To shed light on the current state of business activity, difficulties facing enterprises, as well as their goals and prospects for 2026 as they look to embark on a new growth cycle following Viet Nam’s encouraging economic achievements in 2025, Nhan Dan spoke with Ho Sy Hung, President of the Viet Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI).

Q: How do you assess the overall picture of Viet Nam’s business community in 2025? What were the most notable positive developments and typical challenges?

A: 2025 was a challenging year, but it clearly demonstrated the resilience and adaptability of Vietnamese enterprises. Viet Nam’s export value in 2025 exceeded 475 billion USD, up 17% from a year earlier; disbursed FDI reached a record 27.62 billion USD, reflecting strong confidence among international investors.

Entrepreneurial and business activity was also highly dynamic, with nearly 300,000 enterprises newly registered or resuming operations, up 27.4% year on year, bringing the total number of active enterprises to 1.1 million and adding approximately 6.4 quadrillion VND in registered capital to the economy, an increase of 77.8% compared with 2024.

However, enterprises reported that they continue to face many difficulties, particularly limited access to capital, land and market information. A VCCI survey showed that nearly 41% of enterprises recorded losses or merely broke even, with thin profit margins and cautious investment sentiment.

Over 55% reported widespread harassment; 47.5% had paid informal costs, and 87% considered such payments acceptable. These are warning signs of the normalisation of negative practices, posing a serious threat to efforts to build an integrity-based, modern public administration.

Q: What solutions does VCCI propose to help enterprises overcome difficulties and strengthen business confidence?

A: A positive signal is that 59.3% of enterprises surveyed by VCCI expect to make a profit in 2025, while 31.3% plan to expand operations over the next two years. This business confidence stems from substantive reforms such as the digitalisation of tax and land procedures and the streamlining of the administrative apparatus under a two-tier local government model.

However, strengthening confidence cannot rely solely on positive macroeconomic signals; more importantly, it must come from concrete, focused, substantive reforms and solutions that enterprises can genuinely feel in practice.

First, institutional reform should be accelerated, administrative procedures simplified, compliance costs reduced, and access to land and credit improved.

Second, the government should prioritise flexible fiscal policies, such as green credit for sustainable transition, more flexible credit mechanisms for small and medium-sized enterprises, expanded credit guarantee programmes, and the deferral or extension of tax and fee obligations during difficult periods.

Third, enterprises need support to enhance governance capacity and adaptability, enabling them to respond more confidently to fluctuations in domestic and international markets.

Fourth, it is essential to build a community of enterprises and entrepreneurs with strong ethics and business culture that meet global standards.

Q: How is Resolution No. 68-NQ/TW on private sector development being implemented? What are the positive developments and what are the bottlenecks?

A: After nearly ten months, a notable positive development has been the National Assembly’s adoption of Resolution No. 198/2025/QH15 on special mechanisms and policies for the private sector. The government has also issued numerous decrees and action programmes, stepped up administrative reform and the digital transformation of state management.

Many ministries, agencies and localities have proactively adjusted policies in a more facilitative direction, focusing on market entry reform, start-up support and the conversion of household businesses into enterprises, with the aim of adding hundreds of thousands of new enterprises in 2026.

Nevertheless, implementation still faces major obstacles, particularly regarding access to capital, land and production premises, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises. Although administrative procedures have improved, in some sectors and localities they remain overlapping and inconsistent, increasing compliance costs.

Policies change rapidly, while enterprises’ access to information and resources remains uneven. From practical experience, VCCI believes that for Resolution No. 68-NQ/TW to truly take effect, it is necessary to complete a stable, consistent and predictable institutional framework; strengthen policy dialogue; and provide more practical support in terms of capital, land, green transition and competitiveness enhancement for the private sector.

Q: Looking ahead to 2026, what are the goals and expectations of the business community?

A: The business community’s goal for 2026 is not merely recovery, but readiness to break through towards innovation, creativity and sustainable development.

To achieve this, the state needs to establish a legal access mechanism that is simple and consistent, limit overly rapid changes and frequent legal amendments, and avoid situations in which enterprises cannot keep pace, anticipate developments or participate meaningfully in consultations.

It is necessary to eliminate outdated or overlapping procedures, and to focus deep reforms on areas that enterprises identify as major bottlenecks, such as land, taxation, social insurance, fire prevention and environmental protection.

Reform should go beyond simplifying legal provisions to restructuring the entire handling process, optimising procedures and removing unnecessary intermediate layers.

More importantly, more flexible and effective credit mechanisms are needed, promoting unsecured loans based on operating history and financial capacity rather than relying solely on collateral. Commercial banks should be encouraged to develop credit products tailored to small and micro enterprises.

Continued support is also required for digital and green transitions, ESG practices and the enhancement of business ethics, as well as capacity-building and market connectivity, enabling enterprises to make a commensurate contribution to national economic development.

Thank you very much.