Thái Hương, Chairwoman of TH Group:

“I am grateful to the Government for issuing a set of standards for school milk.  However, we are still lacking a School Milk Steering Committee. Milk consumed in schools today has still not met the standards of school milk as set by the Government.

I also suggest that the Government promulgate standards for milk in general, as it not only involves children’s health but also the health of all people. To date, a set of standards for fluid milk is still absent, despite the fact that the Ministry of Health have garnered opinions from enterprises and the public in this matter.

For Việt Nam to become ‘the world’s kitchen’, we have to do things right in the domestic market. A set of standards for milk is essential to ensure fair competition among enterprises, business ethics and social responsibility.”

Nguyễn Văn Đệ

Nguyễn Văn Đệ, Chairman of Hợp Lực  JSC, Chairman of Việt Nam’s Private Hospital Association

“From a private investor’s point of view, I think the Government should not allow building private hospitals inside the precinct of public hospitals because foreseen consequences are corruption, illicit benefit sharing, and losses of State resources. Building a private hospital inside a public one in each province will ‘choke to death’ dozens of other private hospitals. We propose the Government make policy adjustments in this issue and have more policies to encourage entrepreneurs to invest in the health sector to lessen the overloading of public hospitals.

Private hospitals diagnose and treat impoverished patients well. However, since the Government issued a policy to subsidise poor patients with travel and food allowance, there has been a new policy to assign the task to public hospitals only, citing the reason that it is a political task. It is irrational. Legal policies should treat private and public sector fairly.”

Trần Hùng Việt

Trần Hùng Việt, CEO of Saigon Tourist

“Regional tourism planning and development planning of each locality lack ‘a common voice’. Local planning is incomplete; it is out of sync, and that leads to unsubstantial development. As a result, enterprises face many difficulties.

There has been a surge in infrastructure development to serve tourism, whereas human resource training has not been on par. It is essential that ministries and industries pay attention to human resource planning.

We also propose to increase the fund to support tourism development. The Vietnamese tourism ministry is granted a budget of US$2 million a year, while that of Thailand and Malaysia is $80 million and $61 million, respectively. Tourism promotion activities are still limited due to the tight budget. So we suggest that enterprises contribute more to the fund, alongside the State. It is also necessary to have a policy to encourage private sector to invest in developing tourism at rural and remote areas.”

Đinh Thị Mỹ Loan

Đinh Thị Mỹ Loan, Chairwoman of Việt Nam Retailers Association

“Our association proposes the Government add retail industry, including all kinds of retailers, to the list of ‘preferential investment sectors and industries’ as an independent industry, not inside the infrastructure sector like what is now. We also think there are some kinds of retail services--including convenience stores, grocery stores, specialised stores--that should be added to the list of services that receive preferential investment policy, besides those already being included like supermarkets or shopping malls.

We propose the Government allow us to compile and submit to the Government a trade promotional programme to find markets for our products. In the meantime, we suggest that retailing enterprises, retailing households, retail-related organisations and association are also subject to on-going industrial and agricultural promotional programmes taking effect until 2020. Efforts should be spent to improve the competence and competitiveness of the industry.” — VNS