Talking to Customs News, Mr. Nguyen Van Than, Chairman of Vietnam Small and Medium Enterprises Association, said that the current context poses many "lessons" for enterprises to change to achieve sustainable development in 2021.

Mr. Nguyen Van Than, Chairman of Vietnam Association
of Small and Medium Enterprises

With the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, how have businesses been supported to overcome difficulties, sir?

In 2020, the biggest and most unexpected event was the pandemic, which has affected the world. Vietnam is a country with an open economy, so it is unavoidable. However, the Party and State hada very correct response and prevention policy against the Covid-19 pandemic, so compared to many countries, Vietnamese enterprises suffered a smaller influence.

In addition, businesses also received the support of macroeconomics, in the period 2016-2019, we have completed all 12 indicators of development and economic growth, helping to improve corporate confidence, employees and investors in the Party and Government. When the Covid-19 pandemic started, along with preventive measures from the authorities, businesses and people all agreed to comply with the regulations to repel the pandemic.

Moreover, the Party and State have identified the private economy as an important driving force of the economy, so the Government has focused strongly on reforming administrative procedures, building e-Government, helping to move to a digital government and digital enterprises, facilitating enterprises to improve labor productivity, attracting private and foreign investment.

Besides the successes, there are still many difficulties, in your point of view, what lessons have Vietnamese businesses learned from the year 2020?

In the context of the pandemic, business - commercial activities wereinterrupted, this is a challenge but also an opportunity for businesses to think and evaluate how performance. The pandemic has shown that if businesses are still doing business in the short-term, they cannot solve problems. This current context shows that businesses cannot go fast but have to go step by step, towards sustainable development. This means that the mindset of enterprises and business leaders must change according to the trend of integration and international standards.

Besides, the Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted the global supply chain, while Vietnamese enterprises are still heavily dependent on the supply of imported raw materials, which also greatly affects production activities. Therefore, the initiative in domestic raw material sources and self-development of supply chains are also the lessons that need to be paid attention to by businesses in the future.

In particular, the pandemic in 2020 has proven that, if businesses do not invest in technology or digital transformation, they will lag behind. At present, many Vietnamese enterprises have not focused on investing in digitalization. They are still hesitant, afraid of complications and difficulties, soit is difficult for that enterprise to succeed.

In addition, the year 2020 continues to pose the problem of human resources amongenterprises. Enterprises are very short of skilled labor and highly skilled labor, so it is very necessary to train in a practical and effective way in accordance with the development needs of the business community.

How do you rate the opportunities and challenges for the business community in 2021?

The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on enterprises in 2021 will be deeper. It may be not until mid-2021 that we may be able to see the effects of the development of vaccines against the pandemic. Therefore, enterprises in the aviation, tourism, and service industries continue to be strongly influenced. In addition, our country's businesses are also influenced by thinking, regimes, economic and political policies of major countries such as the US, the European Union (EU), the UK and China.

Therefore, difficulties for Vietnamese enterprises in 2021 are still significant. But Vietnamese businesses also have many opportunities, the most notable is Vietnam's reputation with the international community on pandemic prevention.

Therefore, not only import and export goods will be less affected, but foreign investors will also move to make new investments in Vietnam, thereby opening up business and cooperation opportunities for domestic enterprises.

Many textile enterprises have orders until mid-2021. Photo: H. Diu

With the above challenges, what are your recommendations on the Government's support policies forbusinesses?

In 2020, right after the pandemic started, the Government issued correct and timely supportive policies. Therefore, by 2021, these support packages should continue to be promoted, but some conditions for beneficiary businesses should be reduced and plans issued to make support policies more effective and practical.

In addition, the Government should continue to reform administrative procedures, improve the business environment, cut business conditions and specialized inspection conditions to promote production and export as well as investment. In addition, the authorities need to focus on vocational training, developing a suitable economy in the current context.For example, I once suggested to strongly develop the "night economy" to promote domestic consumption, stimulating production from domestic enterprises.

It can be said that Vietnam's political background is going very good, businesses do not have to think too much but just boldly invest and develop. In the current context, we must develop a"flexible"economy in all contexts, so that we can endure and develop sustainably in all situations.

Thank you, Sir!