Nguyen Van Than, chairman of the Vietnam Association of Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises

Although Vietnam’s development results in 2022 were quite impressive, businesses continue to face multiple hardships. How do you perceive the development situation through the lens of both an NA deputy and an entrepreneur?

In my view, global uncertainties, geopolitical conflicts, and stiff competition among nations will make the global economy very unpredictable in 2023.

As Vietnam increasingly integrates more deeply into the global economy, impacts on the local economy from the outside world will be inevitable.

The challenges are therefore huge. As Party Chief Nguyen Phu Trong has voiced the expectation that Vietnam could secure even better results in 2023 compared to 2022, the task seems very arduous.

To turn expectations into reality, institutions must be one step ahead. To achieve this, I believe the following two matters are of paramount importance.

First, institutions to promote regional development must be in place soon. This issue garnered special attention from the deputies when discussing the national development planning for the 2021-2030 period, with a vision towards 2050.

Second, it is necessary to revise laws to effectively advocate firms while radically troubleshooting the hurdles within the corporate bond market.

In mid-September, the government enacted Decree 65 to amend and supplement Decree No.153/2020/ND-CP on corporate bond transactions in domestic and international markets. Experts assumed that the new decree would feature stringent requirements, yet it seems that the issues will not be tackled soon. Is that the case?

The risks with the corporate bond market are apparent.

Currently, most corporate bonds that fail to be paid back to customers belong to real estate firms. When the real estate price escalated, associated enterprises were the beneficiaries. However, when difficulties arose, the firms could not totally rely on the state.

To regain the trust of investors and people, it is a must for state management agencies and businesses to sit down together right from the start of the year.

As of now, businesses related to corporate bonds can be divided into three groups,

Firstly, there are businesses with critical bond scandals that cannot be rescued.

Secondly, for businesses that are operating decently, it is necessary for the state to create conditions through policies and regulations that enable them to continue mobilising to maintain stable operations.

Thirdly, normal businesses account for the largest number and are facing issues as they may be unable to pay when bonds mature. In this case, the parties need to sit down together and discuss the way out.

For instance, if firms have assets that they cannot sell, Vietnam Asset Management Company can help by defining the asset value and guaranteeing help to collect money to pay back the investors.

Then the representatives of state management agencies need to inform the customers about businesses whose financial capacity has been assessed and the firms’ plans to repay the investors within a certain period of time – the principal and interest may be at the bank interest rate rather than what was originally promised.

In doing so, while at the same time pushing efforts to smooth administrative procedures, I have a belief that we would somewhat mitigate the current problems in the market.

In your view, what is the most effective way to efficiently support small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)?

To ensure support for SMEs, it is necessary to have more flexibility with law enforcement.

For instance, giving priority to the businesses that achieved growth in 2020-2021, fulfilled their tax obligations, and retained jobs for their labourers.

It is also important to support the development of businesses acting in cultural fields as this is a crucial force to drive development.