On the occasion of the Vietnamese Entrepreneurs’ Day 2023, President Vo Van Thuong receives a delegation of outstanding businesswomen at the Presidential Palace, congratulating them on their achievements and contributions to the national economy and society

Establishing the roles and contributions of enterprises and entrepreneurs

Resolution 09 has fostered the development of a dynamic and diverse Vietnamese entrepreneur force, spanning across state-owned enterprises (SOEs), private enterprises, large corporations, small businesses and cooperatives. The Chairman of the Party Central Committee’s Economic Commission, Mr. Tran Tuan Anh, recognized the resolution’s impact on building and enhancing the roles of Vietnamese entrepreneurs in the process of industrialization, modernization and international integration.

Since the launch of doi moi in 1986, the Vietnamese entrepreneur force has expanded and improved steadily, contributing significantly to various aspects of national construction and development. As of now, Vietnam has nearly 900,000 active enterprises, about 14,400 cooperatives and about 5.1 million business households. Many Vietnamese enterprises and entrepreneurs have achieved remarkable breakthroughs in corporate governance, production and business, with ambitious projects to reach out to global markets. Moreover, the country has witnessed the emergence of some giant private conglomerates with impressive scale, financial and governance capacity, modern technology and pioneering leadership in key industries and sectors such as food production, automobile manufacturing, aviation, information technology, telecommunications, services, real estate and agriculture.

During the COVID-19 pandemic and the complex international developments, Vietnamese businessmen have demonstrated their resilience and solidarity with the country in overcoming the challenges.

VCCI President Pham Tan Cong stated that Resolution 09 provides a consistent and coherent framework of guidelines, policies and ecosystems for the business community to operate more effectively. The social awareness of the business community regarding its roles and the business environment has also enhanced its development and growth.

With special attention from the Party and the State, the Vietnamese entrepreneur force is growing stronger and making great contributions to the success of the reform, national construction and defense in many aspects. Vietnam currently has millions of businesspeople, including dollar billionaires. Their quality has also improved significantly.

Vietnamese entrepreneurs are a key vanguard force to transform the national economy by investing in production and business, creating jobs, utilizing resources and developing production forces to produce products and services that meet the increasingly diverse needs in domestic and global markets. They implement industrialization and modernization to develop a socialist-oriented market economy that is independent, self-reliant and internationally integrated, bringing the country out of underdevelopment to become a middle-income developing country. The business sector contributes over 60% of GDP and about 70% of State budget revenue.

The majority of Vietnamese business people exhibit honesty, courage, creativity and perseverance in their business endeavors, overcoming difficulties and challenges for reform, development and innovation, and contributing to the realization of aspirations for a prosperous and happy Vietnam. They also demonstrate social responsibility toward their employees, partners, customers and the community. This was especially evident during the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak.

VCCI President Pham Tan Cong identified several areas that need improvement to facilitate the development of the entrepreneur force. These include the slow translation and implementation of Party guidelines and policies into State policies and laws, the formulation and execution of documents and projects on State administration in some areas that still fall short of expectations and requirements, and a business legal system that contains many barriers, obstacles and restrictions on business freedom. Vietnam’s competitiveness and business environment remain limited in some aspects while their improvements are unstable and unsustainable, still at an average level of ASEAN and the world, not in the top 3-4 in ASEAN as expected. The promotion of business ethics and culture in Vietnam has not received adequate attention. Business culture “has not truly become a resource and endogenous driving force of the country’s sustainable development”.

Furthermore, some business people lack business culture and social responsibility, disregard the law, succumb to local and group interests, and even collude with corrupted and degenerated elements in the State administrative apparatus. This leads to more social misconduct.

Fostering a resilient and ethical entrepreneurial culture in Vietnam

The 13th National Party Congress articulated the country’s development vision and aspirations: To become a modern industrialized country with a lower middle-income status by 2025 and an upper-middle-income status by 2030. The Congressional Document also stated: “Developing a strong and capable entrepreneur force in terms of scale and quality, with a patriotic spirit, cultural standards, progressive ethics, and excellent business management.”

Mr. Pham Tan Cong emphasized the importance of building a strong and competent force of Vietnamese entrepreneurs and enterprises to achieve the country’s development vision and aspirations. The entrepreneur force is a key vanguard force to realize national industrialization and modernization, enhance quality, efficiency, and competitiveness, and ensure the independence and autonomy of the economy. Building a strong entrepreneur force with a large scale and high quality, with knowledge and expertise, civic awareness, social responsibility, strong nationalism, strong character, and high adaptability to international integration is a priority and concern of the Party and the State. Building and enhancing the role of entrepreneurs and enterprises is always synchronously linked with improving development institutions, with the focus being socialist-oriented market economic institutions; ensuring ownership rights and business freedom for entrepreneurs in accordance with the law, and encouraging entrepreneurs to legitimately enrich themselves and the country. It is essential to eliminate all barriers and prejudices and create favorable conditions for private economic development in both scale and quality; encourage the formation and development of large private businesses with strong potential and powerful regional and international competitiveness. Vietnam aims to have at least two million companies by 2030, with the private economic sector’s contributions to GDP reaching 60-65%.

VCCI President Pham Tan Cong, emphasized the need for each business to be determined and strategic in the current context of intertwined opportunities, difficulties, and challenges. They must prioritize building internal strength and innovation, applying science and technology as the foundation and driver to enhance governance capacity, labor productivity, competitiveness, and international integration. Vietnamese entrepreneurs and enterprises must foster solidarity and cooperation in production and business, develop value chains and supply chains to reinforce Vietnamese brands in the marketplace for successful international integration; and expand win-win connectivity and cooperation with international partners.

In particular, complying with the law and aligning business and individual interests with national and community interests is essential for resilient and sustainable business development. It is important to inspire, encourage, and strongly promote the entrepreneurial spirit and genuine desire for affluence in society.

To support business development, the Party and the State have been implementing various solutions to support the business community in addressing difficulties; continuously improve the legal framework, accelerate administrative reform and judicial reform, maintain the principle of no criminalization of economic relations, create a favorable, healthy, and safe business environment, facilitate market entry, business startup, and ongoing business development.

According to the VCCI President, VCCI must be a hub, a unifier and a supporter for the business community, enterprises and trade associations, helping Vietnamese enterprises with successful integration.

VCCI must convey the legitimate opinions and aspirations of the business community, production and business practices into the process of building Party policies/guidelines and State policies/laws. VCCI must more actively coordinate with localities to further improve the business environment, enhance provincial competitiveness, build linkage and cooperation models for regional and local economic development. VCCI must continue to uphold the spirit of entrepreneurship and business; protect legitimate rights and interests of entrepreneurs and enterprises, further honor outstanding entrepreneurs and enterprises; and gather, connect, and support Vietnamese companies and businesspeople abroad. VCCI, business associations, and businesses need to take the lead in building and forming business value systems, business ethics, and business culture in accordance with Vietnamese values, ethics, culture, and with the epitome of international business culture. They must uphold national spirit, social responsibility, and aspiration for national development, prosperity, and well-being.