Solidarity, innovation, creativity and responsibility 2021 was an eventful but tough year for VCCI and the country as a whole, he said.

Vietnam achieved new records in the year. It became the 41st largest economy in the world with a US$368 billion GDP and a top 20 country in export and import value. The Vietnamese business community is a great part of these impressive achievements.

“These achievements give Vietnam confidence to enter 2022. The VCCI Executive Committee also feels confident to carry out its mission of leading VCCI to success,” he added.

The congress clearly stated long-term goals, tasks and visions of building a strong business community and each of them to have a significant role in building a prosperous nation. The Prime Minister emphasized the goal of making a thriving nation. Therefore, VCCI clearly defined six key tasks and three strategic breakthroughs.

Currently, the country is being affected by the Covid-19 pandemic in many aspects and the National Assembly and the Government approved economic recovery programs. “VCCI’s mission is also supporting the business community in this economic recovery program to best grasp and utilize new mechanisms, policies and programs for early business recovery and development. This is the responsibility of VCCI,” VCCI President Pham Tan Cong emphasized.

Debates and decisions at the congress were crucial and decisive to its working success in the next five years and in 2022 as well, he added, highlighting “Solidarity, innovation, creativity and responsibility of VCCI”.

Importance of business culture

According to VCCI President Pham Tan Cong, it will be a really great task to make Vietnam a developed country, not only in economic development but also in business culture.

“Our national business culture really has problems to be fixed, not just conducts and behaviors of enterprises and entrepreneurs but also activities of people doing business," he expressed.

The biggest influence on business culture comes from two circles: Politicians and businesspeople. Their lifestyles and attitudes are hugely influential.

Therefore, VCCI President Cong noted that, to compete with other countries, Vietnamese entrepreneurs and enterprises need to have their own culture and identity. And, to make Vietnam a developed nation, VCCI and the business community will play a huge role because business culture is an inseparable part of national culture. We must share this view because a developed country must have a national business culture.

“The Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) will lead Vietnamese business culture building. So, we must agree on what makes the national business culture and how to carry out tasks, pathways and methods,” he stressed.

Business culture covers not only the business community, each enterprise and each entrepreneur but also the life, economy, society, position and role of the country on the path of international integration and on the way to the goal of becoming a developed country by 2045. This is of great significance for Vietnam to strengthen the soft power of the Vietnamese business community.

When building the business culture, it is necessary to base on the Vietnamese culture and on three pillars, he suggested.

The first is the immaterial foundation: Ideas, philosophies, ethical standards, and beliefs in business. If necessary, we can issue business ethics standards for entrepreneurs, businesses and the media.

The second is the necessary formation of a material foundation of business culture for entrepreneurs: Cultural institutions like cultural houses, traditional entrepreneur houses.

The third is the human foundation. People are not merely business people but also all surrounding systems, such as people working at business associations and schools training business leaders.