This research aims to evaluate the current state of technology of enterprises in Vietnam in comparison with several countries in the AEC economic community, thereby to propose several recommendations to Vietnamese enterprises in order able to promote technology innovation activities, create competitiveness with enterprises in the region. Qualitative research methods are used through statistics and comparative descriptions from data collected from various sources: WEF, World Bank, CIEM, General Statistic Office. The study results show that Vietnamese enterprises still have many limitations in technology, originated from their small business scale (capital and labor), the current research capacity is still low, the funding for this activity is not high and the accessibility of the capital is still difficult. According to the Global Competitiveness Index, Vietnam's science and technology indexes are low compared to other AEC-developed countries including the availability of the latest technology; the acquisition of technology at the enterprise level; the capacity of improvement; quality of scientific research organizations..., which shall be a major barrier for Vietnamese enterprises to have to overcome to be able to create the competitiveness when entering the global market. From then on, the authors proposed solutions for two subjects, enterprises and government, to help Vietnamese enterprises to overcome this barrier.

This study aims to assess the attraction of foreign direct investment in Vietnamese economic zones (including industrial zones and economic zones). The main research method used are synthesis and comparison analysis based on the data collected from the surveyed group comprising of enterprises operating in the economic zones in the Middle (Chu Lai, Nhon Hoi, Dung Quat) and the Southern (the largest island: Phu Quoc) . After conducting surveys, research results show that there is a difference between the assessment and the level to meet the requirements of investors with business environment, expressed through the following criteria: (1) the infrastructure; (2) quality of public services; (3) preferential policies; (4) labor; (5) market; and (6) social services. Based on the assessment of the identified criteria, this paper had suggested six number of recommendations to promote the role of attracting foreign direct investment capital into the economic zones in Vietnam: (1) implementing the "one-stop-shop" policy; (2) continuing to improve the infrastructure of economic zones; (3) prevent and ensure the security of economic zones; (4) implementing vocational training activities to improve quality of human resources; (5) development of supporting industries; (6) raising the quality of capital invested in the economic zone