Annual VBF focuses on business environment improvement

The forum, opened to mark its 20th anniversary, is a significant opportunity to review VBF’s overall operation and contribution during the last 20 years and commit further actions to continuously enhance business environment in Vietnam. It includes three sessions, namely productivity improvement and other factors to strengthen industries, facilitation of private funding to improve fiscal condition and enhancing business environment for private businesses’ breakthroughs.

Vu Tien Loc, co-chair of VBF 2017, said the Vietnam business environment has improved significantly since the beginning of Government’s tenure. A series of important policies on private sector development have been put forth such as the Law on Support for Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises, Resolution 19 on improvement of business environment and competitive capacity and Resolution 35 on the support to and development of enterprises by 2020.

With Government’s strong determination, ministries, sectors and localities have made remarkable progress in administrative procedures and business conditions. However, the investment environment still faces many obstacles.

Enterprises have raised concern about rapidly increased business operating costs and minimum wage rates higher than the rising level of labour productivity, have resulted in higher costs of social insurance and trade union funds, logistics and administration and their weak competitiveness against other countries, said Mr Loc.

Additionally, ineffective connectivity between domestic and foreign direct investment (FDI) enterprises and a lack of better coordination between domestic support industry businesses are also considered major hurdles for most Vietnamese enterprises, he added.

Mr Loc underscored that he hopes the forum will further increase dialogues on institutions and policies and propose specific mechanisms to enhance connectivity between domestic and foreign business communities and between FDI and Vietnamese SMEs. Only after the task is fulfilled, can a sustainable economic mechanism be created for mutual development and benefit of both FDI and domestic businesses.