Hanoi (VNA) – Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung has outlined six key directions in support of the Government’s commitment to assisting businesses, particularly the private sector. These measures are designed to achieve an ambitious 8% growth target in 2025 and set the foundation for double-digit growth from 2026 onward.
At the Prime Minister’s New Year meeting with private enterprises on February 10, Minister Dung highlighted the remarkable progress of Vietnamese enterprises over nearly 40 years of Doi moi (Renewal).
He noted that the country now has 940,000 active businesses, more than 30,000 cooperatives, and over 5 million household businesses. In 2024 alone, a record 233,000 new businesses were established or resumed operations, reflecting the confidence and momentum within the business community.
Businesses’ contribution to the national economy remains undeniable. They account for approximately 60% of GDP and 98% of total export turnover, and provide jobs for about 85% of the workforce.
Thanks to their substantial contributions, Vietnam successfully met and exceeded all 15 socio-economic targets set for 2024. The economy grew by 7.09%, placing Vietnam among the fastest-growing nations in the region and globally. Its GDP reached 476.3 billion USD, ranking 33rd in the world, while total trade volume hit 786 billion USD, making Vietnam one of the top 20 economies in global trade.
Despite these achievements, the minister acknowledged that Vietnamese businesses still face significant challenges. Most remain small in scale, with limited competitiveness, operational efficiency, and management capacity. Many still take a short-term business approach and lack a long-term strategic vision. Meanwhile, institutional and legal constraints continue to hinder growth, with complex regulations described as the “bottleneck of bottlenecks” for enterprises.
To address these challenges and ensure sustained economic growth, Dung proposed six key solutions.
The first is a fundamental shift in recognising the role of businesses, with the private sector positioned as a primary driver of economic growth, productivity, and competitiveness.
The second focuses on institutional reform to create the most favourable business environment. This includes revising legislation towards enabling development, moving away from restrictive policies and embracing results-based management. Immediate actions include removing regulatory barriers in real estate, infrastructure investment, transportation, and renewable energy to free up resources for businesses. Expanding the scope of pilot specific policies that have proven effective in certain localities should also be considered.
The third solution involves mobilising all available resources to stimulate economic growth. Public investment should take the lead in major infrastructure projects such as expressways, high-speed rail, nuclear power, offshore wind energy, and national data centres. Underground space, marine space, and even outer space also need to be capitalised on to create new development momentum.
Science, technology, innovation, and digital transformation are identified as the fourth solution and a leading breakthrough. Authorities at all levels should develop legal frameworks that facilitate new sectors, high-tech projects, digital transformation, artificial intelligence, robotics, biotechnology, and new materials. While local, regional, and national innovation centres should be set up and operate efficiently, collaboration between domestic and international innovation networks should be enhanced.
The fifth solution focuses on building large-scale national enterprises. Policies will be designed to support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in integrating into global value chains while strengthening links between domestic businesses and foreign direct investment (FDI) enterprises. A more selective approach to FDI is necessary, ensuring that foreign investment is connected with the development of local industries. Authorities also need to assist skilled professionals from FDI enterprises in launching their own businesses.
The sixth and final solution is to stimulate domestic consumption and expand market opportunities for businesses. Local enterprises should be given support in producing high-quality, competitive goods to gradually increase their market share within Vietnam. Campaigns such as “Vietnamese people prioritise Vietnamese goods” should be implemented substantively to encourage sustainable consumer trends and boost demand for locally produced goods. Additionally, businesses should be assisted to maximise opportunities from Vietnam’s 17 free trade agreements (FTAs) to diversify export markets, particularly the countries with which Vietnam recently established strategic and comprehensive partnerships, along with new and potential markets.
The minister also called on leading enterprises to take on a greater role in solving national economic challenges, emphasising the need for them to drive innovation and tackle complex issues at a national scale.
He further stressed the importance of promoting business associations’ role as intermediaries between the Government and enterprises to opportunely address hindrances and protect the interests of their members./.
