What is even more impressive is that Vietnam's economic growth rate is always twice as high as the average of developing countries, despite global economic fluctuations. From a poor economy, dependent on international aid, Vietnam has continuously made a strong breakthrough to become the world's 24th largest economy in terms of purchasing power parity (PPP). The achievements are not only in the economic field but also include great progress in society, contributing to bringing an increasingly prosperous and happy life to the people.
This success has a very important contribution from the private economic sector. If in the early stages of innovation, the private economy only played a secondary role, the economy mainly relied on the state sector and foreign direct investment (FDI), then in the past two decades, especially when the Politburo issued Resolution 09 of 2011 and the Central Committee issued Resolution 10 of 2017 on private economic development, this economic sector has risen strongly, becoming one of the top important pillars of the economy and increasingly showing its importance as the most important driving force to promote national economic growth. With nearly one million enterprises, about 5 million individual business households, the private economic sector currently contributes about 51% of GDP, more than 30% of the state budget, creates more than 40 million jobs, accounts for more than 82% of the total number of employees in the economy, contributing nearly 60% of total social investment capital.
The private economy not only helps expand production, trade and services but also contributes significantly to improving labor productivity, promoting innovation and increasing national competitiveness. The strong rise of many Vietnamese private enterprises not only dominates the domestic market but also affirms the brand in the international market. This proves that if there is a favorable development environment, Vietnamese enterprises can completely reach out and compete fairly with the world.
However, despite increasingly large contributions, the private economy is still facing many barriers that hinder development, unable to break through in scale and competitiveness. Many individual economic households still follow the old business model, lack motivation to develop into enterprises, and even "not want to grow". Most of Vietnamese private enterprises belong to the group of small and micro enterprises, with limited financial potential and governance level, lacking connectivity with each other as well as with the foreign direct investment sector; not taking advantage of the opportunities brought by the 4.0 industrial revolution, still slow digital transformation, very few enterprises investing in research and development (R&D), focusing little on innovating business models, innovating technology or creating new products. Therefore, it is very difficult to increase added value, promote competitiveness, enhance business value and reach international standards.
In addition to internal limitations, private enterprises also face many barriers in accessing resources, especially credit capital, land, resources and high-quality human resources, especially in the technology, engineering and finance industries. Meanwhile, some state-owned enterprises hold many resources, land, capital, and quality human resources but have not exploited them effectively, even wasting them. In addition, the legal system still has many shortcomings and overlaps, the business environment has many obstacles, administrative procedures are complicated, time-consuming, costly and have potential risks. In many cases, freedom of business and property rights are still violated by the weakness or abuse of power of some civil servants in performing public duties.
On the other hand, the Government's preferential and support policies are not really effective and fair among economic regions and are not easy to access for the private economy. In many cases, state-owned enterprises and foreign enterprises still receive more incentives than the private sector. State-owned enterprises are often more facilitated in accessing land, capital, and credit; while foreign enterprises are often better supported in taxes, customs procedures, and land access. In addition, the phenomenon of harassment and unofficial costs still exists, creating an invisible burden for private enterprises, reducing production and business efficiency and causing a fear of expanding investment.
Obviously, the development limitations of private enterprises partly stem from the shortcomings of the institutional system, economic policies and the business environment. These bottlenecks not only hinder the growth rate of the private economic sector, causing the contribution of this sector to GDP to remain almost unchanged for more than a decade, but also hinder the economy from increasing added value, escaping the middle-income trap, slowing down the process of making Vietnam a developed country with high income by 2045 according to the Party's Resolution and the People's expectations.
Towards a common vision of the country, the private economy also needs to more clearly define its mission and vision. The private economy must be a pioneer force in the new era, successfully carrying out the cause of industrialization - modernization of the economy, improving national competitiveness, having social responsibility, contributing to improving people's lives, participating in building a civilized and modern society and contributing to building a dynamic and internationally integrated Vietnam. The private economy needs to strive to become a key force, taking the lead in applying technology and innovation and creativity, to achieve the goal of contributing about 70% of GDP by 2030; more and more private enterprises with global competitiveness, mastering technology and deeply integrating into the value chain and international supply chain; together with the whole country building a dynamic, independent, self-reliant, self-reliant and prosperous Vietnam.
For the private economic sector to be able to fulfill its mission and realize that aspirational vision, the most important factor is the need to continue to have breakthrough reforms in institutions, policies and the business environment so that the private economy can maximize its potential, becoming the driving force to lead the economy to reach the international market. A prosperous economy cannot only rely on the state sector or foreign investment, but must rely on internal resources such as a strong private sector, playing a pioneering role in national innovation and development. The national economy is only truly prosperous when the entire population participates in labor to create material wealth, a society where people, households, and everyone is eager to work.
In response to that requirement, we need to thoroughly grasp the orientation of viewpoints and awareness in the entire political system about the role of the private economy as the leading important growth driver of the country. This requires a fundamental change in policy making, overcoming limitations and promoting the superiority of market mechanisms to support the private economic sector in improving labor productivity and innovation. The State must have a management method in accordance with the market mechanism, ensuring freedom of business, property ownership and equal competition of the private economy; remove all barriers, make policies transparent, eliminate group interests in policy making and resource allocation, and not discriminate between the private economic sector and state-owned enterprises and foreign-invested enterprises in all policies. At the same time, consistently holding the viewpoint of "everyone has the right to free trade in industries not prohibited by law", building policies to please investors, businesses and entrepreneurs, needing to create stronger trust between the State and the private economic sector, thereby encouraging businesses to boldly invest, innovate and participate in strategic economic fields.
The upcoming Resolution of the Politburo on the private economy needs to encourage, support and orient the development of the private economy, must create a breakthrough momentum, opening an era of the rise of Vietnamese private enterprises. It is necessary to identify private economic development as a long-term strategy and policy of the country. The private economy along with the state economy and the collective economy are the core group to build an autonomous, self-reliant, and self-reliant economy. In which, focusing on implementing the following key solutions:
First is to continue to accelerate the completion of a complete market economy institution, following the socialist, modern, dynamic and integrated orientation. This is a prerequisite for the private economic sector to develop rapidly and sustainably. To achieve this, the State needs to focus on stabilizing the macro economy, perfecting institutions, ensuring the economy operates according to market principles, minimizing intervention and eliminating administrative barriers, the request-grant mechanism, truly managing the economy according to market principles and using market tools to regulate the economy. In particular, it is necessary to strictly control the situation of exclusive enterprises and policy manipulation, protect healthy competition, and ensure that private enterprises have equal opportunities for development. The core point of perfecting market economic institutions is to harmoniously define the role of the state in the economy, accordingly the State focuses on macro regulation, creating a favorable business environment, ensuring an effective market mechanism, ensuring social justice. The task of promoting private economic development must be considered a task in our heart today.
Second is to effectively protect property rights, ownership rights, freedom of business and ensure contract performance of private enterprises. One of the functions of the State in a modern market economy is to protect the ownership of investors' assets. Therefore, the State needs to build and implement a strict legal mechanism on the protection of property ownership rights, including the right to intellectual property and intangible assets; minimize legal risks, and minimize sudden policy changes that cause losses to businesses. Create a mechanism to support and protect private investors, especially startups and innovative enterprises, helping them feel secure and develop smoothly. In addition, a modern socialist-oriented market economy requires a transparent, effective and efficient contract implementation system, helping businesses feel secure in trade and investment transactions. To do this, the State needs to reform the commercial justice system, shorten the time to resolve contract disputes, reduce costs and risks for businesses, reduce the situation of contracts being violated without effective sanctions; enhance the transparency and efficiency of economic courts and commercial arbitration, ensure fair and objective judgments, help businesses protect their legitimate rights. Strengthen supervision of law enforcement, overcome inconsistency between the central and local governments; strictly handle acts of over-allowing inspection to cause harassment, cause difficulties for businesses, increase private competition, support private economic development. At the same time, resolutely handle violations of the law by businesses; Request businesses to raise their awareness of law compliance, build value and business ethics to promote healthy private economic development.
Third, in addition to strongly consolidating the state-owned enterprise sector, especially state-owned economic groups; it is necessary to prioritize the construction of regional and global private economic groups, actively supporting small and medium enterprises, while supporting the economic components of households and the cooperative economy; encourage private enterprises to participate in the country's strategic areas: practice the viewpoint of the private economy playing an important role in the structure of the socialist-oriented market economy, eliminate the idea of "Pocusing on public rather than private" and the " monopoly" of state-owned enterprises in some areas. Forming and developing large, strong private economic groups with international competitiveness, with the mission of leading and supporting other domestic enterprises to participate deeply in the global value chain. At the same time, there must be a separate policy in supporting small and medium-sized enterprises to develop, as well as the economic components of households and cooperative economies, encouraging business households to convert to enterprises and developing a new and effective cooperative model. In order for the private economy to not only develop in scale but also contribute positively to the long-term development of the country, it is necessary to encourage private enterprises to participate in strategic fields, develop important infrastructure, high technology, spearhead industry and energy security. Expand opportunities for private enterprises in important national projects, participate with the State in a number of strategic industries and a number of special fields, improve research and technological innovation capacity. The State has a policy mechanism for assigning private economic sectors to participate in a number of projects at national high-speed, urgent tasks such as building high-speed railways, urban railways, energy infrastructure, digital infrastructure, defense and security industry, etc.
Fourth is to promote the wave of startups, innovation, digital transformation and the application of new technologies. This is a key factor to help the private economy break through and reach international standards. Strong and effective support policies are needed to promote private enterprises to apply technology, innovate products, and increase added value. The State needs to create a testing legal framework (sandbox) for new technology fields, encourage private enterprises to invest in pioneering fields such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, big data, e-commerce, financial technology (fintech) and smart healthcare... Deploy financial support policies and tax incentives for enterprises to invest in research and development (R&D). Forming a strong startup ecosystem, creating conditions for startups and "technology elephants" named Vietnam to reach international standards.
Fifth is institutional reform, creating an administrative foundation "serving businesses - serving the country": It is necessary to resolutely reform institutions on the basis of innovation in thinking in strongly reforming the administrative foundation towards serving people and businesses; decisively cutting administrative procedures, business conditions, accelerating the digitalization process and applying technology in state management to reduce time, compliance costs, and unofficial costs; Establishing an effective dialogue and policy criticism mechanism, creating conditions for the private business community to participate in giving comments on the economic policy making process, ensuring high practicality and feasibility. Striving to have Vietnam's business environment in the Top 3 ASEAN within the next 3 years.
Sixth is to maximize the release of development resources for the private economy, creating opportunities for the private economy to effectively access important resources such as capital, land, human resources, and technology. Promote private economy to integrate more deeply into the global economy, enhance Vietnam's economic position in the international arena, and protect businesses from economic risks. There should be more effective support policies so that the private economy can access resources in a favorable, fair, equal, transparent and efficient manner, and can exploit and effectively use these resources. Develop capital mobilization channels for private enterprises, including the stock market, corporate bonds, venture capital funds, credit guarantee funds and modern financial forms such as fintech, community capital mobilization; build stable and transparent land policies, creating conditions for private enterprises to access land funds conveniently and at reasonable prices.
The State needs to orient and effectively support Vietnamese private enterprises to participate in the global supply chain, strongly attract investment capital and advanced technology, and form a team of entrepreneurs with a global mindset. In particular, there should be policies to encourage and orient private enterprises to invest in processing, manufacturing, supporting industries, industrializing agriculture, and high technology, instead of focusing too much on real estate and short-term speculative fields. Develop mechanisms and policies to protect private enterprises from economic shocks, especially in the context of global instability, economic recession and market fluctuations.
Seventh is the development of the private economy on a sustainable basis, with business ethics and social responsibility: The State promotes the development of the private economy on a stable macroeconomic basis, closely linked to the green development strategy, circular economy, resource saving, emission reduction and environmental protection. Private enterprises need to proactively fulfill social responsibility, not only stopping at contributing finance or charity, but also demonstrating it through responsible business policies, caring for workers' lives, supporting community development; and practicing transparent and effective governance, building a business culture based on ethics, fighting fraud, ensuring fairness with customers, partners and workers. In addition, private enterprises need to proactively participate in social security programs with the State, contributing to improving social welfare, reducing the gap between rich and poor, contributing to building a civilized, humane, rich and beautiful society, where business interests are associated with the common prosperity of the country.
The private economy plays a very important role in shaping the future of the Vietnamese economy. We all believe that if the State has appropriate institutions, correct policies and a favorable business environment, the private economy will be nurtured for healthy growth and strong breakthroughs, not only helping the economy achieve a high growth rate but also soon turning our country into a high-income economy in the next two decades. This is the time to act, to create a prosperous, dynamic Vietnam that is reaching far and wide in the international arena.
We are living in a historic moment, witnessing the unprecedented development of science and technology and the volatile international environment, both cooperation and struggle, where opportunities and challenges are always in parallel. But with resilience, determination and burning aspiration, Vietnam can completely create a new miracle in socio-economic development! A strong economy is forming, a generation of Vietnamese entrepreneurs are brave and innovative, creative, full of business enthusiasm and patriotism, continuing to write a success story, and a brilliant future, a socialist Vietnam on the shoulders of the world powers as President Ho Chi Minh's wishes, is gradually becoming a reality in the near future.
