President Vo Van Thuong delivers a keynote speech at the 60th VCCI anniversary (April 27, 1963-April 27, 2023)

In the new stage of development, our Party, people, and army unite and strive to arouse aspirations to develop a prosperous and happy country, uphold the will and strength of national unity, combined with the power of the times; comprehensively and consistently speed up renovation, industrialization and modernization; endeavor to be a modern developed upper-middle income country by 2030 and a developed, high-income country by 2045. One of the important requirements to realize this lofty aspiration and goal is building a strong and capable Vietnamese entrepreneur and enterprise force, of world and regional class. With that spirit, President Vo Van Thuong delivered a speech to delegates at the 60th VCCI anniversary, the business community and entrepreneurs nationwide:

First, each force in society has its own important position and role. But, to be prosperous and powerful, a nation must rely on its entrepreneurs and businesses. This is a key vanguard force to carry out the cause of national industrialization and modernization, improve economic quality, efficiency and competitiveness, and ensure economic independence and autonomy. Building a strong entrepreneur force in terms of quantity, quality, knowledge, expertise, sense of citizenship, social responsibility, strong nationalism, great bravery and rapid integration is a concern and priority of the Party and the State in performing key economic development tasks. Building and promoting the role of entrepreneurs and enterprises is always associated with completing development institutions where the core is the socialist-oriented market economy institution; ensure the lawful ownership and freedom of businesses for entrepreneurs, encourage entrepreneurs to generate legitimate wealth for their own and for the country. All barriers and prejudices must be removed and all favorable conditions must be created for private economic development in both quantity and quality. It is important to encourage the formation and development of large private business groups with powerful and intense regional and international competitiveness. Vietnam will strive to have at least 2 million enterprises by 2030, with the private sector’s share in the GDP reaching between 60% and 65%.

Second, the aspiration for a prosperous and happy country embraces and supports individual aspirations for wealth. Each entrepreneur must always care about the destiny of the nation, nurture the desire for growth, and stay clearly aware of opportunities and challenges to develop their business. More than ever, in the current context when the world and the country are bringing about a lot of opportunities, difficulties and challenges that are intertwined all together, each enterprise must be strong, have a strategic vision, promote their internal strengths, adopt innovations and apply science and technology, which are seen as the foundation and force to improve governance capacity, labor productivity, competitiveness and international integration. It must attach much importance to fostering and promoting the soft power of the business community and regard business ethics and culture as the cores in business development. Vietnamese entrepreneurs and enterprises must foster their solidarity and cooperation in production and business, develop cooperation models built on value chains and supply chains to build up the strength of Vietnamese brands in the world market and conduct successful international integration; expand association and cooperation with international partners in the spirit of mutual success and win-win principle. Each businessperson must be aware of his or her role in the great national unity bloc, strengthen solidarity and cooperation with workers, farmers and intellectuals under the leadership of the Party, for the sake of a wealthy people, a powerful, democratic, just and civilized nation. Attention must be paid to building progressive and harmonious labor relationships in the workplace, and ensuring decent jobs, income, career and talent development for employees.

President Vo Van Thuong, Chairman of the Party Central Committee’s Economic Commission Tran Tuan Anh and other delegates at the 60th VCCI Anniversary

hird, respecting the law and aligning the interests of enterprises and individuals with the interests of the nation and the community is a condition for their strong and sustainable development. Every entrepreneur must be deeply aware of the law, know what is right to do and what is wrong. The recent handling of violations against some companies and individuals is a requirement to uphold the rule of law, a must-do for a stronger, fairer and more transparent business environment for enterprises so that legitimate interests belong to their makers and society and degenerative and corrupt elements are eliminated in state agencies. I am sympathetic to enterprises and entrepreneurs about their challenges and difficulties. But, challenges are also opportunities for them to change themselves to become stronger, overcome difficulties, and successfully build the prestige of Vietnamese brands to help Vietnamese goods and services have a strong foothold in domestic and international markets. In business construction and development, it is necessary to strongly arouse, stimulate and inspire entrepreneurship and genuine desire for wealth in society. Business development is not only aimed at creating billionaires, but more importantly forming large business groups with strong capacity, regional and international competitiveness, cutting-edge technologies and core technologies to operate at a multinational level. In addition, development must be economically, socially and environmentally sustainable to meet current needs without compromising the future.

To provide more room for business development, the Party and the State have taken many solutions to support the business community to live through difficulties; constantly complete the legal framework, accelerate administrative and judicial reforms, keep the principle of not criminalizing economic relations, creating a favorable, healthy and safe business environment for enterprises to enter the market, launch startup and continue constant development.

Fourth, the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) together with business associations have important roles and tasks of gathering and promoting enterprise and entrepreneur development in Vietnam. As a national social - political - professional agency tasked by the Party and the State to represent the business community, business associations, entrepreneurs and employers in Vietnam, VCCI must really be a gathering, uniting and supporting center and a reliable partner of entrepreneurs, enterprises and business associations on the path towards successful integration. As a bridge to connect the Party and the State with entrepreneurs and enterprises, VCCI must be able to convey legitimate opinions and aspirations of the business community, and production and business practices to policymaking and lawmaking of the Party and the State. VCCI needs to coordinate with localities more actively to further improve the business environment, enhance provincial competitiveness, and build provincial, regional and local economic development cooperation models; continue to inspire entrepreneurship; protect legitimate rights and interests of entrepreneurs and enterprises, honor outstanding entrepreneurs and enterprises; and gather, connect and support the Vietnamese business community in foreign countries. VCCI, business associations and businesses need to be pioneers in building and forming a business value system, business ethics standards, and business culture in line with Vietnamese values, ethics and culture, as well as with international business culture; and uphold the national spirit, social responsibility and aspirations for a prosperous and happy nation.

VCCI leaders pose for a group photo with President Vo Van Thuong, Chairman of the Party Central Committee’s Economic Commission Tran Tuan Anh, and other leaders and delegates at the 60th VCCI anniversary

Fifth, in the doi moi era, foreign-invested enterprises have become an important organic part of the business community and the economy of Vietnam. In the coming time, Vietnam will continue to speed up national industrialization, modernization and international integration, which is an opportunity for foreign entrepreneurs and enterprises to expand manufacturing, business and investment in Vietnam. Vietnam is committed to creating favorable business conditions, and protecting legitimate rights and interests of foreign investors in accordance with the law and international treaties and agreements to which Vietnam is signatory.