The leadership vision for 2045 has identified the key characteristic for Vietnam's new era, which is the era of the entire nation strives to think and act for the goal of national development.

In recent directive speeches, General Secretary and President To Lam affirmed: “The country is at a historic turning point, a new era, an era of the nation's rise, which demands a strong renewal of leadership methods and an enhancement of leadership capacity and governance to continue advancing the nation, which is an urgent requirement.”

Speaking at Columbia University in the US on September 23, 2024, General Secretary and President To Lam affirmed: “After nearly 80 years of Independence and nearly 40 years of Renovation, Vietnam is standing at a new historical starting point, a new era, an era of the Vietnamese people's rise”. 

In particular, this is also the major orientation agreed upon by the 10th Central Conference in the draft documents submitted to the 14th National Party Congress. In the journey of that new era, it is impossible not to mention the particularly important role of the Vietnamese business community and entrepreneurs.

The Party and the State lead the way

13 years ago, the Politburo issued Resolution No. 09-NQ/TW dated December 9, 2011 on building and promoting the role of Vietnamese entrepreneurs in the period of accelerating industrialization, modernization and international integration.

The Resolution is the first document of our Party and State on entrepreneurs, creating a breakthrough in the Party's ideology and policies towards enterprises and entrepreneurs. In 2013, the National Assembly passed the amended Constitution, for the first time entrepreneurs and enterprises were officially recognized in our country's constitution.

Recognizing the important role of entrepreneurs, on October 10, 2023, the Politburo issued Resolution No. 41-NQ/TW on building and promoting the role of Vietnamese entrepreneurs in the new period, replacing Resolution No. 09-NQ/TW.

The Resolution is a new development in viewpoints, affirming that the team of entrepreneurs has an important position and role, is the core force in implementing the cause of industrialization and modernization of the country, contributing to building an independent, self-reliant, fast-growing, sustainable economy, ensuring national defense, security and international integration. At the same time, the Resolution sets out seven groups of synchronous tasks and solutions, aiming to ensure the implementation of viewpoints and goals on building and promoting the team of entrepreneurs in the new period.

2024 is also an important milestone for the team of Vietnamese entrepreneurs and enterprises.

It has been 20 years since the late Prime Minister Phan Van Khai signed Decision No. 990/QD-TTg choosing October 13 every year as Vietnam Entrepreneurs Day. After 20 years since October 13, 2004, Vietnam now has 930,000 enterprises in operation. However, Vietnamese enterprises are still mainly micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (accounting for 98%) and only about 2% of large enterprises.

International experience shows that the group of large enterprises plays an important role, being the core leading the development of industries and the whole economy.

Therefore, in addition to the goal of developing 2 million enterprises by 2030, the 13th National Party Congress also affirmed "Encouraging the formation and development of large private economic groups with strong potential and the ability to compete regionally and internationally".

Resolution 41-NQ/TW also sets out the task of "developing a strong team of entrepreneurs on par with the goals and tasks of national development in the new period, building a team of national entrepreneurs".

In particular, recognizing the role and importance of the private economy, the Party has affirmed that the private economy is an important driving force for economic development; removing all barriers and prejudices, encouraging and creating all favorable conditions for the private economy to develop rapidly, healthily, sustainably, and diversely with high growth rates in all sectors and fields that are not prohibited by law.

The Government has implemented many tasks and solutions to support production, business and promote economic growth. The PCI survey of VCCI shows that businesses assess that business support has had many positive changes, access to information and policies is more favorable, unofficial costs continue to decrease, administrative procedure reform is effective, contributing significantly to reducing time and costs for businesses.

The investment and business environment continues to improve, the Government continues to promote activities to build and perfect policies and laws, especially major policies that directly impact the investment and business environment of enterprises.

Meeting and dialogue with enterprises has become a regular activity of not only the Government Standing Committee but also leaders of sectors and localities, promptly removing difficulties for enterprises.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh once emphasized: "Removing difficulties for enterprises is contributing to removing difficulties for the national economy, developing enterprises means developing the country, the spirit is that wherever there is a problem, there must be a solution, wherever there is a problem, there must be a solution, no pushing, no avoiding, no causing trouble or harassment".

Entrepreneurs - the core force of economic development

We are pleased to witness that after nearly 40 years of Doi Moi, the team of entrepreneurs and enterprises has grown remarkably with over 930 thousand enterprises of all economic sectors, along with over 5 million individual business households and nearly 30 thousand cooperatives. The core force managing and operating these economic units is the team of Vietnamese entrepreneurs, whose number has now reached millions.

From our perspective, the team of entrepreneurs and enterprises is always committed, daring to face difficulties, daring to endure and rise from failure, proactive and flexible in all situations.

It is the growth, dedication, and joint efforts of this team in recent times that have contributed to creating the highest economic growth in the world and continuously for many years in Vietnam. The business sector currently contributes about 60% of GDP, creating about 30% of jobs for society. Moreover, the business community not only plays the role of economic development but also makes important contributions to the cause of national construction and defense.

With the national spirit, the will to rise, and the desire to affirm the position of Vietnamese enterprises, in recent years, the private economic sector has developed rapidly not only in quantity but also in quality. Investment capital of the private economic sector currently accounts for over 50% of total social investment capital.

A number of large private economic enterprises and groups have been formed, with the capacity to lead in a number of fields, with technological and corporate governance qualifications, with brands, reaching regional and world levels.

In addition, the state-owned enterprise sector has also reorganized, improved operational efficiency, ensured major balances of the economy, and contributed to maintaining the leading role of the state economy.

Leading state-owned corporations as well as the private sector are together affirming the value of Vietnamese brands in the domestic and international markets, typically: PVN, Viettel, Vingroup, Thaco, FPT, Hoa Phat, Vinamilk...

These enterprises are gradually forming a strong team of national enterprises with international competitiveness, contributing to building an independent, self-reliant and integrated economy, as Resolution 41 of the Politburo has proposed.

Today, we can see that Vietnamese entrepreneurs and businesses are growing and are capable of participating in and implementing large projects of national significance, such as Long Thanh airport, expressway system, North-South high-speed railway system, renewable energy projects, national digital transformation...

However, in the context of the world economy undergoing many changes, the development of entrepreneurs and businesses is also seen as having limitations, when most businesses are small in scale, with weak competitiveness, operational efficiency, business capacity, technological level, and management skills...

The connectivity and cooperation between businesses are not high. The ability to adapt to new requirements, standards, conditions, and barriers of the market, especially the markets of developed countries, is still very limited. Therefore, many businesses are not developing sustainably.

In order for the Vietnamese business community and enterprises to develop sustainably and have the capacity to meet the requirements of the new era… more than ever, we need to build a business community that is not only large and good at leadership and management but also has business ethics.

To build a sustainable economy, there must be a system of sustainable businesses.

To have sustainable businesses, we must build a sustainable business culture. To have a sustainable business culture, we must have people who know how to do sustainable business. People who want to know how to do sustainable business must have business ethics.

This is a fundamental issue, both urgent and strategic in nature. Building business ethics and culture is a long-term, unceasing process. To create a foundation and model in society takes many years, maybe decades, so we must start now to expect that by 2045 our country will be both rich, civilized and modern.

Therefore, Resolution 41-NQ/TW has set out the task of "Building business ethics and culture, promoting national spirit, arousing the aspiration to develop a prosperous and happy country", considering this a key, long-term task in building a team of Vietnamese entrepreneurs and enterprises.

With the motto of taking business ethics and culture as the core, promoting the spirit of respect for the law, the above activities of VCCI have contributed to building Vietnamese business ethics and business culture.

Entrepreneurs and businesses have not only paid attention to maintaining their reputation for product quality and brand, but also actively fulfilled their social responsibilities, actively participated in activities to help people in difficult circumstances, remote areas, border areas, and islands.

Resolution 41-NQ/TW has set out the task of "promoting the role of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, organizations representing entrepreneurs and businesses".

VCCI is committed to making efforts to arouse motivation and the spirit of dedication to the country, and to unlock all social resources and resources among the people.

The country is preparing to enter a new period - the era of the Vietnamese people's rise, realizing the strategic goals of 100 years under the leadership of the Party, 100 years of the country's founding. VCCI will make more efforts in building Vietnamese family business culture, forming ethnic enterprises, promoting the role of ethnic entrepreneurs to contribute to a strong and sustainable development of Vietnam.