Businesses offer advice for Ho Chi Minh City to achieve double-digit growth

With the goal of double-digit growth, economists and businesses all hope that Ho Chi Minh City will have a policy to "nurture" the business ecosystem to form domestic "eagles".

Don't wait for the "eagles to come and nest"

According to experts, Ho Chi Minh City's target of 8.5% growth in 2025 and double-digit growth in the following years is only feasible when there is a real institutional breakthrough.

Dr. Vo Tri Thanh, former Deputy Director of the Central Institute for Economic Management, said that US President Donald Trump's policies towards China and several other countries have had direct and indirect impacts on Vietnam's economy. Vietnam has received many advantages in attracting investment amid the risk of a "trade war" but has also suffered significant impacts as export growth has tended to decline.

Not to mention, in an uncertain and risky world like today, investors will have to observe and listen to the situation before making investment decisions, attracting FDI to Vietnam will be much more difficult than before.

According to experts, Ho Chi Minh City needs to proactively nurture a business ecosystem to form domestic "eagles".

Regarding Ho Chi Minh City, Dr. Vo Tri Thanh said that although it is still the country's economic leader, its role has somewhat declined recently. In the business community, Ho Chi Minh City accounts for nearly 1/3 of the total number of businesses nationwide, but lacks "leading cranes" with a leading role. Therefore, to have breakthrough growth, there must be solutions and revolutionary reforms like the renovation period from subsidy to commodity market 40 years ago.

According to experts, Ho Chi Minh City needs to clearly define its industrial and urban portrait to achieve its double-digit growth target. In particular, large corporations and enterprises play an important role in shaping the appearance of Ho Chi Minh City, not only in terms of urban infrastructure but also in high-tech development. In particular, attracting and building large technology corporations capable of leading the innovation ecosystem, creating the foundation for a modern industry with high added value.

Therefore, Associate Professor Dr. Tran Dinh Thien, former Director of the Vietnam Economic Institute, believes that instead of waiting for “bringing eagles to nest”, Ho Chi Minh City needs to proactively nurture the business ecosystem to form domestic “eagles”. This requires close cooperation between large and medium-sized enterprises, creating a strong ecosystem, attracting investment and talent.

“The positive results in recent years are mainly based on the growth of foreign enterprises (FDI enterprises) and exports. Meanwhile, domestic enterprises have continuously declined, domestic purchasing power is also weak, and public investment disbursement is lower than the target. Therefore, economic growth should not only be looked at in terms of growth percentage but also need to be properly assessed whether that growth is substantial and sustainable through the “health” of domestic enterprises, especially private enterprises,” Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Dinh Thien commented.

Business development advice

Double-digit growth, clear goals and determination but not easy. We must face the reality that, in nearly 40 years of innovation, the whole country has only had 2 years with a growth rate of over 9%, no year has reached 10%.

According to Ms. Ly Kim Chi, Chairwoman of the Ho Chi Minh City Food and Foodstuff Association (FFA), Ho Chi Minh City needs to have a solution to quickly convert about 400,000 individual business households into enterprise models. This conversion, if successful, will help increase the scale of the economy, create a more sustainable economic growth momentum, increase state budget revenue and improve the competitiveness of the city's economy.

To be able to quickly and successfully transform, Ho Chi Minh City needs to exempt or reduce taxes in the first few years, simplify business registration procedures, support the implementation of digitalization processes, have policies to support access to credit capital with preferential interest rates, support accounting and tax procedures, etc.

A real institutional breakthrough is needed for businesses to develop in the coming period.

In addition, Ho Chi Minh City needs to improve the effectiveness of innovation and creativity in trade promotion. In particular, units responsible for trade promotion need to provide substantial support and create more favorable conditions for small and medium-sized enterprises to participate in trade promotion programs so that enterprises can approach new customers and partners, and have more opportunities to expand their markets, especially international markets.

“Currently, trade promotion and market expansion for local businesses are still limited. Therefore, we hope that the authorities will proactively coordinate with the consulates in Ho Chi Minh City and Vietnamese trade counselors abroad to establish a real trade schedule… so that businesses can not only participate in displaying goods and services but also have the opportunity to meet international buyers, supermarket chains, and international distribution systems,” Ms. Chi suggested.

Regarding the Handicraft and Wood Processing Association of Ho Chi Minh City (HAWA), Chairman Phung Quoc Man said that currently, the venues for organizing trade fairs and exhibitions in Ho Chi Minh City have not met the needs of businesses and the overall development of Ho Chi Minh City.

The lack of venues for organizing large-scale conferences, fairs and exhibitions reduces opportunities for trade promotion activities with large, potential export markets, especially in the context of the current volatile world situation.

“This is the reason for the formation of trends in shifting the organization of conferences, fairs and exhibitions to some provinces and cities neighboring Ho Chi Minh City in recent times. Therefore, Ho Chi Minh City needs to soon shape the structure, planning space and development ecosystem of the Project “Building an International Exhibition Fair Center in Ho Chi Minh City”, said Mr. Phung Quoc Man.

Regarding the real estate sector, Mr. Nguyen Quoc Bao, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Real Estate Club, stated that in order to create conditions for businesses to develop and grow well, it is necessary to remove difficulties in policies and administrative procedures. In particular, the procedure for applying for a construction permit, instead of taking about 2 years as it does now, should be reduced to 6 months, through the departments and branches reviewing and approving their own procedures, and should not be resolved in order and sequence of each procedure.

“Specifically, each procedure must go through 6 departments and branches, and each department and branch takes about 3 months to process, in total it takes at least more than 18 months to complete a construction permit procedure. Instead, if the enterprise can submit this procedure to 6 departments and branches at the same time for consideration and processing, the construction permit will be issued within a few months. This method has been implemented by many developed countries in the world,” Mr. Bao proposed.

Each proposal and recommendation is "material" to perfect the mechanism.

Mr. Nguyen Van Duoc, Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee shared at the program.

Sharing at the Entrepreneurs Cafe program with the theme "City Enterprises with the target of double-digit economic growth" organized by the Ho Chi Minh City Business Association (HUBA) on March 8, Mr. Nguyen Van Duoc, Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, said that the GRDP growth rate in 2025 must reach 10% or more, which is a heavy task and goal for Ho Chi Minh City. Therefore, the city's leaders really need the business community and experts to contribute good solutions. Ho Chi Minh City considers the proposals and recommendations of businesses and experts as important "materials" to perfect the operating mechanism and policies.

According to the Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee, despite the achievements, Ho Chi Minh City still has existing problems and limitations that need to be resolved, and needs to remove the "blood clot" with pending projects.

“To achieve double-digit growth, Ho Chi Minh City will boost public investment, mainly through transport infrastructure to “open roads, open finance”. Although knowing that there will be many difficulties, Ho Chi Minh City has been and will continue to step up efforts to remove difficulties for stuck projects. At the same time, it will promote new resources such as Can Gio transit port, building a digital transformation center, an international financial center...”, Mr. Nguyen Van Duoc shared.

In addition, Ho Chi Minh City plans to form a multi-purpose high-tech center, a center for AI (artificial intelligence), innovation, and a center for Big Data expected to be located in Thu Duc City on the basis of expanding Ho Chi Minh City High-Tech Park.

In addition, the Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee also said that the Ho Chi Minh City government is determined to change its mindset from public administration to service, considering people and businesses as the center, and the business community as the resource for development.

Source: https://baodautu.vn/doanh-nghiep-hien-ke-de-tphcm-tang-truong-hai-con-so-d251506.html