Along with the economic development of the country, the Vietnam Confederation of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) has been acting as the pedestal for Vietnamese businesses by not only suggesting policies to create favorable conditions for them to operate, but also by giving advice to go global.

VCCI’s deputy chair Nguyen Quang Vinh said VCCI has been accompanying Vietnam’s businesses since the 1990s, the first years after Vietnam began opening its economy.

VCCI was one of the first units that organized trips for Vietnam’s businesses to go to South Korea to seek investment opportunities. In 2022, when reviewing the 30-year Vietnam - ROK relationship, VCCI took pride that it not only helped attract South Korean FDI (foreign direct investment) to Vietnam, but also supported thousands of Vietnamese businesses making outward investments. 

The same has occurred with Japan. VCCI has been actively organizing business exchange activities with the international business community to assess Vietnam’s economic and investment potential.

Multilateral business cooperation has created conditions for Vietnamese enterprises to work directly with foreign enterprises, expand business cooperation, and attract investment capital from overseas.

Many enterprises have succeeded, such as the Sai Gon Investment Group, Sovico, BRG, and Garment 10 Company. Through the active cooperation activities with regional enterprises, the reputation of Vietnamese enterprises has improved.

Through the ASEAN Business Awards, Vietnamese enterprises prove their position in the international market in most business fields. The enterprises include Bee Logistics, SEABank, BIDV, SHB, Mirae, KinderWorld, Kem Nghia, Golf Long Thanh and Vietjet Air.

“VCCI has been playing a very important role when accompanying the Vietnamese business community to take strong steps to bring Vietnamese-made products to consumers all over the world,” Vinh said.

Mentioning well known Vietnamese brands, Vinh said Vietnam now has many businesses which not only do well in the country, but also run very large investment projects overseas, such as Vingroup and Viettel,

The technology group Viettel, after many years of outward investments, is now present in 11 countries, providing services to 220 million customers in Asia, Africa and Americas.

Now Viettel is the No 1 investor in telecom in Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, East Timor and Burundi. The group also invests in digital transformation, education and e-commerce in the markets.

Vinamilk, the nation’s biggest dairy producer, after reaping fruit in the Vietnamese market, has developed foreign branches. Angkormilk, the 100 percent Vinamilk owned subsidiary, was established in 2014 in Cambodia. Vinamilk has two other subsidiaries, Driftwood in the US and Lao-Jagro Development in Laos, and a joint venture Del Monte-Vinamilk in the Philippines. 

Vingroup in 2021 spent $450 million to develop projects in the US, Germany, France and the Netherlands. In early 2022, it announced to invest $4 billion on its e-vehicle factory in the US.

Highly appreciating the strong development of Vietnam's digital technology, Vinh cited a report as saying that 70,000 digital technology firms registered their establishment and operation, or three years earlier than Vietnam’s plan (2025).

Statistics showed that about 1,400 businesses exported products and export revenues of digital technology in 2022 reached $136 billion.

“Businesses need to keep calm, restructure and re-position their business and export strategies to take stronger steps forwards,” Vinh said.

He added that Vietnamese businesses have great advantages, including reasonable labor cost and skifull workers. What they need to do is settle the problem in foreign language skills and improve their critical thinking.

Binh Minh