Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and delegates attend the government-business conference on enhancing private sector contributions to rapid and sustainable national development, Hanoi, February 2025

As of early 2025, Vietnam had over 900,000 enterprises, contributing around 50% of the country’s GDP. Among them, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) made up 97.5% of the total, while large enterprises accounted for only about 2.5%. According to the statistics, the private economic sector currently contributes around 50% of Vietnam's GDP.

VCCI has effectively fulfilled its role in representing the business community, currently recruiting nearly 13,000 members and over 200,000 affiliated enterprises. However, in the context of a new era, there are three key trends that both the government and the business community must prioritize and invest in for sustainable development.

First, Vietnam is entering a new era of growth, driven by a strategy to streamline the administrative system from central to local levels, strengthen internal resources, and promote technological innovation. These efforts are unfolding alongside deep international economic integration and the refinement of the market mechanism. The ultimate goal is to boost labor productivity, raise living standards and enhance the nation's competitiveness on the global stage.

Second, the private sector is striving to become a key driving force, leading in technology adoption, innovation and aiming to contribute around 70% of GDP by 2030. However, the number of enterprises per capita remains low compared to regional and global standards - with only one enterprise for every 1,000 people. In this context, VCCI also faces challenges related to its system and the quality of member engagement.

Third, trade protectionism is on the rise globally, with major economies, especially the United States, imposing high reciprocal tariffs on many countries, including Vietnam. These tariffs, which could reach up to 46%, pose a significant threat to Vietnam's international cooperation strategy.

This presents a major challenge, especially as trade turnover with the U.S. in 2024 exceeded US$132 billion. To respond to this shift, Vietnam must adjust its international economic cooperation strategy while simultaneously strengthening its domestic economy and expanding the domestic market.

To seize opportunities and overcome challenges, economic experts have proposed three bold solutions. First, in a market economy, success largely depends on negotiation skills. Given that the U.S. is Vietnam's largest export market, strong negotiations at both the government and business levels are essential to effectively respond to reciprocal tariffs from trade partners.

In the long term, it is vital to conduct research and pursue bilateral free trade agreements with the U.S., the world’s largest economy. At the same time, VCCI should focus on developing the Vietcham system in the U.S. to support trade negotiations and reinforce its role as the national trade promotion organization.

In addition, the reciprocal tariffs announced by the U.S. government on April 2, 2025, are expected to cause a significant shift in the global trade structure, particularly affecting the global supply chain. Given its strategic position in the global supply chain in the East Sea region, Vietnam must adjust its export strategy for the new era. Additionally, it needs to bolster the internal strength of its economy and work toward perfecting the market to ensure fairness and transparency.

As a representative of both the domestic and foreign business communities, VCCI should focus on three main development directions. First, it must enhance the quality of its operations by utilizing tools like Google Trends, SEMrush and SimilarWeb to gain a deeper understanding of industry trends and competitors. This will help improve decision-making and strategic planning.

Second, VCCI should leverage AI to enhance the quality of membership services, particularly by attracting businesses and providing support through AI-driven chatbots. These tools can streamline the guidance process, offer real-time assistance and improve overall member engagement and satisfaction.

Finally, VCCI should support business development by utilizing data analysis tools and business intelligence to explore market trends and emerging business models in the economy. This will help businesses stay ahead of the curve, make informed decisions, and adapt to new opportunities in a rapidly changing market.

By implementing these solutions, the government, VCCI and the Vietnamese business community can collaboratively build a strategy to combine resources and achieve the goals of the 5-year socio-economic development plan for 2021-2025, contributing significantly to the success of the 14th Party Congress.

Dr. Doan Duy Khuong