At the meeting, VCCI President Pham Tan Cong expressed his gratitude to the U.S. Government and people for their special support to Vietnam in the pandemic containment and affirmed that the valuable support from the U.S. has helped Vietnamese businesses with the post-pandemic recovery.

Mr. Pham Tan Cong said that VCCI has set three top priorities for the next 5 years, which are contributing to policy development, promoting digital transformation, and building a national business culture.

Specifically, according to the VCCI President, the key task that both the Prime Minister and the President of the National Assembly set for VCCI is to contribute to policy development and create a favorable business environment in Vietnam. “Over the past time, the cooperation and support of the U.S. Embassy as well as the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in several programs with VCCI have been very productive. VCCI wishes to continue to receive support in improving the business environment in Vietnam," said Mr. Pham Tan Cong.

The VCCI President also expressed his hope for closer cooperation between Vietnamese and U.S. businesses in the fields of information technology and digital transformation.

In addition, the VCCI President emphasized that Vietnam is making efforts to build the national business culture. It is expected that in May, VCCI will announce the business ethics standards of Vietnamese entrepreneurs, and VCCI will play a leading role in promoting business development in an ethical, responsible, integrity, and transparent manner.

 “I have great admiration for the U.S. entrepreneurship model and wish that the Vietnamese people would have such an entrepreneurship model. We are looking forward to receiving cooperation in organizing training programs on business culture from the U.S. side," added President Pham Tan Cong.

According to President Pham Tan Cong, the number of private enterprises in Vietnam is growing rapidly to about 850,000 private enterprises, and it is forecast that in the next 5 years there will be 1.5 million enterprises. Vietnamese businesses strongly believe in and want to promote cooperation with U.S. partners.

“Besides policy support, we hope that the U.S. Embassy will support trade and investment between the two countries and consider VCCI an important channel in promoting cooperation between businesses of the two sides," said President Pham Tan Cong.

At the meeting, U.S. Ambassador Marc E. Knapper said that U.S. businesses are very confident in the future of the Vietnamese economy and Vietnamese partners.

The U.S. Ambassador said the SelectUSA Investment Summit will be organized on June 26-29 in Washington, the United States. The Ambassador encouraged Vietnamese businesses to attend this event to seek cooperation opportunities and hoped that VCCI would support Vietnamese businesses to participate in this gathering in particular and other business events in general in the future.

U.S. Ambassador Marc E. Knapper also acknowledged the effectiveness of some programs and projects jointly implemented by VCCI and USAID such as the Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI), supporting women-led businesses, supporting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and promoting the public-private partnership (PPP). The Ambassador pledged that in the coming time, the Embassy will actively work closely with Vietnamese ministries as well as VCCI to maintain regular contact between the two countries at all levels and channels to strengthen business relations.