General Secretary and President To Lam at the meeting with outstanding entrepreneurs

Great role and contributions of Vietnamese entrepreneurs and enterprises

The birth of Vietnamese Entrepreneurs’ Day 20 years ago (October 13, 2004) marked the recognition of the Party and the State, as well as the recognition of society, of the role and great contributions of Vietnamese entrepreneurs, he said at the meeting.

Looking back on the past, Lam expressed his joy and pride that Vietnam has a large and strong business community that has asserted its role and great contributions to the cause of the country’s innovation and economic development. Entrepreneurs, with their creative ideas and risk acceptance, form businesses that act as the driving force of growth, create jobs, pay taxes to State coffers, improve worker living standards and promote social progress. Many talented businesspeople have led their businesses through hardships to become pillars in key industries and economic sectors, with global competitiveness.

More and more entrepreneurs are turning to technology and innovation, participating in new economic sectors and business models, grasping and mastering Industry 4.0 achievements applied to production to enhance economic performance and competitiveness. Many Vietnamese-branded goods and services have reached the global market.

Nonetheless, Lam also pointed out some difficulties and weaknesses, including a small-scale business community with weak financial competence, weak governance and weak regional and global competitiveness. The ratio of enterprises to the population remains low compared to other countries in the region.

In addition to difficulties caused by unstable and shrinking global markets, business operations of companies, regardless of their scale and size, are also challenged by many policy barriers, State administration and incapable civil servants in the service of businesspeople.

Speaking at the event, President of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) Pham Tan Cong said, led and facilitated by the Party and the government, Vietnamese enterprises and entrepreneurs have increasingly developed in both scale and quality. In 2004 Vietnam had about 92,000 new active companies; 20 years later it will have more than 930,00 operational companies along with nearly 30,000 cooperatives and more than 5 million business households.

2024 is forecast to be the third consecutive record-setting year in number of newly registered companies. From 2000 to 2024, Vietnam cumulatively has more than 2.1 million enterprises plus millions of businesspeople.

According to a national survey conducted by VCCI, as of September 2024, 32% of respondents said they will expand their business in the next two years, slightly higher than 27% in 2023 but still the second lowest in the 18 consecutive years of VCCI’s business survey.

“Thus, although the economy has shown signs of regained growth, the entrepreneurial spirit remains low relative to the previous period, and still quite hesitant. However, optimistically, a significant part of medium and large companies said they will expand their business. Enterprises in some important sectors such as manufacturing, agriculture, forestry and fisheries continue to have plans for operational expansion,” he added.

Vietnam currently has about 800 business and entrepreneur associations, Cong said, adding that all provinces and cities have their own business associations and 53/63 provinces and cities have named business associations that represent their local business community. Most active businesses participate in one or more business associations, thus creating a powerful business connection network.

A promising but challenging future

According to General Secretary and President To Lam, the future of the Vietnamese entrepreneur community is very promising, but challenging. Technological advances and globalization along with rapid and dynamic development, institutional reforms and business environment improvements will create new opportunities for development, especially for those who are not yet businesspeople to have an opportunity to start their business and become successful. The business sector will play an even bigger and more important role in the prosperity of the country.

“This is the time to reshape the role of business leaders and the mission of entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs and enterprises will certainly play a particularly important role in the new era - the era of Vietnam’s booming growth,” he affirmed.

The upsurge of digital revolution, especially in e-commerce, financial technology (fintech), artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing, has opened up the potential to tap global markets without confronting significant geographical barriers, he added. This is an opportunity for Vietnamese entrepreneurs with a good vision for technological innovation to establish a "digital production method", take a shortcut and anticipate world trends, to build a strong position and influence in key industries, create high added value and lead the national economy to higher level value chains.

He suggested that Vietnamese entrepreneurs promote national spirit and patriotism, uphold business ethics, have great ambitions and aspirations for development, become models for honest, humane and responsible business, and always maintain faith in their own career and the country's future.

He also believed that VCCI with trade associations and enterprises will improve work performance, make practical contributions to policy-making and law-making, and develop entrepreneurs and enterprises to meet national development requirements in the new period.