Need for more cheap capital
After a period of being affected by prolonged domestic and foreign economic fluctuations, the business community of Ho Chi Minh City is gradually finding its growth pace. However, the recovery process still faces many challenges, especially the cost problem and capital access.
Ms. Nguyen Ngoc Huong - Executive Director of Thien Nhien Viet Import-Export Company Limited - said that the enterprise is operating in the agricultural chain and is currently accessing capital on a small scale. However, businesses are also receiving support from the State's policies for the group of processed agricultural products in Ho Chi Minh City.
"At present, interest rates have not fluctuated much, are at a relatively low level and the cost of using capital is still quite suitable for the ability of the enterprise" - Ms. Huong assessed.
From a market perspective, many businesses believe that purchasing power is still maintained at a stable level, especially in the affordable segment.
Mr. Tran Kim Khanh - representative of San Ha Company Limited - said that the company's consistent policy up to now is to focus on serving workers and customers with average incomes. Accordingly, products are always designed diversely to meet many different consumption levels.
However, according to Mr. Khanh, the thing that businesses are most concerned about today is how to make production and business activities more stable and develop more sustainably. In particular, the biggest difficulty is the capital problem - a common problem for the majority of domestic enterprises. Enterprises are looking forward to having more financial support policies, especially cheap capital, medium and long-term capital to boldly invest in expanding production.
In fact, investing in machinery and equipment worth 5-10 billion VND for Vietnamese enterprises always requires very careful consideration. Meanwhile, foreign enterprises can access capital sources with very low interest rates, only about 1%, so investment is much more favorable.
Adjusting tax policies to support businesses
From an overall perspective, according to the Ho Chi Minh City Business Association (HUBA), Ho Chi Minh City's economy is still on the path to recovery with positive macro indicators. However, the corporate picture still has many dark colors. In the third quarter of 2025, the number of newly established enterprises in the area decreased by nearly 14%, while the number of enterprises withdrawing from the market continued to increase at double digits.
Notably, although total social investment capital increased by more than 10%, the main resources came from the state sector, while the private sector decreased by more than 3.7% over the same period. According to HUBA, this clearly reflects the difficulties that private enterprises are facing, from high financial costs, exchange rate risks to uncertainty in the investment environment.
Within just 1 year, the USD/VND exchange rate has increased from 25,000 to 26,500 VND, causing a series of costs for businesses to increase, disrupting many investment plans and causing production costs to exceed estimates.
HUBA said that the key problem at present is to restore confidence in the business sector. The Association hopes to soon have solutions to adjust tax policies, improve administrative procedures and support businesses to access cheaper capital, so that the private economic sector can truly return to its role as a "trailer" for growth in the last quarter of the year and the following years.
