The Resolution is expected to create a spirit of innovation, new momentum, excitement, and high determination not only in the private economic sector but also in the whole society, bringing the economy to breakthrough development, and building our country into a prosperous and developed nation.
On the afternoon of March 21, in Ho Chi Minh City, Nhan Dan Newspaper, Vietnam Television (VTV), and Ho Chi Minh City Business Association (HUBA) jointly organised the workshop on removing policy shortcomings to promote the role of the private economy in the Vietnamese economy.
The event saw the presence of members of the Party Central Committee (PCC): Phan Van Mai, member of the National Assembly Standing Committee, Chairman of the National Assembly’s Economic and Financial Committee; Le Quoc Minh, Editor-in-Chief of Nhan Dan Newspaper, Deputy Head of the PCC’s Commission for Communication and Mass Mobilisation, Chairman of the Vietnam Journalists Association; Thai Thanh Quy, Deputy Head of the PCC’s Commission for Policies and Strategies.
Building a service administrative system
The workshop outlined a panoramic picture of the private economy from many perspectives. The speakers raised many practical opinions, contributing their voices to the relevant agencies to develop the draft Resolution on private economic development of the Politburo that is about to be issued.
Speaking at the opening of the workshop, the Editor-in-Chief of Nhan Dan Newspaper Le Quoc Minh said to arouse and promote the potential and strength of the private economic sector in the new era, the Politburo will issue a resolution to encourage, support and orient the development of the private economy with breakthrough reforms in institutions, policies and business environment so that the private economy becomes the country’s leading important growth driver.
All opinions of experts and businesses at this workshop will be sent by the organising committee to state agencies to contribute to the draft resolution on the private economy that will be issued soon. The private economic sector in Vietnam currently has about 940,000 enterprises and more than 5 million individual business households, contributing more than 50% of GDP, and more than 30% of the state budget, creating jobs for more than 80% of the total workforce in the country.
Many businesses have affirmed their brands and competitiveness in the international market, enhancing Vietnam's position and prestige. Chairman of the Board of Directors of Vietravel Tourism-Airline Group Joint Stock Company Nguyen Quoc Ky, said in reality, in recent times, there has been unfair treatment between business sectors.
Therefore, Ky was very pleased with the content of the article “Private economic development - a lever for a prosperous Vietnam” by General Secretary To Lam. In the article, the General Secretary requested that there must be more effective support policies so that the private economy can access resources in a convenient, fair and equal manner. At the same time, it is necessary to create an administrative system that “serves businesses” and these are the key points that businesses are looking forward to.
According to Ky, to build a service-oriented administrative system, it is necessary to first change the awareness of those working in management. In addition, when developing mechanisms and policies to support private enterprises, careful research is needed before promulgation.
The implementation process must be continuous with specific goals and clear timelines. The Government can consider and study the establishment of specialised central-level teams to effectively implement policies. Economic expert, Dr Can Van Luc, said that the private sector’s contribution to GDP in 2005 reached more than 47%, but since then it has only hovered around 50% and has not been able to break through.
There are many objective and subjective reasons leading to this situation, but Dr Can Van Luc emphasised two points: The thinking, awareness and viewpoint of management agencies, as well as the investment-business environment still have many limitations, not equal between private enterprises and other business sectors.
To solve these shortcomings, Dr Can Van Luc proposed accelerating the completion of institutions and creating a healthy and equal investment and business environment among economic sectors, with great attention paid to the implementation stage.
According to the General Director of Dai Dung Construction Mechanical Trading Joint Stock Company Trinh Tien Dung, to promote economic growth and sustainable development, it is necessary to focus on three pillars: Public investment and key infrastructure, especially in large cities; attracting FDI along with reasonable incentive policies and effective monitoring mechanisms to ensure balance, avoiding negative impacts on domestic enterprises; the private economy needs to be given attention and create more favourable conditions for development.
To realise these goals, the State needs to synchronously implement solutions such as promoting administrative procedure reform, shortening the licensing time for investment projects and having appropriate development strategies and incentive policies for each separate group of enterprises, from large enterprises, and small and medium enterprises to individual business households. Small and medium enterprises and business households must be encouraged and given priority support to promote internal strength.
On behalf of the unit drafting the Politburo’s Resolution on private economic development, Deputy Director of the Department of Private Enterprise and Collective Economic Development under the Ministry of Finance Bui Thu Thuy said: Among the issues raised by enterprises and economic experts at the workshop, many issues were identified by the Drafting Team and proposed solutions to resolve them. Specifically, clarifying the content of “not criminalising economic relations” to implement in practice and to have specific and appropriate support policies for each group of enterprises.
The Draft Resolution proposed a group of support solutions for large enterprises to participate in solving major national problems through the ordering mechanism; supporting the formation of 1,000 medium-sized enterprises; proposing to consider removing lump-sum tax for business households and expected to exempt tax for the first 3 years of establishment for enterprises; proposing that enterprises borrow capital from the Credit Guarantee Fund without collateral.
This is the first time the draft resolution has a new approach, with specific policy implications to be implemented immediately after the resolution is issued.
Breakthrough development of the private economy
To facilitate the business community, Chairman of the Binh Duong Provincial Business Federation Mai Huu Tin proposed that the State should focus on increasing the investment rate for infrastructure development in the coming years, and at the same time actively apply e-Government to eliminate the situation of “asking-giving” in licensing.
At the same time, it is necessary to focus on education, considering this a top national policy and mobilising all resources to develop education, turning human resources - the most valuable resource of a country of more than 100 million people, into value. Johnathan Hanh Nguyen, Chairman of the Inter-Pacific Group (IPPG) proposed a solution to consider handing over some premises to the private sector, creating equality for the private economy to access specific real estate and a team of entrepreneurs willing to share responsibility with the State.
Representing the cooperative sector, an important component of the private economy, Nguyen Anh Duc, Chairman of the Vietnam Retailers Association, General Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Cooperative Union (Saigon Co.op) proposed that the Government soon complete the legal foundation for cooperative operations.
Currently, the collective economy and cooperatives have resources from the private sector, and society still considers cooperatives as units of the State, while the State itself believes that cooperatives do not manage state capital. This is the biggest obstacle to the development of cooperatives. According to Dr Nguyen Dinh Thien, former Director of the Vietnam Institute of Economics, this is a historic period for developing Vietnam's private economy.
In the era of national development, the private economy has a new mission, becoming the most important driving force of economic growth and development, ensuring national competitiveness and an independent, self-reliant economy. To do so, Vietnamese enterprises must form a new structure, not 98% of which are as small and micro-sized as they are today.
Private enterprises must be the foundation, and private economic groups are the pillars, leading Vietnamese enterprises to participate in the global production chain. From the perspective of research and policy consultation, Dr Nguyen Duc Kien, former Head of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Group, said that to promote private economic development in the coming time, it is necessary to develop and organise the implementation of the Resolution and reform the investment environment.
In the implementation phase, the National Assembly and the Government must innovate and specify the indicators to easily monitor the implementation results, and avoid establishing too many steering agencies and using overlapping apparatuses without a specific person in charge.
Emphasising the importance of the private economy, Thai Thanh Quy, Deputy Head of the PCC’s Commission for Policies and Strategies assessed that the opinions exchanged at the workshop showed that, with its dynamism and creativity, the private economic sector has overcome all difficulties and challenges, rising to become an important driving force for economic development. After 40 years of renovation, the private economy has made the greatest contribution to the Vietnamese economy.
To remove bottlenecks and promote the potential and strength of the private economic sector, the Politburo will soon issue a Resolution on private economic development with specific tasks, solutions and mechanisms for inspection, supervision and handling of implementation.
