract investment resources for society and education and training, especially in the context of Vietnam's increasingly deep international integration. The Government has encouraged and created many conditions for investors in education and training at all levels and training fields. In particular, Resolution No. 35/NQ-CP pointed out that socialization of education and training must be considered an indicator in local socio-economic development.

Thus, I think that in the economic or educational fields, when a culture of business and cooperation is built, it means that the regulations are established in a synchronous, unified, specific manner and ensure the rights of investors, which will certainly create a stable, safe and transparent investment environment, thereby creating motivation and confidence for businesses, especially private businesses, to boldly invest capital.

Assoc.Prof.Dr. Ngo Van Cam ( FSB Institute of Management and Technology, FPT University): Promoting linkage and cooperation for mutual development

Assoc.Prof.Dr. Ngo Van Cam, FSB Institute of Management and Technology, FPT University - Photo: VGP/MT

Transparency in the business environment not only promotes investment, but also facilitates the connection and cooperation between domestic enterprises. With information about the market, partners and business opportunities being public and transparent, enterprises can easily search and choose suitable partners for business cooperation.

Linking and cooperating between enterprises to take advantage of each party's strengths, sharing risks, and optimizing resources. Especially, in the context of fierce competition and increasing requirements for product and service quality, cooperation between enterprises can create strong value chains, helping to improve performance and enhance the competitiveness of the whole industry.

In the context of internationalization of education being a global trend, Vietnam always promotes international cooperation. Therefore, when creating a transparent business environment, we not only attract FDI investment, but also create motivation for domestic enterprises to connect and cooperate with each other for mutual development.

Investing in education requires large capital over a long period of time, but is slow to yield profits. Therefore, if we want to change and promote investment in education, we need to improve the thinking and working methods of state management agencies and enterprises in the education sector. Enterprises investing in education should not place too much emphasis on benefits, consider investing in education to make a profit, or lack vision, leading to low quality of education and training, negatively affecting the quality of training and the interests of parents and students.

Besides, we need to create a stable business environment, sustainable economic development, build trust - a solid foundation for all cooperation activities to promote exchange, learning, and improve the qualifications of both sides.

Master Nguyen Phuong Linh, Director of the Institute for Sustainable Development Management Research, Head of the Open Social Innovation Village/Community): Need to create motivation and trust for investors

Master Nguyen Phuong Linh, Director of the Institute for Sustainable Development Management Research - Photo: VGP/MT

Currently, we have not attracted much capital from the private sector into projects and investment programs for education that are broad and in-depth. This is a weakness, but also a great opportunity for investors who want to seek cooperation opportunities.

Vietnam's education sector promises to record impressive growth with a value of up to 89 billion USD by 2026. When the scale and profits are large enough, domestic and foreign private investors will pour thousands of billions of VND into universities.

According to the Department of Education and Training of Ho Chi Minh City, currently, the Ho Chi Minh City budget spends an average of VND2,700 billion each year to invest in infrastructure and facilities for the school system. However, with an annual growth rate of about 65,000 students, the need to build more training facilities is extremely large.

Therefore, attracting capital from other sources, such as FDI and private sector, is the only way to solve the urgent problems of the current education sector. One of the solutions to "attract" that capital is to create motivation and confidence for investors by building a safe and stable business and investment environment.

The Government has had many policies to create favorable conditions for all parties. The Ministry of Education and Training has also made decisions to allow various forms of cooperation to ensure the common goal of education and training required by the State and society. Therefore, the problem is that in addition to diversifying the forms of association and cooperation, it is necessary to create a fair and transparent "playing field" to attract more investment and cooperation from the private sector.

Simultaneously, In order for investment in education to produce results in training high-quality human resources to meet current economic development trends, it is necessary for leaders of educational institutions to have both heart and vision.

Thanh Thuy (performed)

Source: https://baochinhphu.vn/tim-loi-giai-cho-thu-hut-dau-tu-tu-nhan-trong-giao-duc-102250417125658478.htm