Business need to improve self-reliance to sail through challenges in 2023: experts

Photo: An overview of the forum (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) – Businesses need to improve their self-reliance and enhance the connectivity in the private economic sector in the production chain and increase the rate of localisation, thus raising their competitiveness to overcome challenges in 2023, heard a forum in Hanoi on November 17.

Risks facing domestic firms

Hoang Quang Phong, Vice President of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), pointed out that despite their big number, the scale and strength of the domestic firms are not strong enough, and their resilience and competitive edge still remain limited.

Dr. Nguyen Quoc Viet, Deputy Director of the Vietnam Institute for Economic and Policy Research, also noted potential risks, which, he said, may come from unexpected interventions, especially non-market ones.

He suggested Vietnamese enterprises and Government pay due attention to the risks, and observe international practices, and investment and trade agreements the country signed to overcome them.

Mentioning the cost-related risks, Viet said apart from administration mechanisms, businesses should coordinate with ministries, agencies and localities to build other mechanisms to cut informal expenses.

Businesses themselves need to carry forward the spirit of startup and self-reliance, alongside the State support, to sail through challenges, he said, suggesting policy makers and managers base on the market mechanism to better assist enterprises.

Photo: Businesses themselves need to carry forward the spirit of startup and self-reliance, alongside the State support, to sail through challenges. (Photo: VNA)

Viet also stressed the need to ensure timely and transparent corporate information and policies to support research agencies, thus making forecasts that match the reality.

Prioritising digital transformation

In fact, businesses are facing a host of challenges such as inflation and crises, especially energy crisis, plus lingering impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Given this, Nguyen Trong Duong, Deputy Director General of the Department of Enterprise Management at the Ministry of Information and Communications, held that businesses need to seek ways to raise productivity and cut costs.

Digital transformation will help them better adapt to the new normal and soon surpass the crisis, he said, explaining that the enterprises that have applied digital technology and digital transformation can recover faster after each crisis.

Digital transformation will help them better adapt to the new normal and soon surpass the crisis. (Photo: VNA)

Meanwhile, small firms that have yet to embark on digital transformation will find it hard to regain their momentum.

“Thus, cutting costs is necessary but not all, we need to spend on digital transformation," Duong noted.

Nguyen Quoc Hung, Secretary General of the Vietnam Banks Association, forecast that the banking sector will meet various challenges in the time ahead, and stressed that the links between policies, as well as coordination between ministries and agencies in supporting businesses have shown limitations.

To assist enterprises in credit access, he said it is necessary to establish a system of suitable, strong solutions and policies.

Vietnam saw over 13,000 new enterprises formed with a total registered capital of 106.9 trillion VND in October, up 13.6% in number of firms but down 21.4% in capital from the previous month.

The country counted 125,800 new firms in the first ten months of this year with combined investments of over 1.37 quadrillion VND and 835,000 labourers, according to the General Statistics Office (GSO).

The figures represented increases of 34% in the number of firms, 6% in capital and 18% in workforce compared with the same period last year, the GSO said, adding that the average capital of new enterprises in the period was 11 billion VND.

Meanwhile, 42,600 operating enterprises registered an increase of above 2.79 quadrillion VND. Therefore, the total registered capital of the economy in the first ten months topped more than 4.16 quadrillion VND, up 31% year-on-year.

The GSO reported that the number of enterprises returning to business was 52,700 during the period, a yearly hike of 49%.

On the opposite side, 66,400 enterprises temporarily ceased operations, up 37% against the last year's same period. Another 40,300 were in the dissolution process, a year-on-year rise of 13.4% and 12,200 completed dissolution procedures.

On average, 12,200 businesses withdraw from the market every month./.