Hanoi (VNA) - Theprivate sector in Vietnam should receive support to become a pillar of thenational economy, said Nguyen Thi Nga, Chairwoman of BRG Group.
Nga spoke at a forum on how todevelop private enterprises in Vietnam in the capital city of Hanoi on December19. The forum was jointly held by the Party Central Committee’s EconomicCommission and the Vietnam Association of Private Entrepreneurs.
Nga, who is also the standingvice president of the association, said: “Vietnam should be developed as aregional financial and industrial centre. It is time to take advantageof capital flows from China due to trade tensions between the US andChina.”
To do that, Nga said: “TheGovernment should ensure fair competition among economic sectors in Vietnam.”
Nga asked the Government toincrease protection for private enterprises and allow them to participatein railroads, electricity transmission and aviation infrastructure, whichremain State monopolies.
The BRG chairwoman said:“Private enterprises have enough experience and resources to develop largeprojects, which can help the Government reduce public debt.”
The digital economy was also amajor topic discussed at the forum.
Nguyen Thanh Luu, head ofMarketing Communications at the CMC Group, thought IT was key for Vietnamto develop faster.
As a private firm in thetechnology sector, CMC’s leader proposed that the Government should encourageprivate businesses to develop Vietnam as a digital country and a digital hubfor the region.
Luu said: “The Governmentshould create policies to develop the local IT industry. For example, thereshould be policies to encourage the local use of Vietnamese IT products.”
Luu wanted the Government tohelp the private sector expand into the international market and take partin big projects in Vietnam.
Nguyen Mai, Chairman of theVietnam Association of Foreign Investment Enterprises (VAFIE), said toachieve the goal of becoming a high middle-income country by 2030with a per capita income of 10,000 USD, Vietnam should support the privatesector.
Mai gave the example of brandssuch as Apple, Google, Microsoft and Facebook in the US, as well asSamsung, Hyundai and LG in the Republic of Korea (RoK), saying that the US and theRoK developed into big economies thanks to their supporting policies todevelop private enterprises in IT.
He added that the digitaleconomy was a driving force for development in the US, but only accounts for9.2 percent of the economy in Vietnam.
Mai suggested theGovernment should invest more in IT and human resources for the private sectorso they could do similar things.
So far, the private sector,with more than 700,000 firms, has generated 40 percent of GDPand created 1.2 million jobs. In the first nine months of 2019,the sector’s investment hit 624.6 trillion VND (27.1 billion USD), up16.9 percent on-year, and also the highest investment level compared to theState-owned and the foreign-invested sectors./.