The unprecedented development space of the economy aims for high and long-term growth, with many large-scale national key projects, making investors and businesses excited about the rare opportunity to upgrade.
Private Economy: Perspectives from a Barrier-Free Economy - Part 1: There Could Be No Greater Opportunity
The unprecedented development space of the economy aims for high and long-term growth, with many large-scale national key projects, making investors and businesses excited about the rare opportunity to upgrade.
Vietnam's economic development history over the past decades has demonstrated an important fact that the growth of the private economic sector depends largely on institutional reforms and efforts to remove barriers to business activities...
At present, the private economic sector is growing healthily and making strong breakthroughs, and needs a State with appropriate institutions, correct policies and a barrier-free business environment.
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| A new generation of construction contractors with completely new capabilities is expected to emerge in the near future. In the photo: Deo Ca contractor constructing the Huu Nghi - Chi Lang expressway. Photo : Phan Anh |
Lesson 1: There Could Not Be a Greater Opportunity
The unprecedented development space of the economy aims for high and long-term growth, with many large-scale national key projects, making investors and businesses excited about the rare opportunity to upgrade.
Step up
In recent weeks, Mr. Nguyen Quoc Hiep, Chairman of the Vietnam Association of Construction Contractors, and his colleagues have been busy with meetings with members. The North-South high-speed railway project with a total investment of 67 billion USD, expected to start construction in 2027, is being dissected and analyzed.
“With the information we have, we estimate that the construction component will be around 40 billion USD. This is a golden business opportunity for Vietnamese construction contractors if they can participate,” Mr. Hiep shared with many expectations.
Mr. Hiep said that the largest construction contractors in the country are sitting together, trying to simulate plans to weigh up opportunities. Accordingly, it is assumed that the bidding packages are divided into 23 packages, based on the 23 planned stations on the 1,541 km long route. Thus, the construction part will be estimated at about 2 billion USD/package, equivalent to more than 50,000 billion VND.
The golden factor is not only because of job opportunities, investment and business opportunities, but also in the extremely important aspect of learning, growing up and maturing in a new and unprecedented classy space.
“A new generation of construction contractors with completely new capabilities, capable of participating in high-speed railway projects, will emerge, as happened with the Long Thanh Airport Project, or with key national projects many years ago. We will have more heavy contractors,” Mr. Hiep shared.
Among the contractors sitting and discussing to find solutions to be present in the country's major projects, there are many leading names such as Vinaconex, Newtecons, Phuc Hung, Dat Phuong, Fecon, Deo Ca... Many people still have not forgotten the historical opportunities that they were able to be present in, such as the equitization of state-owned enterprises in the early years of the century, the space of the Enterprise Law with the spirit of "enterprises and people are allowed to do what the law does not prohibit"..., the appearance of projects and works in the form of public-private partnerships...
Mr. Hiep also cannot forget the days when he was assigned to "pull the square-wheeled ox cart of Constrexim" - a business with only 4 billion VND in capital, but with an inventory of 28 billion VND and a debt of nearly 20 billion VND... But then, Constrexim not only went uphill, but also became a significant brand in the construction industry thanks to its determination to "ask for a pilot" model of parent company - subsidiary company in 2002, and then became one of the first corporations in the construction industry to implement the equitization plan in 2006.
Even his decision to start a business with GP Invest at the age of 60, just 1 week after holding the decision to retire, according to Mr. Hiep, was thanks to going through historical lessons, daring to step into unprecedented opportunities.
“From a director of a state-owned enterprise, with a salary of 12 million VND/month, having to ask for and present everything without knowing if it is possible… to someone who is in control of his own money, and can receive billions in bonuses if it brings benefits to the enterprise, that is the difference in the frame of reference. When starting out, no one is sure of success, but we believe that the paths that world enterprises have gone through and succeeded, Vietnamese enterprises can also go through and succeed,” Mr. Hiep confided.
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The Fruit of Innovation
Dr. Nguyen Dinh Cung, former Director of the Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM), called current private enterprises the visible, perceptible, and quantifiable results of the 40-year Renovation of the Vietnamese economy.
Enterprises create jobs, contribute to the budget, change the face of urban areas, contribute to the modernization of industry, create strong changes in tourism and services, promote agricultural development...
The private economy plays a very important role in shaping the future of the Vietnamese economy. We all believe that if the State has appropriate institutions, correct policies and a favorable business environment, the private economy will be nurtured to grow healthily and make strong breakthroughs, not only helping the economy achieve high growth rates, but also soon turning our country into a high-income economy in the next two decades. This is the time to act, to create a prosperous, dynamic Vietnam that is increasingly reaching out to the international arena. 
.- Excerpt from General Secretary To Lam's article on Private Economic Development - Leverage for a Prosperous Vietnam
In the retail industry, state-owned trading stores have been replaced by supermarkets, markets, shops, and shopping malls across the country. In the automobile transportation industry, previously there were state-owned transportation enterprises, but now there are hundreds, thousands of taxi, passenger car, contract car, tourist car, container truck, and truck businesses serving almost all needs of society.
Even many years ago, since 2001, Vietnam had a strategy to develop the Vietnamese automobile industry, but it was not successful until Vingroup, Sun Group, Thaco, Hoa Phat and many other private enterprises... appeared.
It can be seen that it is private enterprises, not the state-owned enterprise sector, that have created important breakthrough infrastructure projects such as highways, large road tunnels, international airports, etc., and the appearance of modern cities across the country.
This time, too, Mr. Cung has high expectations for these very enterprises in key national projects, projects of Vietnamese stature in the new development stage.
Of course, the problem is very difficult. As with the high-speed railway project, how can construction contractors who have never had experience, experience, or even have never read a similar project, step into this project? Even overcoming the barriers of financial capacity to participate in the bidding is not easy, when it takes 10 businesses combined to meet the bidding conditions according to the law.
However, businesses are very eager, working together to find solutions, proposals, recommendations... so as not to miss the opportunity to be present in the high-speed railway project.
“Vietnamese enterprises may not be able to participate immediately, and will have to form joint ventures and partnerships with foreign contractors, such as the model of 8 Vietnamese enterprises plus 1 Turkish contractor in Package 5.10 of Long Thanh airport phase I (construction and installation of passenger terminal equipment). But the problem of how to cooperate so that Vietnamese enterprises do not lose out, we must learn from it,” Mr. Hiep explained the enthusiasm of enterprises.
More importantly, Mr. Hiep said, entrepreneurs have a new treasure, which is the unprecedented consensus of the leaders of the Party, State and Government. “General Secretary To Lam said that the private economy needs to strive to become the main force, leading in the application of technology and innovation, to achieve the goal of contributing about 70% of GDP by 2030, which means there will be huge changes in thinking, mechanisms and policies,” Mr. Hiep believes.
There could not be a greater opportunity for the private sector than right now.
(To be continued)
Source: https://baodautu.vn/kinh-te-tu-nhan-goc-nhin-tu-nen-kinh-te-khong-rao-can---bai-1-khong-the-co-co-hoi-nao-lon-hon-d256822.html
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