FPT and PNJ leaders forecast the economic situation in 2025 and opportunities for Vietnamese businesses

Opportunities and challenges intertwined in 2025 will be the conditions for Vietnamese businesses to rise up, if businesses know how to apply technology to solve problems related to their expertise.

Opportunities and challenges intertwined in 2025 will be the conditions for Vietnamese businesses to rise up, if businesses know how to apply technology to solve problems related to their expertise.

Seminar "Economic picture - Global trends, Vietnam opportunities". Photo by Chi Cuong

The seminar "Economic picture - Global trends, Vietnam's opportunities" took place in the late afternoon of December 23, within the framework of the Vietnam Golden Star Awards Ceremony 2024, bringing many new perspectives, from the scope of the global economy to stories close to Vietnamese businesses.

The discussion was moderated by Mr. Le Trong Minh, Editor-in-Chief of Investment Newspaper, with the participation of Mr. Le Tri Thong, General Director of Phu Nhuan Jewelry Joint Stock Company (PNJ) and Mr. Nguyen Van Khoa, General Director of FPT Corporation.

Multidimensional view of the economic picture 2025

Mr. Le Tri Thong, General Director of Phu Nhuan Jewelry Joint Stock Company (PNJ), has a quite optimistic view on Vietnam's economic picture in 2025. "Credit growth currently has a lot of room for development and public investment is an important driving force pushing the economy forward," Mr. Thong commented.

Mr. Le Tri Thong, General Director of Phu Nhuan Jewelry Joint Stock Company (PNJ). Photo: Chi Cuong

With economists predicting that President Donald Trump’s administration may increase tariffs on imported goods and shift supply chains to the US, according to the PNJ representative, the impacts will not immediately impact Vietnam, but may not become clear until the third quarter of 2026. “Thus, in the short term, 2025 will be a favorable year for the Vietnamese economy,” the businessman shared.

Accordingly, he predicted that Vietnam will still benefit from the trend of shifting production chains and FDI capital out of China. Some sectors that can benefit from this wave are logistics, industrial parks, retail... In particular, the real estate sector will gradually warm up thanks to improvements in legal procedures.

In contrast to Mr. Le Tri Thong, Mr. Nguyen Van Khoa, General Director of FPT Corporation, sees 2025 as a difficult year, forcing Vietnamese enterprises to find "opportunities" in "danger".

“We have prepared our brothers mentally that 2025 will be as difficult a year as 2023 and 2024 combined,” Mr. Khoa said.

In that context, FPT representative believes that if Vietnamese enterprises want to develop, they must join hands together, form an ecosystem to lead together, and create "national enterprises". Instead of doing everything themselves, making other people's paintings or "the tied buffalo hates the eating buffalo", enterprises must unite and cooperate with each other.

Mr. Khoa gave an example that if FPT accepts an international project, the enterprise will redistribute related parts to small businesses in the ecosystem, with the principle of not competing and "swallowing" their products.

Empowering with technology

Although they view the picture of 2025 from different perspectives, both entrepreneurs agree that technology is an element that needs to be integrated into every business to increase competitiveness.

Mr. Nguyen Van Khoa, General Director of FPT Corporation. Photo : Chi Cuong

Mr. Nguyen Van Khoa said that if digital transformation is applied in inventory management, businesses can reduce costs by at least 4% compared to competitors; if done well, it will reduce costs by 8%. When businesses apply artificial intelligence, this rate will increase many times over.

More specifically, with the ChatGPT tool, in the past, FPT leaders had to ask the office department when planning a business trip to Cuba, the US... But when using ChatGPT, they can ask the tool to automatically plan their trip (specifically how many days, the cheapest cost...), thereby freeing up some work for the office department.

On a macro level, Mr. Le Tri Thong used the example of neighboring China. According to him, China rose to become the world’s second largest economy not by becoming the “world’s factory”, but by betting on the Internet. China has national strategies to develop this sector and creates conditions for businesses to take advantage of policies to develop.

Both entrepreneurs believe that new technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), big data... are important tools to improve competitiveness, optimize operations and increase labor productivity. Instead of fearing AI, businesses should understand that AI only supports work to go more smoothly.

“Vietnamese enterprises are still afraid of technology. Some enterprises still manage their businesses using Excel. We studied the reality of enterprises, when asked what problem they need to solve, they could not answer. When asked what subordinates should do when they lack marketing costs, they only answered by asking their boss to increase costs without knowing how to use technology to reduce costs. In the immediate future, enterprises should send employees to study artificial intelligence, and individual business owners should know how to use artificial intelligence,” FPT representative suggested.

He also believes that in order to effectively apply technology, the business leader must truly understand his or her own problems, understand the industry and expertise within the business. “I really advise you, don’t hire a few technology teams and then ask them to help you surpass your competitors. That’s not the case. You have to understand your problem, then use technology to solve that problem. Technology only accounts for 10%, the remaining 90% is your management,” the businessman emphasized.

This viewpoint of FPT representative received consensus from PNJ representative, when Mr. Le Tri Thong also said that AI is an "expensive game" and success only comes to businesses that know how to set the right problem.

"The person who puts the wrong title will not have the right answer. This is a story of human intelligence, not artificial intelligence," said Mr. Le Tri Thong.

Source: https://baodautu.vn/lanh-dao-fpt-pnj-du-bao-tinh-hinh-kinh-te-2025-va-co-hoi-cho-doanh-nghiep-viet-d234726.html