Building a digital workforce: The key to sustainable digital economic growth in Binh Duong province

Abstract

Binh Duong province (prior to the merger) has been among the fastest-growing provinces in Vietnam. However, a persistent decline in labour productivity growth over the past two decades indicates technological limitations in previously invested industrial sectors. By investigating the correlation between labour productivity and factors such as digital economy scale, human capital quality, capital intensity, population, and provincial competitiveness on the panel data collected by the General Statistics Office of Vietnam for the period 2010-2023, this study finds a positive relationship between digital economy scale and productivity. Therefore, Binh Duong must focus on developing policies to attract high-quality digital labour from the neighbouring areas, especially the southern part of Binh Duong, which is adjacent to Ho Chi Minh city, the largest economic centre of Vietnam, which is expected to become a core hub for high-tech development in the coming decades. This article also suggests different ways of building up quality digital workforces for Binh Duong province, meeting the requirements for economic and technological development by 2030, with a vision towards 2045.