Delivering a remark to the conference, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh acknowledged, praised and thanked the contributions of the business community, together with the whole nation, for achieving fairly comprehensive, positive results in all fields and expressed his sharing with difficulties, challenges, sacrifices and losses suffered by the business community in the past time.

He appreciated businesses for promoting their activeness and creativity, overcoming difficulties to rise up notwithstanding the fact that some suffered loss or went bankrupt but most have kept moving forward in the context of difficulties and challenges to obtain very respectable results. He appealed to them to further foster unity with the country and the people and affirmed that Vietnam is traditionally stronger, more united, more active and more creative in a more difficult and challenging time to turn risks into opportunities.

He expressed his desire and belief that the Vietnamese business community would be more resolved and stronger, together with the Party, the State and the people, to build an increasingly independent and self-reliant economy aligned with active, intensive, practical and effective integration, to realize the goal of building a mighty and prosperous nation and making people wealthier and happier.

Listening to opinions and thoughts from attending businesses as well as answers from relevant central and local authorities, the Prime Minister summarized and pointed out major difficulties and challenges faced by businesses such as inflationary pressures; high prices of gasoline, fuel and input materials; local labor shortages; hard access to credit funds.

Supply and demand are greatly affected by the shortage of components and input materials for production, and a stronger decrease in year-end orders. Export markets are likely to narrow because importing nations are seeing weaker demands.

Long-standing legal obstacles and barriers have not been thoroughly resolved. The scale, capacity and technological level of enterprises are still limited. Taking advantage of Industry 4.0 achievements has not been as good as expected. It is still hard to push up innovations, digital transformation and green transformation.

He basically agreed with solutions for the coming time stated in the report submitted by the Ministry of Planning and Investment and opinions of central and local authorities at the conference, highlighting important foundations for the economy and business community for continued development.

First, maintaining macroeconomic stability, controlling inflation, fostering growth, and ensuring major economic balances.

Second, promoting safe, healthy, sustainable, open and transparent markets such as the real estate market, capital market and labor market.

Third, further improving the business investment environment, accelerating administrative reform, building a digital economy, digital government, digital society, and digital citizens.

Fourth, firmly protecting independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, maintaining political stability, ensuring social order, security and safety; boosting production, business and employment.

Fifth, central and local agencies will review difficulties and obstacles faced by enterprises and, at the same time, have a plan to deal with them in a timely and effective manner. If solutions are beyond their jurisdiction, they shall report difficulties and obstacles to competent authorities for consideration and decision.

Sixth, strongly speeding up the disbursement of public investment capital sources (including central and local capital, medium-term public investment capital, capital from the recovery and development program), leading and activating all capital sources in society, including corporate capital.

Seventh, having a good grasp of the situation, researching and forecasting strategies, and providing accurate and timely information for businesses to develop their operations, diversify markets, upgrade technology and digital transformation.

The Prime Minister stated specific short-term tasks. First, urgently removing inherent legal obstacles and barriers, which have not been resolved and hindered business activities.

Second, further supporting tax cuts of petroleum products, raw materials and input materials for production; researching and developing input areas to replace imported ones.

Third, implementing the COVID-19 pandemic containment program synchronously and effectively, especially speedy vaccination.

Fourth, strengthening labor supply-demand connection, training and retraining workers to meet market requirements. The government has earmarked a budget for this task in the recovery and development program and asked relevant agencies to prepare a conference on this issue in the near future.

Fifth, stepping up planning and investment in socioeconomic infrastructure construction in order to improve economic capacity and competitiveness. The Prime Minister affirmed that we have never spent as many resources as in this term on strategic infrastructure development, especially transport infrastructure. Enterprises that join strategic infrastructure projects must also join with the spirit of “harmonized benefits, shared risks” and work together with the whole country to overcome difficulties in the current context.

Sixth, conducting institutional reforms, reducing and simplifying administrative procedures and business conditions, improving the business environment, scaling up delivery of online procedures, avoiding physical contacts, fostering noncash payment, facilitating business operations, resisting corruption and preventing bureaucratic behaviors.

Regarding long-term tasks and solutions, the Prime Minister requested: First, further improving the business investment environment, substantively reforming administrative procedures; formulating industry strategies and plans, socioeconomic infrastructure construction investment, providing favorable conditions and strengthening business confidence to build long-term and sustainable business investment orientations.

Second, promoting digital transformation and innovation in business.

Third, enhancing the effect of business support policies and resources to improve their competitiveness, actively integrate into the world, and embrace new business trends and new market trends.

To business community and business associations, the Prime Minister suggested that business associations should promote their role in supporting member businesses, especially speeding up connections, and work together to overcome current difficulties and adapt to the new period.

They should actively reform business models, restructure businesses in couple with digital transformation, innovation and creativity to find opportunities from challenges, turnarounds and adaptation; improve productivity, capacity and competitiveness; focus on worker retraining and labor restructuring; invest more in technology, high-quality human resources, management and corporate governance; create new value standards, pay more attention to serve people and domestic needs; expand markets and move towards the global value chains.

The Prime Minister emphasized that the most important factor to do effective and sustainable business is human, along with technology and business methods and models. Our Party and the government define that people are the center, the subject, the goal and the driving force of development. Businesses must grasp this spirit.

In the current context, businesses need to approach and apply the achievements of the Fourth Industrial Revolution to production and business. Developing Vietnamese enterprises is not only involved in transferring technology but also being able to change and create new technological advances.

Besides, it is necessary to uphold the national spirit of unity, work together to promote innovation, self-reliance and effort to overcome difficulties and challenges; boost healthy competition, strengthen cooperation sharing and connection; accelerate innovations and enhance competitiveness for stronger national economic development on the win-win principle.

Vietnamese entrepreneurs need to make efforts to build an entrepreneur community of Vietnamese identity: Having patriotism; upholding national pride, bravery, intelligence, law respect, fair competition and integrity in business; having a desire to get riches for their own and for the country, being responsible to employees, community and society, building corporate culture and business ethics, fighting against corruption and wastefulness.

"Vietnam's national history has proven that patriotism, national pride and strength of unity have helped Vietnam to ‘complete all tasks, overcome all difficulties and defeat all enemies.”

For an adaptive, resilient and sustainable business community that makes Vietnam prosperous and its people wealthy and happy, the Government and the Prime Minister always work together with organizations, associations, the business community and enterprises and, at the same time, suggest the business community and entrepreneurs continue to maintain their beliefs and uphold the spirit of solidarity, self-reliance and self-strength to overcome difficulties.

“Every entrepreneur and every enterprise should be an elite, brave and innovative soldier on the economic front, work together with the Government to soon get over the COVID-19 pandemic and recover sustainable development,” said the Prime Minister.

He wished Vietnamese entrepreneurs good health, perseverance, confidence and firm belief to overcome current difficulties and challenges, grow stronger in quantity and quality, and build an image of Vietnamese-typical entrepreneurs to play a bigger part in making Vietnam a country of prosperity, power, democracy, justice and civilization” with the spirit of “harmonized benefits, shared risks" and balance interests among the State, people and businesses.