“In the current context, businesses need to receive messages from the National Assembly and the Government to strengthen and increase business confidence, especially in the domestic private sector,” Dr. Nguyen Dinh Cung, former Director of the Central Institute for Economic Management Research , shared with reporters of the Investment Electronic Newspaper - Baodautu.vn .

Dr. Nguyen Dinh Cung, former Director of the Central Institute for Economic Management

Sir, the 7th session of the 15th National Assembly opened this morning, May 20. It is expected that the National Assembly will consider 39 contents, of which 24 are related to legislative work; 15 contents are related to socio-economics, state budget, supervision and other important issues. As an economic expert, what contents are you interested in?

The content of National Assembly sessions is always awaited, because they will discuss important issues of the country, requiring the decisive voice of the elected body.

But at present, the content that I expect and recommend to be focused on, and may even become a specialized topic in this session, is the issues of Vietnamese private enterprises and ethnic enterprises. I think it is very necessary to see the stories of enterprises on the National Assembly forum.

In the meetings of the Standing Committee preparing for the session, many economic issues and business difficulties were discussed. In particular, the Economic Committee's report on the supplementary assessment of the results of the implementation of the 2023 Socio-Economic Development Plan; the implementation situation in the first months of 2024, the existing difficulties and shortcomings of the economy were frankly and clearly recognized. These are also the issues that economic experts have discussed, with many opinions and recommendations when assessing the economic situation in the first months of 2024. It is necessary for National Assembly deputies to look directly at reality and discuss to make decisions that can change the situation.

That is, economic growth tends to decrease gradually, the quality of economic growth is slowly improved;

Second, the processing and manufacturing industry has slowed down sharply and lost its role as the main driving force of growth while the service sector has not yet proven its role as a growth locomotive.

Third, private investment capital continues to grow at a low rate, and enterprises' production and business activities face many difficulties.

Fourth, credit growth management is still inadequate, bad debt tends to increase, the capital market (corporate bonds and securities) still has many problems, causing the medium and long-term capital demand for the economy to be mostly through bank credit channels, increasing pressure and potential risks for the banking system...

Regarding business activities, the fact that the number of businesses withdrawing from the market is higher than the number of businesses entering and re-entering the market has been mentioned, along with difficulties in production and business activities of businesses...

However, I really hope that the practical difficulties of businesses will be raised by delegates on the National Assembly forum, and will be the main content of the discussions.

As you shared, business issues have been mentioned in the report of the National Assembly's Economic Committee, and will certainly be mentioned in the Government's reports to the National Assembly. So, what issues do you expect to be discussed?

The difficulties of enterprises are not only the regulations on fire prevention and fighting, the difficulties in implementing administrative procedures or the legal problems that are slow to be amended, the problems arising from the fear of making mistakes, avoiding and pushing away work of a part of officials and civil servants... as reported by the Economic Committee, although these are prominent issues.

When working with businesses, the most mentioned thing is why the difficulties and problems that have been identified and have solutions have not been completely resolved. Why is it that every session discusses improving the business environment, but many old problems have been raised, but still exist... Or how have the recommendations of businesses to the National Assembly in previous sessions, such as the story of value-added tax refunds, problems in regulations on fire prevention and fighting, difficulties in accessing credit... been resolved, why do businesses still make recommendations...

National Assembly deputies need to get to the root of this situation, promote existing solutions, and not let existing problems be raised from session to session. The supervisory role of National Assembly deputies is especially important at this time, so that businesses can truly see the understanding and sharing.

In the current context, these are valuable messages to strengthen and increase business confidence for enterprises, especially the domestic private enterprise sector.

In fact, there are many solutions that take time to implement, such as legal problems that require amending laws or regulations, which are difficult to implement quickly...?

I share the difficulties in implementing many solutions. The businesses themselves understand the reality that many of the problems discussed cannot be solved immediately, but only through discussion can there be a chance of resolution. When the difficulties and recommendations of businesses are raised and talked about by many people, it also conveys a message of trust.

In fact, to improve the current business environment, there have been countless heated debates, which are not peaceful; but the important thing is that the difficulties, obstacles, and problems must be put on the discussion table...

In particular, I propose that in this session, National Assembly delegates should also discuss the implementation of Resolution 41-NQ/TW of the Politburo. The Government has an action plan, but it also requires the participation of the entire political system. Enterprises need a solid foundation to find opportunities for recovery...

Specifically, what contents of Resolution 41-NQ/TW need to be discussed at the National Assembly Forum, sir?

Resolution 41-NQ/TW has requested to urgently review, promptly, fully and synchronously institutionalize the Party's guidelines and policies on developing the team of entrepreneurs and the business community; continue to perfect the development institutions, the socialist-oriented market economy institutions, laws on ownership, freedom of business, protection of legal property rights, startups, supplement appropriate economic sanctions to handle violations, not criminalize economic relations...

Ensuring a stable, synchronous, unified, transparent and equal legal framework, especially in accessing resources on land, finance and technology; implementing the public-private partnership method; promoting innovation, taking people and businesses as the center and service objects; controlling and eliminating privileges and monopolies in production and business...

Promote the role of elected bodies, the Vietnam Fatherland Front and socio-political organizations in supervising the implementation of policies and laws related to entrepreneurs and enterprises.

It must also be said that there are many contents of Resolution 41 that need to be clarified in order to be implemented in practice. For example, what is the non-criminalization of economic relations, and what are the solutions for implementation? Or what kind of large enterprises should be supported, large-scale enterprises or enterprises with technology and competitive capacity...? These are difficult tasks, but the more difficult it is, the more it needs to be discussed, from theory to practice, in order to reach consensus and implement. If there is no discussion, it will be difficult to put the resolution into practice.

This is also the responsibility and duty of National Assembly deputies.

What is your opinion on the policy solutions to support businesses and promote economic recovery that the Government will present to the National Assembly in this session?

The Government has submitted a Proposal to the National Assembly for consideration and permission to continue implementing the policy of reducing 2% value-added tax (VAT) rates for a number of groups of goods and services currently subject to a 10% VAT rate in the last 6 months of 2024; continue to consider reducing corporate income tax, special consumption tax, personal income tax; reduce the collection of a number of fees and charges and reduce land rent as applied in 2023 to continue to remove difficulties and support production and business activities...

These solutions are necessary, but I think the irrigation deadline should be extended until 2025, because the situation is still difficult and businesses need real support. Determining a long deadline shows the Government and the National Assembly's understanding of businesses' expectations, but also gives businesses the conditions and basis to calculate longer-term business problems.

Along with that, the problems and difficulties that businesses have proposed need to be thoroughly resolved and should be considered a focus from now until the end of the term.