Nguyen Van Than, National Assembly Deputy, chair of the Vietnam SME (small and medium enterprises) Association, and deputy chair of the Prime Minister’s Advisory Council for Administrative Reform, talked with VietNamNet about what the country needs to do to become a developed country with high income by 2045 as stipulated in the 13th Party Congress’ resolution.

Do you think Vietnamese entrepreneurs are capable of shouldering the responsibility of developing the country into a high income country by 2045?

The 12th and 13 Party Congresses’ resolutions all affirm that the private sector is an ‘important driving force of the national economy’.

The Politburo’s Resolution 41/2023 on promoting the role of the business community in new conditions also says businesspeople are one of the core forces contributing to promoting industrialization, modernization and international integration; and building and developing an independent and self-reliant economy, ensuring national defense and security.

Since entrepreneurs are very important in the country’s development path, they need to join forces to implement the task. This is their responsibility and mission.

However, clapping cannot be created with just one hand. If businesspeople cannot receive any support, they will fail to undertake the great responsibility. The state needs to give them a push to help them implement their mission. 

What do you mean by ‘giving a push’?

The state needs to lay down specific policies to be applied to different types of businesses. For example, large corporations need policies that help them continue to develop in a healthy and sustainable way.

Large corporations have grown already, and they need solutions to allow them to keep growing healthily. Many large corporations have grown thanks to investments in real estate. However, land is limited and enterprises cannot rely on real estate to develop forever.

So, to help large corporations grow, it is necessary to create favorable conditions for them to develop production and build strong Vietnamese brands that help boost exports to the global market.

I really appreciated the recent meeting between the government’s standing committee and large businesses, where the Prime Minister listened to entrepreneurs’ proposals. This will help create policies to give businesses a push.

China, for example, gives support and subsidies to electric vehicle manufacturers, and offers financial support to people to buy Chinese made vehicles in order to develop its EV (electric vehicle) industry.

The state also needs to support medium sized enterprises, which are an extremely important force of the national economy, and even more important than big enterprises. Medium sized enterprises are operating in many different business fields, including green transition and digital transformation, and they have gained encouraging results.

However, they just have a medium scale and still cannot grow further.

When discussing the Law on Support for SMEs, I strongly recommended that there should be provisions to cut taxes and support medium sized enterprises, because they are the ones who really make money. 

Medium sized enterprises always play a very important role in all economies. What the state needs to do is set up reasonable policies to turn the "medium sized guys"’ into "the big guys".

As for small and micro enterprises, the state needs measures to encourage, support and nurture them so that they can grow gradually.

What are the other solutions that have direct impact on businesses?

There is an extremely important thing which needs high attention – technology and digital transformation. One of the advantages of Vietnamese people is that they are quick in applying technology and going digital.

Digital transformation does not simply mean applying digital technologies in socio-economic activities, but is also a process of defining a new advanced and modern digital production model.

The story now is how to carry out digital transformation. I think there should be a fund to attract talents. The fund should be created by businesses with no contribution from the state budget. 

The fund to attract talents will operate based on its charter, and use money for the right purposes. The role of the state is controlling the fund to be sure that it operates in accordance with regulations.

Talented individuals willing to devote themselves to the country’s development and work in Vietnam could be paid $10,000 a month from the fund.

To be continued...

Thu Hang