The domestic business community strongly supports and agrees on the Government's key policy operations in 2022.

VCCI Secretary General Tran Thi Lan Anh speaks at VBF

At the Vietnam Annual Business Forum (VBF) 2022, Ms. Tran Thi Lan Anh, General Secretary of VCCI, said that the Vietnamese business community has just experienced a difficult 2021 due to the COVID-19 epidemic.

A business survey conducted by the Vietnam Federation of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) in 2021 shows that up to 93.9% of businesses are negatively impacted by the pandemic. However, thanks to the timely policy adjustments of the Government, the implementation of the local authorities and especially the initiative of the business community, Vietnam's economy in 2021 still has bright spots in difficult circumstances.

However, in order to contribute to realizing the goals and effectively implementing the tasks and solutions set by the Government in 2022, VCCI has proposed 10 recommendations towards economic recovery and supply chains development in the new normal.

Firstly, facilitate access to information on policies and regulations to support businesses. The General Secretary of VCCI said that state agencies need to improve the effectiveness of disseminating policies and regulations to enterprises (especially micro and small enterprises), cooperatives business households have easy access to information.

Implementation guidelines need to be clearer with specific evaluation criteria to help assess the achievement of set goals and performance.

Secondly, effectively support enterprises to access capital to restore production and business. Specifically, allowing businesses and cooperatives to extend debt, restructure debt repayment terms, exempt and reduce fees, no penalty for late payment, and maintain the same debt group for customers affected by the Covid-19 epidemic to have more time to recover debt repayment and overcome bad debt is very necessary.

Thirdly, simplify immigration and travel procedures for workers and experts. For foreign experts, VCCI proposes that ministries and branches review the process of entry procedures for foreign experts in the direction of applying online settlement of procedures, shortening the processing time... In addition, policies for foreign experts need to be uniformly implemented across localities across the country.

In particular, it is necessary to promptly settle labor disputes in order to minimize strikes and unpaid work of employees; proactively coordinate with businesses to propagate and motivate employees to overcome the difficulties of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Fourthly, it is necessary to improve the effectiveness of training support programs for employees who have been laid off or lost their jobs due to the impact of the Covid-19 epidemic. Implement policies to support vocational training and job change for employees; effectively implement solutions to complete and develop the labor market; improve the quality of consulting, job introduction and job exchange activities of employment service centers.

The Annual Vietnam Business Forum VBF 2022

Fifthly, promote the application of information technology with administrative procedures, proceeding to completely solve administrative procedures in the network environment. VCCI believes that it is necessary to accelerate the implementation of level 4 public services in most administrative procedures. Towards the goal of completely solving administrative procedures with businesses and people in the network environment.

Sixthly, improve the enforcement efficiency of the government apparatus. It is necessary to have a solution to check the implementation process, pay attention to improve the enforcement efficiency of ministries, branches and local authorities to strengthen the confidence of the business community and the people.

Along with that, it is necessary to uphold the personal responsibility of the head; promptly encourage and reward those who dare to think, dare to do, dare to take responsibility, proactively innovate, be creative, and be flexible in implementing measures to prevent and combat the epidemic, combining with resolving difficulties in business activities of enterprises, cooperatives and business households.

Seventhly, improve the ability to take advantage of FTA tariff preferences, and clear policies related to rules of origin. Vietnam currently has 15 FTAs in force, in which there are many markets in which Vietnam currently has an advantage because Vietnam's main competitors do not have FTAs yet.

Therefore, VCCI suggests that there should be a specific action plan to improve the ability to take advantage of FTA tariff preferences to export and import goods and handle policy problems related to rules of origin in FTAs.

Eighthly, identifying digital economy development as the growth engine of the economy, creating a mechanism to promote e-commerce (e-commerce exchange, technology transport, online wholesale market.... ); support innovation activities; supporting businesses in digital transformation (training to improve their ability to access technology, consulting/orienting on technology application/digitizing business management processes...), strengthening the implementation of training programs create applications of information technology, digital technology, digital marketing...

Ninthly, promoting the development of the domestic market and the domestic market by continuing to promote the campaign "Vietnamese people give priority to using Vietnamese goods" and the movement "Vietnamese goods conquer Vietnamese people", promoting linkages between business associations and industry associations in coordinating consumption of each other's products to diversify input material sources and output markets, and reduce dependence on the international market.

Finally, VCCI recommends continuing to promote improvement of the business environment and national competitiveness, with a focus on reforming administrative procedures, business conditions, and cutting costs for businesses. 

In particular, VCCI said, it is necessary to focus on reforming some areas of administrative procedures that are still troublesome as reflected from businesses such as administrative procedures for land, tax, social insurance, construction, etc. market management, traffic, fire prevention, environment, treasury and labor...