The Vietnamese Government has made great efforts to recover the country’s economic growth, with key tasks as defined in Resolution No.02/ND-CP to enhance national competitiveness and create a larger space for businesses to flourish in 2022-2025.

Under Resolution 02, the Government has requested ministries, cities and provinces and other Government bodies to enforce the main tasks and solutions to enhance Viet Nam’s business climate and national competitiveness.

The Government has ordered that priority should be given to removing and amending overlapping legal documents and continuing to reduce business conditions.

This year, reviewing and assessing the lists of conditional business lines must be completed as this will lay a foundation for proposals for revising and supplementing relevant legal documents meaning ministries and provinces must change their mindset in treating business in a more friendly manner, according to the Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM).

The Resolution has set a target of ranking among the top 50 countries by 2025 in the world in terms of Industry 4.0.

Viet Nam will also strive to rank among 40 countries in terms of sustainable development by the United Nation’s criteria and the innovation capacity of the World Intellectual Property Organisation.

The country also aims to enter the top 50 countries in tourism competitiveness.

To realise the long-term goals, a series of tasks and solutions have been conducted to enhance quality improvement and raise indicators of the business environment and competitiveness of the national credit ratings.

Great expectations

Nguyen Hoa Cuong, deputy director of the CIEM, acknowledged that certain results had been achieved, but the COVID-19 pandemic had made a great impact on businesses and people.

As of 2020, the reform of the business environment has slowed down. There have been many challenges facing business performance and posing great risks to businesses.

Some global ranking indicators of Viet Nam have not been improved and remained low.

In the current global trend, the improvement of Viet Nam’s position would be more difficult requiring great efforts of the Government.

Cuong said Viet Nam must make constant efforts in improving indicators involved in infrastructures, human resources, and social factors.

Notably, Resolution 02 underlined solutions to improve and amend the country’s administrative reform and laws.

The efforts to improve administrative reform needed to be promoted with the participation of ministries, agencies, localities and the business community.

Le Thi Nguyen Ha, director of Phuc Ha Juice Co. in southern Binh Thuan Province, said that the Government's Resolution 02 was enacted as businesses were in dire need of emergency Government support to restore production so that they can regain their growth momentum after COVID-19’s impact.

However, businesses expected more specific implementation guidance documents relating to regulations on tax payment, social insurance, customs procedures on import and export to make it easier and more convenient for businesses.

In the global trend of international economic integration, businesses are interested in the use of e-commerce, and e-banking to expand their markets and participate deeply in the global supply chain.

Ha's company wants local authorities to conduct more open and favourable policies, helping businesses easily connect and doing trade with partners through trade promotion projects.

Ly Minh Duong, of Long Chau Agricultural Products Import-Export Processing Co., said that he was very interested in the policy of giving support for small and medium-sized enterprises in digital transformation, and innovation of technology startups as proposed by the Government’s Resolution 02 this year.

After experiencing a difficult period during the pandemic, businesses have acknowledged the strengths and advantages of technology in the period of the 4.0 Industrial Revolution.

Businesses are now eager to accelerate the process of digital transformation and the application of new technologies in production and business management. But it required much investment, posing a great challenge to businesses, said Duong.

He said that he expected the Government, ministries and agencies would soon implement Resolution 02 with detailed guidance documents as soon as possible so that enterprises could perform better and the economy could grow further.

Duong concluded “digital transformation is not only equipped with new machines and technologies but it also needs to improve management skills and mindset, creating more motivations for business to further develop.”

Source: VNS

Vietnam targets 2.1 million enterprises, 70 with capitalized value over US$1 billion

The Ministry of Planning and Investment is working on a resolution to support and develop Vietnamese businesses for the period of 2021-2025, replacing Resolution No. 35/NQ-CP dated May 16, 2016.