The message of General Secretary To Lam in the article "Private economic development - Leverage for a prosperous Vietnam" recently marked a turning point in the awareness of the important role of the private economy, and at the same time touched the source of the desire for breakthrough and development of the economic sector considered the most dynamic of the country's economy in the current period.

Workers check and classify processed cashew nuts at Hoang Son 1 Company Limited, Binh Phuoc. Illustrative photo: Hong Nhung/VNA

The numbers "talk"

Existing in the forms of private enterprises, limited liability companies, joint stock companies and individual business households, Vietnamese history has recorded the mark of the private economy and the names of merchant families very early. During the renovation period, our Party and State recognized the position and role of the private economy in the policy of developing a multi-sector economy. Thanks to that, the private economy has continuously grown, becoming one of the main factors creating rapid economic growth.

In particular, after the 10th Congress (2006), when it was officially identified as an economic sector encouraged to develop, without any restrictions on scale, the private economy has made great contributions to the socio-economic development and international integration of Vietnam. If in the early stages of renovation, the private economy only played a secondary role, mainly relying on the state sector and foreign direct investment (FDI), then in the past two decades, especially when the Politburo issued Resolution 09 in 2011 and the Central Committee issued Resolution 10 in 2017 on private economic development, this economic sector has risen strongly, becoming one of the leading important pillars of the economy and increasingly demonstrating itself as the most important driving force to promote national economic growth.

Notably, since 2010, the development of the Party's theoretical thinking has created the basis for building and perfecting institutions, mechanisms, and policies for developing the private economy in Vietnam. According to Article 51 of the 2013 Constitution, Vietnam's socialist-oriented market economy has many forms of ownership and many economic sectors; in which, the state economy plays a leading role; all economic sectors are important components of the national economy, equal, cooperative, and competitive according to the law. The State encourages and creates conditions for entrepreneurs, enterprises, and other individuals and organizations to invest, produce, and do business; the legal assets of individuals and organizations investing, producing, and doing business are protected by law and are not nationalized.

According to Mr. Phan Duc Hieu, Standing Member of the Economic Committee of the National Assembly, the mechanism and policies for private economic development are constantly being improved through the promulgation of a system of laws; including laws that are important to the private economic sector such as: Law on Private Enterprises and Law on Companies in 1990; Law on Enterprises in 1999, 2004, 2014 and 2020; Law on Investment in 2004, 2014, 2020; Law on Competition; Law on Investment under the form of public-private partnership; Law on Planning; Law on Public Investment; Law on Bidding; Law on Support for Small and Medium Enterprises...

Thanks to that, Vietnam has formed a common, unified legal framework on the establishment, organization and operation of business organizations applicable to all business organizations regardless of ownership form and increasingly approaching international regulations and rules. The private economy is free to compete and treated equally under the law compared to the state economy and FDI economy. Discrimination and treatment in accessing resources and State support for the private economy are gradually removed; creating favorable conditions for private investment to develop through perfecting tax policies, technology, public administrative procedures, etc.

The "talking" numbers of the private economic sector, which are nearly 1 million enterprises, 5 million individual business households, contributing 51% of GDP, more than 30% of the state budget, creating more than 40 million jobs, accounting for more than 82% of the total labor force in the economy, contributing nearly 60% of the total social investment capital... have demonstrated the leading important pillar role of the private economic sector in the economy.

Changes in "behavior" and action

In the article "Private economic development - Leverage for a prosperous Vietnam", General Secretary To Lam said that despite its increasing contributions, the private economy is still facing many barriers that hinder its development and cannot make a breakthrough in terms of scale and competitiveness.

Previously, at a working session with the Central Policy and Strategy Committee on private economic development in early March 2025, the General Secretary also pointed out that there must be changes in thinking and awareness in order to change the way of "behaving" and acting towards the private economic sector.

Looking back at the history of private economic development, there was a time when people's creative capacity and motivation in production and business to enrich themselves and the country were almost eliminated; production capacity was restrained and stagnant. The situation of "cautious" and "feeling the way across the river" when developing the domestic private economy, especially private enterprises, has left many stagnant consequences for the economy...

Up to now, although it has made great strides and is the main growth driver of the economy, the private economy has not been able to break through, still has to "squeeze" through a business environment that is not truly equal, and is entangled in invisible barriers; in which it can be said that the biggest barrier lies in thinking.

For a long time, state-owned enterprises have been considered the "backbone" and FDI enterprises the "boost" of the economy, while private enterprises, despite their large contributions, are still considered "supplementary" components. This prejudice not only exists in thinking, but also permeates policies and the way businesses are "treated".

On the other hand, the private economic sector itself still has many existing problems such as: although large in number, there are still many limitations in terms of scale, potential, competitiveness, especially international competition; lack of leading enterprises in important sectors and fields of the economy; internal linkages and linkages with other economic sectors are still weak. In addition to private enterprises, the force of more than 5 million individual business households is very large, but "does not want to grow", "refuses to grow" due to constraints and concerns about regulations and procedures. Along with that, the initiative, creativity, daring to think big, and striving in most small and medium enterprises in the private economic sector are still limited...

Besides, in recent times, a number of businessmen with low ethics, business culture, awareness of law compliance, social responsibility, and national spirit have violated the law, colluded with degraded officials, pursued personal interests, caused damage to the economy, and partly reduced people's trust...

The rise of private enterprise

The first meeting of the Government Standing Committee with private enterprises in the early spring of 2025 took place last February, along with dozens of meetings and contacts between Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and the business community in recent times, sending a strong message about the specific, drastic and practical support of the Government for the business community, especially the private enterprise sector.

Not only encouraging and motivating the contributions of the business community, listening, sharing, and exchanging with businesses to remove difficulties and obstacles as well as discussing tasks and solutions for private businesses to develop more strongly, the head of the Government also frankly admitted: Institutions are "bottlenecks of bottlenecks", but also "breakthroughs of breakthroughs" in the current development of the private economy. Accordingly, the expectation of institutional changes for the private economic sector will be the premise to create breakthroughs for the private economy to take off with the era of national development.

The Government has established a Steering Committee to develop a Private Economic Development Project, headed by the Prime Minister. The Central Policy and Strategy Committee has also developed a report proposing 10 strategic solutions to create a breakthrough in private economic development in the coming time. The Central Policy and Strategy Committee also believes that there should be outstanding and strong solutions that both effectively solve immediate problems and create a foundation for sustainable, strong and long-term development of our country's private economy in the coming time. The solutions are developed and implemented in a synchronous and comprehensive manner to create a favorable and open common environment; enhance access to resources; promote technological innovation, develop human resources; and improve the capacity of businesses and entrepreneurs. At the same time, there are breakthrough solutions to promptly remove fundamental bottlenecks that have lasted for many years and have not been effectively handled.

According to Mr. Pham Dinh Doan, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Phu Thai Group, “panic” is the real state of private enterprises today in the face of the “too fast, too terrible” pace of change in the economy. “If we delay for just one day, businesses can miss countless opportunities. Therefore, our businesses must also be proactive, thinking every day and every hour to adapt, make breakthroughs, accelerate and join forces. And especially, this time requires the joint efforts of not only the business community but also the people and the Government,” Mr. Doan emphasized.

Ms. Dinh Thi Quynh Van - Chairman of PwC Vietnam, a member of PwC - one of the world's leading financial and corporate law consulting firms, also believes that administrative procedure reform is only a part, but more importantly, private enterprises need stable, comprehensive and unified policies. Therefore, the Government needs to have a comprehensive view to connect and synchronize regulations of ministries and branches with each other. On the other hand, private enterprises themselves must also look back at themselves; including changing their mindset in approaching the market.

“We have been doing things the traditional way for 40 years, now we have to go out to the ocean, we have to be completely different. If a business wants to survive, its team of entrepreneurs and managers must have international and comprehensive qualifications,” Ms. Dinh Thi Quynh Van emphasized.

Dr. Tran Dinh Thien, member of the National Monetary Policy Advisory Council and former Director of the Vietnam Economic Institute, said that the current era of change has been prepared by 40 years of renovation. Therefore, this is a historic moment, an extremely valuable golden opportunity for private enterprises to make a breakthrough.

In the world, there is no superpower that does not have a developed private economy. For example, when talking about Korea, there are Samsung, LG, CJ; Japan has Honda, Toyota, Sony… Each country has large private economic groups to create a superpower. Therefore, developing the private economy is the central task of the Party and the State in the current period, and at the same time, it is also the desire to break through and develop of each private enterprise to be able to create strong economic groups, taking off with the era of national development.

According to baotintuc.vn