Dr. Can Van Luc: Vietnam must strive to have 4 million businesses.

Striving for 4 million businesses

Sharing at the Seminar on Solutions to Promote Private Economic Development organized by Nguoi Lao Dong newspaper on March 20, Dr. Can Van Luc - Chief Economist of BIDV , said that the private sector must include both enterprises and individual business households.

Compared to China, this country's population is 15 times larger than Vietnam's, but its number of businesses is 55 times larger than Vietnam's, equivalent to 55 million businesses. While Vietnam is only striving to have 1 million businesses by 2025, that is too little.

"Vietnam must strive to have 4 million enterprises, not 1.5 or 2 million enterprises," said Mr. Luc.

According to this expert, it is necessary to more fully identify the private economic sector, which includes three main components: private enterprises, individual economy (mainly business households) and collective economy.

He said in 2017, Resolution 10/NQ-TW emphasized the need to "develop the private economy into an important driving force of the socialist-oriented market economy".

Dr. Can Van Luc: Vietnam must strive to have 4 million businesses. (Photo: Organizing Committee)

This resolution for the first time sets out specific targets for private economic development. It aims to have at least 1 million enterprises by 2020; 1.5 million enterprises by 2025 and 2 million enterprises by 2030. The private economic sector's contribution to GDP is expected to reach about 50% by 2020, about 55% by 2025 and 60% - 65% by 2030.

However, many of these goals have not been achieved so far, including the number of businesses.

Resolution 45 of the Government , issued on March 21, 2023, added two important targets: by 2025, out of 1.5 million enterprises, 60-70% will be medium and large-sized enterprises; by 2030, about 35-45% of private enterprises will have innovation activities. This demonstrates that the policies and goals for the private economic sector are strong and clear.

According to him, currently, the country has about 5.2 million business households, but only about 2.1 million households have registered their business and paid taxes in full. More than 3 million households have not yet registered and mainly pay lump-sum taxes.

Therefore, it is necessary to encourage these business households to convert into micro-enterprises. To help them convert, there should be separate support policies, such as exemption of income tax for the first 3-5 years to nurture revenue sources; simplifying business establishment procedures, as well as supporting accounting and management work...

This expert recommends referring to 7 experiences in managing private enterprises in China. Among them, it is necessary to be consistent in thinking about the private economy, considering the private economy as the "most important driving force" in economic growth. This is also the core force in the socialist-oriented market economy.

Next is institutional improvement, especially a breakthrough in improving the business investment environment. He said it is necessary to amend the Law on Support for Small and Medium Enterprises, reducing taxes for small and micro enterprises to 15% and 17% respectively, instead of the current 20%, which is equal to other enterprises.

The private sector is creating jobs for nearly 30% of the workforce, contributing about 60% of total social investment capital. (Illustration: H. Linh)

Along with that, it is necessary to build a strategy for private economic development, supporting businesses based on their actual contribution to the budget, employment and society, not based on the size of the business.

The most important thing is to create an environment of equal competition, ensuring that private enterprises fully exercise three basic rights: property rights, the right to freely conduct business in industries not prohibited by law, and the right to fair competition.

Boldly hand over large projects to the private sector

Ms. Ly Kim Chi, Chairwoman of the Ho Chi Minh City Food and Foodstuff Association, said that in recent days, when the Party and Government issued a policy to develop the private economy, the spirit of the business community was very excited and hopeful. "We feel more confident, more daring to develop, and believe that the future ahead will be very bright for the business community," Ms. Ly Kim Chi said.

This businessman believes that for the policy to be truly effective, businesses need to clearly feel that the support is real, not just on paper. The implementation of the policy needs to be brought into the reality of production, business and business life of the business.

According to Ms. Ly Kim Chi, official statistics show that Ho Chi Minh City has about 400,000 individual business households and 230,000 enterprises that have been operating effectively and developing strongly and sustainably over the past decades, and this is also a unique feature that only Ho Chi Minh City has and no other province or city has. This is the most stable business group, the force that needs to be encouraged and transformed into an enterprise model.

Handing over large projects to the private sector will create opportunities for businesses to grow and motivate large businesses to lead small businesses. (Illustration: Le Quan)

If supported, led and facilitated, along with the development of its own connection mechanisms, Ho Chi Minh City will have a very strong business force, ensuring the goal of developing 1 million businesses.

She also suggested that the Government should boldly assign important projects, such as urban railways or digital infrastructure, to the private sector. She said that when trusted and given opportunities, the private sector will grow stronger and contribute more to the economy, creating momentum for large enterprises to lead small enterprises to grow together.

Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Hoang Ngan, believes that to build an independent, self-reliant, and self-reliant economy, we must rely on the private economy, also known as the people's economy.

He shared that for Ho Chi Minh City alone, to grow 10% this year, the city's GDP will reach about 2 million billion VND, social investment capital needs about 660,000 billion VND, of which the people's sector must meet from 420,000 to 450,000 billion VND.

Ho Chi Minh City currently has 64 large enterprises out of a total of 278,000 enterprises (accounting for 0.02%), but they contribute up to 44% of the total budget revenue. Therefore, there should be separate policies for large enterprises and separate policies for enterprises that create jobs for workers.

Ha Linh

Source: https://vtcnews.vn/ts-can-van-luc-viet-nam-phai-phan-dau-co-4-trieu-doanh-nghiep-ar932762.html