Minister of Planning and Investment: ‘Private enterprises must take the lead in difficult tasks’

This morning, the Government Standing Committee met with large enterprises to discuss solutions for socio-economic development. Private enterprises participating in the conference include the following corporations: Vingroup, Hoa Phat, Thaco, KN Holdings, Sungroup, T&T, Geleximco, Minh Phu, Masan, Sovico, TH, REE.

Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung assessed that a number of large private enterprises have become important driving forces of the economy. However, the Minister acknowledged that the business community has not yet fully exploited its potential and leading role as expected. The proportion of investment in new, dynamic areas such as clean energy, chips, microchips, semiconductors, and hydrogen is still low. Projects are not large enough to make a breakthrough, support restructuring, and improve the competitiveness of the economy.

At the same time, the business community is still young compared to the region and the world, the scale of enterprises is mostly small and medium, the rate of participation in production and processing is still limited. Large enterprises are relatively independent, the leadership is unclear when the rate of small and medium enterprises participating in the supply chain is still low.

Vietnam currently has more than 930,000 active enterprises, of which 98% are small and medium-sized. In addition, there are about 14,400 cooperatives and more than 5 million business households. In 2023, the private economic sector will contribute about 46% of GDP, 30% of state budget revenue, and attract 85% of the workforce.

The Minister said that the large private enterprise sector currently holds large resources in terms of capital, assets, technology, and high-quality human resources. According to estimates by the World Bank (WB), 80% of global profits are generated by the 10% largest enterprises. Large enterprises contribute up to 1/3 of export turnover, half of the country’s export growth rate.

“Korea’s miraculous development is associated with Samsung, Hyundai or SK. When mentioning Honda or Toyota, we immediately think of Japan,” he cited.

The total assets of large enterprises participating in today’s conference are estimated at 70 billion USD by the end of 2023. According to the Minister, mobilizing this asset, along with the technology, knowledge, qualifications, and high-quality human resources of these enterprises, will supplement large resources, contributing to ensuring the autonomy of the country’s economy.

2024 is the year of acceleration and breakthrough, Minister Nguyen Chi Dung suggested that the large business community “take the initiative and pioneer in big, difficult and new tasks”. “Businesses need to solve problems at the national level to create momentum for economic development, creating room for development for small and medium enterprises in other fields”, he said.

In addition, large enterprises need to join with large corporations and state-owned groups to invest in new fields, shift towards green development, the 4.0 revolution, transfer technology, and participate in major national projects.

“The Government wants businesses to be pioneers and proactive in working with the Government to achieve socio-economic development goals. The success of businesses is also the success of the country,” said Minister Nguyen Chi Dung.