20 years of Vietnamese Entrepreneurs' Day (October 13, 2004 - October 13, 2024) is a long journey in the development of entrepreneurs. On that journey, there have been businesses that have accelerated growth and affirmed their position; but there are still many businesses that have struggled...
Fragile "home ground"
At the Ceremony to honor typical enterprises and entrepreneurs of Ho Chi Minh City in 2024 on the afternoon of October 11, many Vietnamese entrepreneurs had the opportunity to share with leaders of Ho Chi Minh City and relevant authorities about the difficulties and advantages that enterprises are facing.
Mr. Trinh Tien Dung, General Director of Dai Dung Mechanical Construction Trading Joint Stock Company, said that he is very proud to be the first and only Vietnamese enterprise to date to win the bid to build a football stadium in Qatar to serve the World Cup. In fact, mechanical enterprises rarely have the opportunity to participate in large projects globally, so doing this is not easy. There are 4 factors that enterprises must build if they want to have a name in the market.
Specifically: human resources and internal capital must be ready; product quality must be guaranteed and reliable in the long term; building a business scale large enough to enter the international market; manufacturing plants must meet the standards set by the market. “It must also be said that if there is understanding, companionship and responsibility from the city leaders, the Government, and functional agencies regarding capital support policies, technology transfer, simplification of administrative procedures, facilitation of traffic infrastructure, digital infrastructure and green infrastructure, etc., the burden of businesses will be reduced. Businesses themselves will be empowered and the acceleration of development will be faster,” Mr. Dung affirmed.
Mr. Do Phuoc Tong, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Electromechanical Association, lamented that Vietnamese enterprises are being treated unequally: they can participate in bidding for large international projects but face difficulties in their own home field. This is a painful concern in the business community.
The bidding criteria are designed for foreign contractors, which domestic enterprises cannot meet. That is also the reason why for a long time, Vietnamese enterprises can develop export markets but cannot survive in the domestic market.
Not only that, the lack of consistency in policy issuance and implementation, the rapid change in capital policies, investment support, market stimulus, etc. also put businesses in a difficult position. Explaining this problem, Mr. Tong said that businesses in the capital support industry are small-scale, have weak internal strength and thin profit margins. Most of them are currently only developing at the level of level 2 to level 4 processing for foreign businesses.
Therefore, the policy of supporting capital and loan interest rates through the investment stimulus program is very important. However, the sudden interruption of the program in 2020 has caused many businesses to be in trouble because they could not hold on. By July 2024, the program was reactivated by the city but has not been implemented in practice so far.
On the other hand, Mr. Nguyen Anh Duc, General Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Union of Trading Cooperatives (Saigon Co.op) shared that the current economic context requires businesses to simultaneously carry out green transformation, digital transformation and build a brand development strategy... To do this, businesses must be strong enough and large enough.
Not to mention, businesses also have to grasp, identify and choose to apply green factors and digital transformation that are suitable for them. Therefore, the guiding and guiding role of authorities is very important to help businesses develop in the right direction.
Be strong to contribute more
To “nurture” the strength, resilience and development foundation for the business community, it is necessary to have many solutions to improve the investment environment from the authorities. Mr. Trinh Tien Dung said that the leaders of Ho Chi Minh City in particular and the relevant ministries and branches in general need to quickly remove bottlenecks related to administrative procedures. Digitalizing public administration management and reducing direct contact is the most effective solution.
Next, there needs to be an open mechanism and a suitable legal corridor for enterprises to promote investment abroad, develop market share at home, and effectively take advantage of the free trade agreements (FTAs) that Vietnam has signed. Along with that, the operating policy needs to promote a stable and long-term increase in investment capital for enterprises. Particularly, traffic infrastructure, minimizing traffic congestion, especially at the port gateway area, is considered the "blood vessel" of the economy. Once the "blood vessel" is clear, the trading activities of enterprises will also be strongly promoted.
The meeting ended when Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Hoa, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Business Association, said that the amount of money contributed by businessmen to the people affected by the recent storm No. 3 had reached 300 billion VND. This figure demonstrated the desire of businessmen to join hands with the government and people to overcome adversity. Of course, good business health will contribute to the city and the country to implement social security programs more effectively.
Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee PHAN VAN MAI: Ho Chi Minh City can only develop with the cooperation of the business community.
Being open-minded, understanding and accompanying is the motto that the city has been doing to better accompany businesses. The opinions, questions and feelings of businesses that are shared frankly will be practical and close-to-the-point information data that the city is trying to change to better support the development of businesses.
Ho Chi Minh City is the economic center of the region and the country, the city government will consider and build a comprehensive policy system to remove the obstacles that businesses are facing. The city has considered strengthening internal resources - the foundation for businesses to transform and develop, and will allocate capital for implementation. At the same time, the city urges relevant authorities to increase the disbursement rate of public investment capital to soon bring capital to businesses.
Regarding administrative procedure reform solutions, the city is urgently implementing synchronous digitalization at all levels and sectors, combined with assessing the capacity and responsibility of unit leaders. We call on businesses to boldly and proactively participate in building Ho Chi Minh City, and together with Ho Chi Minh City effectively implementing the economic restructuring strategy. Ho Chi Minh City can only develop if there is resonance and cooperation from the business community.
AI VAN - HANH NHUNG - MAI HOA - LUONG THIEN
Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/20-nam-ngay-doanh-nhan-viet-nam-13-10-2004-13-10-2024-khi-doanh-nhan-trai-long-post763399.html
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