What do you think are the biggest difficulties faced by Vietnamese enterprises?

The Party Committee Secretary General, President of State, Prime Minister and National Assembly Chair repeatedly request to ‘unleash’ enterprises, and cut administrative procedures to create favorable conditions for enterprises to develop.

However, despite the drastic instructions, problems still cannot be removed. Many projects cannot run because of complicated formalities. Businesses keep complaining about the obstacles.

I have been working as deputy chair of the Prime Minister’s Advisory Council for Administrative Reform for the last several years and found that once a sub-license is removed, another sub-license will appear.

I believe that technology and digital transformation will help settle many problems. Once administrative procedures are implemented in the internet environment, people and businesses won’t have to meet civil servants. Once they can submit enough documents, authorized officials will have to approve people’s applications, and officers will have no chance to harass businesses.

Also, it is necessary to increase salaries for civil servants and public employees. If the pay is high enough, officers will work with all their heart. If the pay is too modest, they need to take extra jobs to get extra money, which is the origin of petty embezzlement.

We invest quadrillions of dong to develop infrastructure and roads, but we also need to invest to develop human resources.

At the meeting between the government’s standing committee and businesspeople, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh stated that the government commits not to criminalize business relations. What are your thoughts about the commitment and the implementation in current conditions?

This commitment has really reassured businesspeople, especially in current conditions, with overlapping, unclear and inconsistent regulations which can be interpreted in different ways.

Party Committee Secretary General and President of the State To Lam, when he was Minister of Public Security, and Prime Minister Chinh repeatedly mentioned the problem. To solve the question to the root, it is necessary to check legal regulations systematically and methodically.

I have an idea that ministries and branches, especially the Ministry of Public Security, need to clarify what constitute an economic violation so as to avoid criminalization, and what constitutes a crime. The enterprises which exploit legal loopholes to manipulate the market and give bribes, for example, of course, must be subject to criminal proceedings.

It is necessary to clearly define the ‘boundaries’ between economic violations and crimes, so that executive bodies and enterprises feel secure when applying this in their lives and business.

Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung said 98 percent of enterprises are small and medium scale. Medium and large enterprises still cannot lead the economy as expected. Is this because Vietnamese businesses don’t want to grow, or they cannot grow?

There is no enterprise which doesn’t want to grow. But whether they can grow, or whether the conditions and business fields allow them to grow is another story.

I think the state needs to lay down reasonable policies for businesses to develop and ‘grow up’.

The good news is that the government always commit to accompany and protect enterprises’ legal and legitimate interests in any conditions, to listen and share sympathy with businesses, and to remove obstacles to pave the way for businesses to develop.

Also, I think there must be a mechanism to mobilize capital from the public for investment and development. If the government issues government bonds at reasonable interest rates, I believe people would be willing to buy bonds. The capital will help the country develop and help people earn money.

I believe the government should consider developing cryptocurrencies. If cryptocurrencies are not put into transactions, Vietnam will lose $3 billion annually, and vice versa, if we establish trading floors for cryptocurrency transactions, we can collect tax from the activity and have $3 billion more in revenue.

The government has requested this, and the State Bank of Vietnam and Ministry of Justice need to study cryptocurrencies. Vietnam doesn’t recognize cryptocurrencies, but they still exist. Vietnamese people are the second biggest traders of cryptocurrencies, just after Americans.

In digital transformation, establishing cryptocurrency trading floors is a necessity. This is an investment channel which helps attract capital.

Thu Hang