HCM City – The Vietnamese business community is known as a group of hard-working and creative people, but linkages among the community’s members and connections between the business community and authorities are not developed enough to internationally integrate and compete.

Opening the fifth CEO Forum 2016 with the theme: “Linking Việt Strengths – Time to Walk the Talk”, HCM City’s Party General Secretary Đinh La Thăng said “City authorities welcome all development contributions from the business community and investors, and pledge to promote innovation for a better business environment.”

At the forum, the secretary asked the business community: “How can you connect with local authorities in order to create better, more transparent and fair policies for the healthy development of businesses?”

Referring to connections among local authorities and the business community, Nguyễn Thành Phong, chairman of HCM City People’s Committee, admitted that somewhere, somehow the connection is weak, but he confirmed that local authorities would like to support the business community with detailed policies and activities.

“The responsibility of the authorities is to create policies and the responsibility of businesses is to maximise the advantages of these policies,” Phong said.

Lawyer Trương Trọng Nghĩa, a member of the Government Advisory Lawyer Board, stressed that local businesses must unite immediately to compete well in the context of deeper international integration.

“One of weakest points of the Vietnamese business community is they don’t work together and we must fix this situation,” he said.

Nghĩa also requested the Government stop all kinds of “buddy” relationships in business.

“The Government should be the captain of the local business community in international markets, but a fair referee in domestic ones. It should create a healthy business environment with healthy competition,” he added.

Chairman and CEO of the U&I Investment Corporation confirmed that “Vietnamese businesses are fully able to work together. At present, there are hundreds of projects implemented to boost linkages among businesses.”

“But a transparent, fair, effective and explainable government is what we expect,” he added.

In Việt Nam, where 96 per cent of businesses are small- or medium-sized and with limited competitiveness, linkages to strengthen competitiveness are particularly necessary, especially in the context of international integration.

By 2020, Việt Nam would like to have one million enterprises, in which, half are expected to be located in HCM City.

“The city won’t focus only on the number of enterprises but also quality. Vietnamese businesses should be based on three foundations: national pride, business ethics and obeying the law,” chairman Phong stressed.

There were nearly 1,000 CEOs from HCM City and other provinces at the forum.

The annual event is organised by the HCM City Young Business Association, Leading Business Association, 2030 Businessmen Club and Business Association of Việt Nam High-quality Products. -- VNS