Hundreds of Proposals from Businesses at the Local Round of the 2025 Private Economic Forum: Many Issues Addressed Promptly.

Ms. Pham Thi Bich Hue, Vice President of the Vietnam Young Entrepreneurs Association and Head of the Organizing Committee of the Vietnam Private Economic Forum 2025, shared that as of August 8, 2025, the Forum has successfully conducted local dialogue rounds in three regional clusters: North Central, Northeastern mountainous, and Southwestern regions.

These local dialogue sessions have gathered hundreds of opinions and recommendations from the business community to promote the development of the private economic sector in the new phase.

Ms. Hue, Head of the Organizing Committee of the Vietnam Private Economic Forum 2025, pointed out that a common challenge faced by businesses in many localities is their small to very small scale, resulting in weak competitiveness. Access to capital, land, and high-quality human resources remains difficult. These are issues that businesses frankly acknowledged in their role as a growth driver in the economy. Therefore, the focus is on improving the competitiveness of enterprises.

For instance, recommendations include perfecting the institution and legal framework for private economic development; promoting the equal and proactive participation of the private sector in national development programs; strengthening government support for businesses, and establishing substantive public-private partnerships.

Specifically, this involves reviewing and amending important laws such as the Law on Bidding, Law on Public Investment, Enterprise Law, Land Law, PPP Law, and Planning Law to remove legal barriers that restrict the participation of private enterprises in state-owned sectors, national target programs, infrastructure development projects, and digital transformation.

In addition, enterprises also proposed supplementing mechanisms to encourage substantive public-private partnerships (PPPs), especially risk-sharing mechanisms, credit support, and revenue guarantees for private enterprises participating in public projects. They also suggested enacting decrees tailored to regional, industry, and enterprise scale characteristics, instead of applying uniform policies, to encourage dynamism, flexibility, and creativity at the grassroots level.

Another recommendation is to consider focused tax incentive policies, such as exempting or reducing corporate income taxes for innovative startups, high-tech enterprises, and green economy businesses in the initial stages. Simplifying VAT refund procedures to accelerate capital turnover for enterprises was also proposed.

Notably, many businesses shared challenges stemming from infrastructure and regional connectivity inconsistencies. Some enterprises reflected that after the implementation of the two-tier local government model, procedures related to infrastructure investment, construction permits, or land clearance were prolonged due to the need for approvals from multiple agencies, while a centralized and unified coordination mechanism is lacking.

Ms. Hue informed that the discussion sessions included the participation of leaders from provincial/municipal People’s Committees, representatives of departments and sectors. Many specific issues raised by enterprises were resolved, answered, or directed for handling. Numerous recommendations and proposals from enterprises have been acknowledged by the localities.

“The local and cluster-based discussion model reflects the strong demand for dialogue and exchange between businesses and the government. Many issues cannot be handled within a single locality and require the involvement of multiple regions… This is a pressing issue that has emerged following the merger of provinces and cities and the implementation of the two-tier local government model…”, she added.

This is why we are also proposing the organization of regular public-private dialogues at different levels. As localities, ministries, and the government are in the process of perfecting mechanisms and policies, it is crucial to include more business voices in policy advisory councils, legislative drafting teams, and provincial and district People’s Councils to ensure that law-making reflects the practical production and business situation,” said the Head of the Organizing Committee of the Vietnam Private Economic Forum 2025.

On August 9, the Northwest cluster dialogue round was held in Phu Tho province. In August, in addition to the six local discussion sessions, the Vietnam Private Economic Forum 2025 also held three specialized sessions on Legal Issues, Innovative Startup & Go Global, directly engaging thousands of private entrepreneurs/enterprises nationwide.

The opinions gathered from enterprises, industries, and localities in each session will be synthesized by the Forum’s Secretariat into a comprehensive report to be submitted to the Government and relevant agencies. This will contribute to improving mechanisms and policies, creating a conducive environment for the private economic sector to thrive, in line with Resolution 68-NQ/TW of the Politburo.