Experts discuss solutions to promote private sector development (Photo: VNA) Vu Tien Loc, Chairman of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI),made the statement at a recent conference held in the northern province of QuangNinh.
Creating a transparent and equal investment environment among business sectorsis always an important issue when discussing the disadvantages of the privatesector, especially in accessing important resources such as the labour market,business rights and information.
After more than three years of implementation of Resolution 10, privatebusinesses have become more protected. At the same time, there is also a betterplaying field for the sector when participating in economic fields. The privatefirms therefore have contributed to the economy as they attract about 85percent of the country’s total workforce while contribution to GDP is alwaysover 43 percent. Meanwhile, the contribution to GDP of the State economicsector and foreign direct investment (FDI) sector are 29 percent and 18 percent,respectively.
However, Loc said that domestic companies in many localities are not ashighly appreciated as foreign firms despite creating value and jobs.
Many private businesses also said that when localities called for FDI, theycommit to provide site clearance and are ready to be fined if they fail to meetthe schedule as foreign investors often have high requirements. However, fordomestic enterprises with even larger size than foreign companies, there is nosuch commitment, he added.
The chairman added that the private economic sector in Vietnam has not only8,000 businesses, but over 6 million, including business households. The firstpriority should be improving their quality, scale, efficiency andcompetitiveness not quantity. The entrepreneur’s desire is to have anenvironment for domestic businesses for their self-refinance and development.
Sharing the idea, Tran Dinh Thien, former director of the Vietnam EconomicsInstitute, said the FDI sector contributes 20 per cent of GDP butaccounts for 70 per cent of the total import-export turnover. This couldbe an issue as FDI firms could enjoy most trade benefits from the country’sefforts in international integration.
“Vietnam’s approach to business development must be revised. We need to rely ondomestic capacity, based on domestic economic forces and consider theprivate economy as an important driving force. Private enterprises must beVietnamese enterprises. If we follow the spirit of the Party and consider theprivate economy as an important driving force, the economy will grow evenmore,” he said.
“By studying economic development in some countries, we realise that the largecorporations of South Korea account for about 50-60 per cent of GDP. If Vietnamcould build such businesses, they could lead strong economic development, beingthe wings for Vietnam to take off,” said Vu Thanh Thang, Vice Chairman ofBkav Group.
He also proposed to choose outstanding enterprises with good competitiveness intechnology; creating an environment for businesses to boom, in which capital,human resources, markets and policies are particularly important. Once thereare products with a high localisation rate, the Government needs to create aspringboard for this product to be popular and strongly developed in Vietnam beforereaching the global market.
Pham Dinh Doan, chairman of Phu Thai Group agreed, saying that there is a largeproportion of small-and-medium enterprises (SMEs) in Vietnam, but a lack ofleading enterprises. The reason is that many units cannot be transparent andshare their business activities, and it is difficult to accompany development.
“The Government needs to have a coherent plan for businesses to thrive inthe next five to 20 years. In particular, there should be a policy tolimit the number of units participating in some professions to avoid wastingresources,” he said.
Huong Tran Kieu Dung, vice chairwoman of FLC Group, said in addition toconstruction planning, infrastructure and human resources, the prerequisitefactor to attract “eagles” as well as promote the strong development ofinvestors is the behaviour and interaction between local authorities andbusinesses.
“If businesses receive a sincere welcome from the local government, they willfeel sympathetic and secure when making investment. Investors always wantto invest in a locality in the long term. Therefore, businesses are interestedin how the investment process will be handled by the locality. This depends onthe transparency in the direction of each province,” Dung said./.
VNA
