Prime Minister’s Dialogue with Businesses: Unlocking the Potential of Vietnam’s Private Sector

Also attending the Dialogue at the Government Office were Deputy Prime Ministers Tran Hong Ha, Ho Duc Phoc, leaders of ministries, sectors and central agencies.

The Dialogue took place in a direct and online form to the headquarters of the People’s Committees of provinces and centrally-run cities, with the participation of more than 1,000 delegates representing businesses, business associations, business households, cooperatives… to listen to contributions, recommendations on policies, tasks, and solutions to develop the private economy in the coming time, thereby affirming the position and role of the private economy, making an important contribution to the rapid and sustainable socio-economic development.

Inauguration of the National Legal Portal

Right before the Dialogue, the Prime Minister performed the inauguration ceremony of the National Legal Portal to accompany people and businesses to a new era.

Speaking at the event, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said that after the Conference on the implementation of Resolutions 66 and 68, the Prime Minister had exchanged and answered some questions of some delegates, but many delegates still wanted to have more opinions. Therefore, the Prime Minister directed the organization of a dialogue with businesses on the implementation of Resolution 68.

The Prime Minister said that if in the past we had the art of people’s war, guerrilla warfare to win in the struggle for national independence and reunification, now, when the country is at peace, we must develop the country, build an independent, self-reliant economy. Therefore, it is necessary to launch a movement of “the whole people to get rich” to mobilize all resources for national development.

The Prime Minister highly appreciated the construction and inauguration of the National Legal Portal right before the Dialogue, with the spirit of “each job is a joy for the people, for businesses, for society”.

Establishment of the National Steering Committee for the implementation of Resolution 68-NQ/TW of the Politburo

Opening the Dialogue, Minister-Chairman of the Government Office Tran Van Son announced Decision No. 1055/QD-TTg dated May 30, 2025 of the Prime Minister on the establishment of the National Steering Committee for the implementation of Resolution 68-NQ/TW of the Politburo.

Speaking at the opening of the Dialogue, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh said that right after the Politburo issued Resolution 68, the Government submitted to the National Assembly for the issuance of Resolution 198 on a number of special mechanisms and policies to develop the private economy; The Government issued an action program and an action plan of the Government to implement the Resolution.

The Prime Minister said that after the Conference on May 18 to implement Resolutions 66 and 68 of the Politburo, the Prime Minister had exchanged and answered some questions of some delegates, but many delegates still wanted to have more opinions. Therefore, the Prime Minister directed the organization of a dialogue with businesses and business associations on the implementation of Resolution 68.

The Prime Minister clearly stated that the Resolutions of the Politburo, the National Assembly, and the Government are very consistent and comprehensive, the issue is that the greatest desire is to organize the implementation effectively and really with the spirit of “thinking deeply and doing big”, having the most effective way, promoting the best capacity of nearly 1 million enterprises, 5 million business households, each contributing, each contributing, then the whole society will have a large resource to “change the state, turn the situation”, bringing the country to develop quickly and sustainably.

The Prime Minister proposed to clearly define what the State must do, what local governments must do, what businesses must do, and what the people must do to implement the Resolutions of the Politburo, the National Assembly, and the Government on developing the private economy; promote solidarity and unity to work together, with the spirit of “the Party has directed, the Government has agreed, the National Assembly has agreed, the people have supported, the country is expecting, so just discuss doing, not retreating”.

Presenting a report on the development of the private economy, Deputy Minister of Finance Le Tan Can said: Resolution 68/NQ-TW proposes 08 groups of tasks and solutions reflecting the spirit of innovation, breakthrough, and strong reform, ensuring close adherence to the 03 strategic breakthroughs (on institutions, human resources, and infrastructure) and in the overall 04 Resolutions of the Politburo that the General Secretary has concluded as the “four pillars”.

To quickly bring Resolution 68-NQ/TW of the Politburo and Resolution 198/2025/QH15 of the National Assembly into life, Deputy Minister Le Tan Can proposed to focus on implementing the following tasks:

Ministries, branches and localities

urgently develop and issue plans to implement Resolution 138/NQ-CP and Resolution 139/NQ-CP, in which specific tasks are assigned with clear deadlines for implementing units to ensure the principle of 6 clarity: “clear people, clear jobs, clear responsibilities, clear authority, clear time, and clear results”.

Focus resources to organize the implementation of assigned tasks to ensure progress, effectiveness, and quality.

Business associations and businesses

actively strengthen capacity and effectiveness, promote the role of representing, bridging between the business community and management agencies; promote the role of social criticism in policy-making. Propagate and mobilize businesses to practice business ethics and culture. Proactively propose to participate in support programs for businesses.

Enterprises and business households

must operate in accordance with the law, build business ethics and culture, be honest and upright, and have social responsibility; eliminate the mentality of doing business “choppily”, illegally; renew business thinking, improve capacity, quality, accumulate knowledge and experience, support each other, unite, and develop together. Large enterprises must strive, pioneer, and lead small and medium-sized enterprises. Small and medium-sized enterprises must have the mindset of developing into large and medium-sized enterprises.

Mr. Nguyen Van Than, Chairman of the Vietnam Association of Small and Medium Enterprises: Resolution 68 of the Politburo on developing the private economy shows unprecedented breakthroughs in the concept and thinking about developing the private economy. The Resolution has set out specific goals, tasks, and breakthrough solutions, focusing on the core issues to promote the rapid and sustainable development of the private economy.

Notably, just 12 days after the issuance of Resolution 68 of the Politburo, the Government quickly issued Resolution 138 on the specific action plan. At the same time, the National Assembly also issued Resolution 198 on special mechanisms and policies to promote the development of the private economy. This is an unprecedented step, reflecting the determination and unanimity of the Party and the State in supporting and developing the private economy.

The current focus is to institutionalize the resolutions into specific mechanisms and policies with high feasibility in practice, to create practical results, in line with the set goals.

We are fully aware of the mission, role, and responsibility of the Association in implementing the resolutions of the Party and the State, as well as in practical life. Specifically, the Association commits to cooperate, coordinate, and support the Government agencies, ministries, and branches in implementing specific action programs, focusing on each group of small, medium, and super small enterprises, and especially promoting the transformation from business households to the business model.

In Resolution 138 on the Government’s action plan and Resolution 198 of the National Assembly on special policies to develop the private economy, the requirements, tasks, and progress of policy formulation and implementation have been clearly stated. The Association commits to carefully study these resolutions to effectively implement them in practice, contributing to the sustainable development of the business community and the national economy.

I would like to propose some key solutions related to the community of small and medium-sized enterprises, focusing on two main groups of issues:

First, the Government needs to urgently develop and concretize mechanisms and policies suitable for each group of enterprises according to their scale, including small, medium, and small enterprises, and especially business households. These policies need to ensure appropriateness, feasibility, and effectiveness in practice, creating favorable conditions for these groups of enterprises to develop sustainably.

Second, the Government needs to assign specific tasks to the Vietnam Association of Small and Medium Enterprises, while clearly orienting the role of the Association in coordinating with state agencies. This is to promote the rapid and strong development of the community of small and medium-sized enterprises, especially in mobilizing and supporting the transformation from business households to the business model.

To concretize the resolutions and promote the development of the private economy, the Vietnam Association of Small and Medium Enterprises proposes some key solutions as follows:

First, it is necessary to speed up the process of removing administrative procedure barriers and changing the management thinking from prohibition to development, as the Prime Minister has emphasized. Specifically, the program to cut and simplify administrative procedures related to production and business activities in 2025 and 2026 needs to set a specific target to cut unnecessary procedures, ensuring independence from administrative boundaries. To objectively, transparently, and independently evaluate the effectiveness, we propose to establish an independent research and reporting unit, including representatives from state agencies and business associations.

Second, it is necessary to focus on supporting small and medium-sized enterprises to access key resources, including: Land and production premises; Finance and preferential credit; Application of science and technology, innovation and digital transformation; Training and development of high-quality human resources.

These issues have been clearly stated in the resolutions of the National Assembly, including Resolution 198 with three specific action programs and Resolution 138 on the Government’s action plan. The specific tasks have been assigned to each ministry, branch, and locality, reflecting the timeliness and great efforts of the Government.

To continue supporting small and medium-sized enterprises, especially business households, we propose some specific solutions:

First, it is proposed that the Government consider abolishing or amending Directive 07/CT-TTg dated March 2, 2012 related to production and business establishments that were licensed before the formation of industrial parks. Currently, tens of thousands of production and business establishments, especially business households, are facing difficulties due to regulations related to this Directive. If there is no timely solution, many establishments are at risk of having to close down due to a lack of time to transition or meet new requirements. We propose that the Government consider extending the transition time, which can be 1-2 years, for business households to have enough time to gradually transition to a suitable model, avoiding disruption of production and business activities. The relocation of production and business establishments to industrial clusters or industrial parks, we agree that this is the right direction in the long term. However, in the current period, there needs to be a reasonable roadmap and transition time to support business households, especially millions of workers who depend on these establishments. Issues related to fire prevention and fighting, the environment, and other legal regulations need to be solved flexibly, creating conditions for business households to continue operating while preparing for the transition.

Regarding the transformation of business households into the business model, the Association fully supports this direction and commits to accompany the Government. However, to effectively implement this, we propose that the Government build a specific support package, including