Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh attended and addressed the ceremony. 

In response to Resolution 09-NQ/TW of the Politburo dated December 9, 2011 on building and promoting the role of Vietnamese entrepreneurs in the context of accelerating industrialization, modernization and integration where VCCI is assigned to reward and honor entrepreneurs and develop trade associations, with the consent of the Prime Minister, VCCI launched the Program for Reviewing and Awarding Outstanding Vietnamese Entrepreneurs in 2022 with many holistic reforms, with awardees reduced from 100 to 60 - a move aimed to reduce the number to increase quality towards the 60th VCCI founding anniversary next year (April 27, 1963 - April 27, 2023).

This is also the first year to use six entrepreneurial ethics introduced by VCCI as top criteria for judging and awarding this title: Economic value creation for society; Regulatory compliance; Transparency, justice, integrity; Creativity, cooperation, mutual development; Respect to nature and environmental protection; and Patriotism and responsibility to society and family.

The event highlight was honoring and awarding “Outstanding Vietnamese Entrepreneurs” titles in 2022 to 60 entrepreneurs, including the Top 10 Outstanding Vietnamese Entrepreneurs.

Awardees are leading and managing businesses of all economic sectors and of all sizes, from giant to small. The oldest winner is 82 years old and the youngest is 34 years old. 15 women entrepreneurs were named, accounting for 25%.

Every entrepreneur is an example, a good story of entrepreneurial spirit, bravery, intelligence and social responsibility. Among the Top 10 are well-known entrepreneurs such as Mr. Le Manh Hung - General Director of Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam), Mr. Tran Ba ​​Duong - President of Truong Hai Auto Corporation, and Mr. Ly Ngoc Minh - President of Minh Long Porcelain Company.

After five steps of scientific, rigorous, fair and transparent review, the title was conferred to the 60 best entrepreneurs out of 211 nominations as well as to the Top 10. Corporate entities of these 60 winners had combined revenue of over VND1,200 trillion and owner’s equity of over VND722 trillion, paid nearly VND148 trillion of tax to the State budget, and earned a net profit of over VND70 trillion in 2021. They hired more than 251,000 employees.

Today's honored entrepreneurs are decorated with gold-cast badges on their chests - a symbol of Outstanding Vietnamese Entrepreneurs. The new insignia appeared for the first time, with six wings rising high, both symbolizing six business ethics rules and signifying the sacred and simple crown of Hung King. Hopefully, outstanding Vietnamese entrepreneurs who have just been energized by the will of founding fathers - Hung King and with the millennial spirit of national construction will always uphold the national spirit, and responsibility to serve the country, forge and spread entrepreneurial ethics, and build powerful businesses, a mighty and prosperous nation.

Speaking at the ceremony, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh affirmed that the Party and the State always pay attention to and appreciate the role of Vietnamese businesspeople and business community, which are major material production forces of Vietnam's economy, play a very important role in the cause of national construction and development throughout the history of the Vietnamese revolution.

Mr. Pham Tan Cong, VCCI President

He added that the entrepreneur force always shows social responsibility. Many entrepreneurs have been actively taking part in hunger eradication, poverty reduction, gratitude and community development programs to help people to overcome the consequences of natural disasters and epidemics and help strengthen great national unity. Especially, when the COVID-19 pandemic is complicated, the business community upholds the spirit of sharing and companionship with the country, overcomes hardships, strengthens self-reliance, mutual assistance and flexible adaptation to maintain production and business, creates jobs for workers, supports the COVID-19 Vaccine Fund, and provides medical supplies, equipment and biological products.

PM Chinh reiterated that the 13th National Party Congress sets out the country’s development goals and aspirations of becoming a modernized, industrialized developing country and surpassing the low-middle-income level by 2025 and becoming a high-income modern and industrial developing country by 2030. The congress also sets the task: "Developing a strong, qualified and capable entrepreneur force that is spiritually dedicated to the nation and cherish cultural standards, progressive ethics and good governance”. By 2030, the country will have at least 2 million enterprises and the private sector will account for 60-65% of GDP.

In order to achieve quick recovery and sustainable development and successfully implement the resolution of the 13th National Party Congress, we need to work together to solve existing problems with high determination, great effort, drastic, timely and effective action. The Government completely understands, shares and listens to the business community in the spirit of equality, mutual development, mutual benefit, and mutual responsibility to society, employees, and the environment. There is no room for “saying no”, “blaming difficulty” and “speaking without acting”. Harmonious benefits, shared risks and balanced and harmonized interests among the government, businesses and people are ensured, he affirmed.

VCCI President Pham Tan Cong said, as many as 163,300 companies were established and resumed operations in the first nine months of 2022, an increase of 38.6% over the same period in 2021 and more than the total number in 12 months of 2021. So far, Vietnam has over 900,000 active companies, about 15,000 non-agricultural cooperatives, more than 5 million business households, and millions of entrepreneurs. The business sector contributes about 70% of tax revenue paid to the State coffers and employs about 15 million workers. Entrepreneurs play a central role in managing production and business activities, creating goods and services for domestic and export needs, and creating new competencies and positions for the nation. Vietnam already has industries and products that occupy a high market share in the global market.

“From a backward country, one of the poorest in the world, we are proud that Vietnam's today economy is in the Top 40 in the world by GDP and in the Top 20 by international trade. Vietnamese businesspeople are happy with, confident about and proud of their contributions to the cause of building an increasingly powerful and prosperous Vietnam," he affirmed.

Also, at the celebratory ceremony of Vietnamese Entrepreneurs Day on October 13 this year, outstanding Vietnamese entrepreneurs in 2021 jointly registered to support the construction of 212 Great Solidarity houses worth VND10.6 billion for poor households, with 16 houses to be immediately transferred to poor households in Ky Son district, Nghe An to promptly live through a recent devastating storm.

This spirit shows the sense of responsibility to society and the willpower of Vietnamese entrepreneurs on the journey of national economic construction and development.