Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Tran Duy Dong. (Photo: VietnamPlus) Hanoi (VNA) – Climate change, natural disasters and epidemics are becoming normal challenges for the business sector in Vietnam. These things have a huge impact on consumer trends, suggesting a better pathway is sustainable production. Domestic businesses, especially the private sector, must adjust toward the green economy, mirroring the global business climate.
According to Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Tran Huy Dong, the private sector is an important driving force of Vietnam’s socialist-oriented market economy, contributing to overall economic growth.
Currently, the country has about 910,000 private businesses, along with more than 14,400 cooperatives and more than 5 million business households, the official noted at a conference on October 13.
He said that the private sector is contributing 50% to the country’s GDP, creating jobs for more than 80% of the country’s workforce.
Dong said that Vietnam’s GDP is among the world’s top 40, while its international trade scale is among world’s top 20. Vietnamese entrepreneurs have shown strong entrepreneurial spirit and effort to overcome difficulty. They have a strong desire to rise, with increasing social responsibility, ethics, and business culture, he said. Vietnamese businesses are growing strongly and rising in the region and in the world.
However, the official said that there are still many challenges for business and production, especially climate change, natural resources, and epidemics.
He underlined that many markets are requiring increasingly high sustainability in production and business activities. Meanwhile, nearly 98% of domestic firms in Vietnam are small and medium-sized with limited capacity and governance level. These businesses pay inadequate attention to investment in a sustainable business strategy, leading to a high level of risk, and a limited ability to engage in the global production chain.
Vietnam has a strong contingent of businesses that are active in innovation and technology development towards a green, and circular economy. (Photo: VietnamPlus) The MPI official said a number of domestic firms have begun to make use of high technology and a circular economy, reducing carbon emissions, protecting the environment, and responding to climate change. They are actively contributing to the implementation of sustainable development goals and the country’s commitment to net-zero emissions by 2050.
In the past two years, the US-funded Improving Private Sector Competitiveness Project (IPSC) has designed many activities aiming to promote the growth of the private sector in Vietnam. It has drawn more than 600 enterprises, of which 22 have been chosen to receive support packages worth 150,000 USD.
Meanwhile, the MPI and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) launched a Vietnam Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Initiative 2023 in November 2022, attracting nearly 150 registrations from private businesses, cooperatives and business households.
Ten firms with best initiatives have been chosen to receive intensive training to enhance their understanding of ESG as well as other sustainable business models. The top three best businesses received support worth 2 billion VND to pilot or expand their sustainable business initiatives.
The top three best businesses received support worth 2 billion VND to pilot or expand their sustainable business initiatives. (Photo: VietnamPlus) USAID's Mission Director for Vietnam Aler Grubbs said that the agency pledges to promote economic growth and enhance capacity for the private sector in Vietnam.
Through close collaboration with the MPI to support Vietnamese enterprises in promoting sustainable business practices and ESG implementation, USAID has helped them improve competitiveness, achieve long-term development goals, meet international standards, and engage in global value chains, she said.
Dong said that the MPI will continue to give advice to the Government to encourage enterprises to apply sustainable business models and engage in new industries to develop the digital economy.
He called on businesses to be active in seeking creative and modern solutions, grasping opportunities for development, and contributing to the country’s overall growth./.
