According to Dr. Vu Tien Loc, Chairman of Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), 2020 was an extremely difficult year for the business community. In 2021, along with supportive policies from the Government, businesses must make efforts to uphold a spirit of "responsible business".

Dr. Vu Tien Loc, Chairman of Vietnam Chamber
of Commerce and Industry (VCCI)

What did the events and impacts of 2020 say about the business community?

2020 was an extremely difficult year, but it showed the resilience of Vietnamese firms. The development and stability of the business community is one of the most important reasons to achieve positive growth in the context of a global economic recession.

The year 2020 helped the business community be more aware of the requirements for resilience enhancement and sustainable development orientation. For businesses that have silently oriented their business models and strategies towards sustainable development in the past, they have been quite well-established in the pandemic context and even got a chance to develop. On the contrary, units that have not really focused on a sustainable development model immediately fell into difficult circumstances, even went bankrupt, dissolved or withdrew from the market in case of market fluctuations.

Therefore, the practice of the last year has been a valuable lesson for Vietnamese firms in reshaping their strategies and responsible business models, including large enterprises to become the mind of both small and medium units, and micro ones, if they want to go further on their business path.

How do you assess the Government's companionship in the past and in the future?

Facing difficulties, the companionship of the Government and resilience and efforts of the business community have helped firms to stay strong. However, it is very important to learn from experience that there is a big gap in policy design and policy implementation. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen cooperation between Government agencies and the business community in both shaping and organising policies.

The pandemic has created both pressure and opportunities for firms to reform administrative procedures. If administrative procedures are simplified and improved positively, many problems of enterprises can be solved quickly. The problem is not cash support packages but the impact of administrative procedure reform, promoting and pushing production and business projects into operation. This is the way to create the core competitiveness of every economy and the business community.

What expectations does the business community have in 2021 for the support from the Government?

The business community expects that in 2021 governments must make global coordinated efforts to prevent the pandemic. Moreover, for businesses to be able to orient towards sustainable development in the coming year, we must have a suitable ecosystem and a stable and transparent Government policy system that facilitates enterprises.

We have made many efforts to improve the business and investment environment. However, we have not yet achieved our goal of becoming one of the four most competitive economies and the best business environment in the ASEAN. This will be a journey that the business community and I hope that we will implement in the next five years, helping businesses have strong development steps.

Simultaneously, what action must businesses take?

Together with the Government, the business community must upgrade its business activities and make efforts to shape towards sustainable development and digital transformation. This is the only way forward for them.

In the future, the VCCI will promote activities to support and orient the business community to raise awareness, provide information, training and support them to spread good models. This will help the business community soon put itself in the trend of sustainable development and digital transformation. This not only requires efforts from the Government in reforming the business environment, but also from businesses in upgrading their governance and technology.

The Government is built as a constructive Government and the business community must also be a responsible business community. That is the path of our greatest expectations that we look forward to for the next five years.