Strengthening VCCI’s Core Role in Institution Building and International Integration

During VCCI’s seventh term (2021-2026), the Vietnamese business community has operated under difficult conditions but has demonstrated resilience, adaptability, and social responsibility. Businesses have actively resumed production after the pandemic, diversified markets, developed e-commerce, adopted new technologies, and developed new business models. With nearly 1 million businesses, the business sector contributes about 60% of GDP and creates around 15 million jobs. Some large private corporations and businesses have gradually mastered technology, built brands, invested overseas, and participated in major projects in industry, infrastructure, energy, services, and technology.

However, the development of the business community has not yet been truly sustainable. The number of businesses exiting the market has increased in recent years, while most businesses remain small and medium-sized, with limited financial, management, technological, and capital accumulation capacity. Difficulties related to markets, orders, capital, access to land, costs, value creation in supply chains, and other factors continue to affect businesses’ ability to invest, innovate, and expand production.

This context requires VCCI to better fulfill its functions of representing, connecting, and supporting businesses; protecting their lawful and legitimate rights and interests; contributing to policy development and implementation oversight; improving the business environment; and helping businesses leverage free trade agreements, innovation, digital transformation, green transformation, and greater resilience. Implementing the Six Codes of Ethics for Vietnamese Entrepreneurs, building a strong business culture, and developing socially responsible entrepreneurs will remain long-term priorities. These efforts will also enable VCCI to renew its organization, operating methods, and advisory capacity and strengthen its role in representing, connecting, and promoting the development of the Vietnamese business community.

One of VCCI’s key areas of activity is contributing to the development of laws and policies, promoting administrative procedure reform, and improving the business environment, with many notable results. During the 2021-2026 term to date, VCCI has provided comments on 2,250 drafts of legal documents of various types, 2.3 times as many as in the previous term, and has organized 587 conferences and workshops with nearly 82,300 participating delegates and businesses. Many comments on major laws and policies concerning land, taxation, investment, business, labor, employment, social security, and sector-specific regulations have been highly regarded by drafting agencies and considered for incorporation. At the local level, VCCI has contributed to the development of provincial legal and policy documents, helping improve policy quality, align policies more closely with practical conditions, and better serve regional and local socioeconomic development.

VCCI has also continued to strengthen its role in the Prime Minister’s Advisory Council for Administrative Procedure Reform, drafting committees, and legal review mechanisms; maintain respected publications such as the Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI) - Provincial Green Index (PGI) 2.0 Report, the Business Law Flow Report, and the Annual Mekong Delta Economic Report; and develop and publish the Business Performance Index (BPI) as a supplementary measure of the actual health of the private economic sector in each locality.

VCCI has continued to focus on connecting and supporting businesses in international integration, helping raise the profile of Vietnamese businesses internationally through practical and coordinated activities. These include proactively carrying out external relations, trade and investment promotion, and integration support activities on a large scale; performing regular and ad hoc tasks assigned by the Party and Government; and supporting high-level visits, intergovernmental meetings, and international economic and business forums. Each year, VCCI has organized hundreds of trade and investment promotion delegations to key markets such as the United States, the EU, Japan, and China to seek partners and customers and bring Vietnamese products to exhibitions, product introductions, and promotional activities abroad.

VCCI has also continued to serve effectively as a focal point at the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) and ASEAN Business Advisory Council (ASEAN BAC), participate in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS), the Ayeyawady-Chao Phraya-Mekong Economic Cooperation Strategy (ACMECS), and the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), and actively prepare for APEC Year 2027 as the host economy. Capacity-building programs to help businesses leverage trade agreements such as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), and bilateral free trade agreements (FTAs), as well as trade remedies and market risk warnings, have been implemented broadly and in depth.

VCCI is a mass organization assigned tasks by the Party and Government and a member organization of the Vietnam Fatherland Front. The 2026-2031 National Congress of the Vietnam Fatherland Front has identified orientations directly related to VCCI’s position and functions, including strengthening its core role in consolidating the strength of the great national unity bloc and inspiring self-reliance and self-strengthening; promoting businesses and entrepreneurs as a core component of the great national unity bloc on the economic front; strengthening social oversight and review of socioeconomic policies and laws; and building harmonious, stable, and progressive labor relations in businesses through coordination among VCCI, the Vietnam General Confederation of Labor, and relevant ministries and sectors under the leadership and coordination of the Vietnam Fatherland Front. This presents a major opportunity for the business community to develop, while also placing greater demands on VCCI to participate in policy development and implementation oversight, connect business sectors, and support businesses in adapting to a new growth model.

Strategic Direction for the New Term

The 2026-2031 term is the first to implement the Resolution of the 14th National Party Congress, opening a new era, the Era of National Rise.

With the spirit of “Unity, Pioneering, Innovation, Development,” VCCI has set out its orientations, objectives, and tasks for the new period, with important breakthroughs aimed at building a strong Vietnamese business community capable of meeting the requirements of rapid and sustainable national development in the new era.

These include proactively participating in law and policy development, improving the quality of policy review and implementation oversight, contributing to fundamental reforms in the development and enforcement of economic laws, and creating a transparent, stable, and favorable legal environment for businesses.

Promoting improvements to the business environment, unlocking domestic and international resources, creating strong momentum for business establishment and development, and contributing to greater national competitiveness.

Fully and effectively performing the role of the national organization representing the Vietnamese business community, promoting linkages among state-owned enterprises, private enterprises, and foreign-invested enterprises across supply chains and value chains.

Taking the lead in building Vietnamese business culture as a foundation for sustainable development, creating value for businesses, entrepreneurs, and society, and promoting the development of a civilized and internationally integrated Vietnamese business community.

Supporting businesses in digital and green transformation, promoting the application of science, technology, and innovation, and making these key tasks in helping businesses seize opportunities from digital transformation and new technology trends, improve labor productivity and competitiveness, and move to higher positions in global value chains.

Strengthening international integration and people-to-people diplomacy, strengthening connections between Vietnamese businesses and the international business community and partners, effectively leveraging new-generation free trade agreements, and supporting businesses in adapting to new trends in global trade and investment.

Promoting the spirit of unity, strengthening connections, developing business associations by industry, size, and location, and developing a strong corps of entrepreneurs with national spirit and social responsibility.

Renewing VCCI’s organizational model and operating methods in a proactive, creative, professional, efficient, and effective manner; building VCCI into a national organization worthy of representing the Vietnamese business and entrepreneur community, business associations, and employers; serving as a strong bridge between the Party and Government and the business community, while effectively performing its role as a member organization of the Vietnam Fatherland Front.

We are entering the final months of the seventh term, while continuing to complete the 2026 and 2021-2026 term objectives and tasks to the highest possible standard and urgently preparing for VCCI’s eighth National Congress for the 2026-2031 term. The eighth Congress is not simply about concluding one term and beginning another. It should be an opportunity for VCCI to seriously review the past five years, identify new issues facing the business community, and thereby clearly determine how VCCI will renew itself, what it will contribute, and what value it will create for businesses and national development over the next five years, in line with the country’s development goals in the new era. Therefore, first, regarding the Congress documents, we should focus on major issues of an orienting nature. The review of the seventh term must be objective and substantive, clearly identifying what has been accomplished, what has not, and the reasons. More importantly, the orientation for the eighth term must set clear priorities and avoid spreading resources too thin. The objectives must be measurable, supported by resources for implementation, and ultimately reflected in the effectiveness of services to businesses and VCCI’s position. Second is the Congress personnel work. This is a particularly important task. Personnel preparation must be conducted carefully, in accordance with regulations, democratically, and objectively, while selecting people with the capacity, credibility, responsibility, and dedication to VCCI, as well as the ability to make substantive contributions to the business community. The eighth-term Executive Committee must truly bring together the intelligence, experience, and representative voice of the business community, entrepreneurs, and business associations nationwide. Third, regarding the organization of the Congress and regional member conferences, preparations must be thorough, scientific, and economical, but most importantly, must promote the participation of members and the business community. Member conferences should not simply be a step in the process of preparing for the Congress, but an opportunity for us to listen to businesses, receive their proposals and expectations for VCCI, and incorporate those voices into the Congress documents. I am confident that, with a spirit of unity, responsibility, and innovation, the Executive Committee and the entire VCCI system will successfully complete the remaining tasks of the seventh term and prepare successfully for the eighth Congress, creating a foundation for VCCI to enter the 2026-2031 term with a new mindset, new operating methods, and stronger capacity to meet the increasingly high expectations of the business community and the country. Excerpt from a speech by Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ho Sy Hung, President of VCCI, at the 13th Executive Committee Meeting of the seventh term