The business community has broadly welcomed the resolution, viewing it as a “launchpad” for breakthrough growth towards the target of reaching two million operating enterprises by 2030.

However, from a practical perspective, the greatest challenge lies not in the number of newly registered enterprises, but in maintaining businesses that genuinely operate and possess the capacity to survive and grow.

Improving the business environment

Resolution 68 has created a fundamental shift in the thinking and awareness of the entire political system regarding the role of the private economy. More importantly, alongside this shift in mindset have come concrete actions by central and local authorities to improve the business environment, accelerate administrative reform, reduce compliance costs and business conditions, and facilitate smoother operations for enterprises. Over the past year, the Government has focused on translating the orientation of Resolution 68 into practice by submitting numerous laws to the National Assembly, while simultaneously drafting a series of legal documents aimed at shifting management methods from pre-inspection to post-inspection in order to unlock resources.

Nevertheless, many obstacles have continued to emerge in practice. A typical example is Decree No. 46/2026/ND-CP dated January 26, 2026, detailing several articles and measures guiding the implementation of the Law on Food Safety. The decree partly exposed the discrepancy between reform orientations at the macro level and policy-making approaches in certain specialised sectors.

Immediately after the decree came into effect, numerous food enterprises reported increased procedures relating to product declarations, testing, and production conditions, which prolonged the time needed to bring products to market and raised compliance costs. Some businesses even had to suspend the launch of new products because they could not meet the additional requirements in time. The eventual decision by the competent authority to suspend the implementation of Decree No. 46/2026/ND-CP clearly demonstrated that the policy had failed to keep pace with the reform spirit of Resolution 68.

This recent “mismatch” showed that management thinking in certain sectors remains heavily focused on controlling inputs, while mechanisms to ensure consistency within the legal system are still insufficiently robust. The issue now is the need to strictly control the quality of regulations from the drafting stage, strengthen policy consultation, and ensure institutional discipline.

Increasing both quantity and quality

Resolution 68 sets the target of achieving two million operating enterprises in the economy by 2030, while also aiming to have at least 20 large enterprises participating in global value chains. These are two fundamentally different goals and therefore require different approaches and solutions.

Regarding the target of two million enterprises, it is evident that both market entry and market exit rates remain high. Most of these are small and medium-sized enterprises with limited scale, low productivity, and weak resilience. This indicates that if attention is focused solely on increasing numbers without improving quality, the result will be “growth in quantity without growth in strength.” Therefore, the key solution is to improve conditions that enable enterprises to survive and expand, rather than merely encouraging the establishment of new firms.

Accordingly, substantive efforts are needed to remove bottlenecks relating to access to capital and land, while creating a stable and predictable business environment. At the same time, policies must support enterprises through value chains, strengthen market connectivity, and improve productivity and competitiveness. One particularly important direction is the transition of household businesses into formal enterprises, but this must be accompanied by reduced compliance costs and clear benefits.

The target of developing 20 large enterprises capable of participating in global value chains is clearly more selective in nature and therefore cannot be achieved through broad-based support. First and foremost, a group of high-potential enterprises must be identified, with resources concentrated on “nurturing” them rather than dispersing support. Bottlenecks relating to resource accumulation, especially long-term capital, land access, and technological investment, must also be addressed so that enterprises can achieve sufficient scale.

More importantly, policy support must shift from supporting production alone to supporting enterprises in securing positions within value chains, particularly in high value-added stages such as design, brand development, and supply networks. In addition, large enterprises should be linked with ecosystems of domestic supporting enterprises in order to build sustainable supply-chain capacity. There must also be a selective strategy for developing leading enterprises, supported by exceptional mechanisms and evaluated through concrete outcomes.

These two targets are mutually reinforcing. The goal of two million enterprises creates a broad development foundation, while the 20 major enterprises serve as driving forces for leadership and growth. The core issue is to design appropriate policies for each group; otherwise, achieving both targets will prove difficult.