(VOVworld)- Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, 4 Deputy Prime Ministers, 9 Ministers and major city committee chairs held a dialogue with the business community on Monday. With Vietnamese enterprises struggling with capital, policies and markets, the dialogue hopes to address their concerns and help them develop sustainably and achieve the socio-economic development tasks set for 2014 and 2015..

The annual dialogue has become an important forum for enterprises to share their concerns in business and production. Their major concerns include tax policies and access to funding, market and land for production.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung addresses a dialogue with enterprises- Photo:chinhphu.vn

The government and enterprises share difficulties

About 500 delegates, including 400 private businesses, 50 direct foreign invested businesses, and 20 state-owned enterprises will participate in the dialogue with the Prime Minister. They will discuss issues related to the corporate economy. Speaking to VOV prior to the dialogue, Vu Tien Loc, Chairman of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said that the Vietnamese economy and enterprises are entering a new development period, in which a modern and sustainable economic structure is vital. At this dialogue, the Prime Minister hopes to discuss breakthroughs in mechanisms. Loc says: “This dialogue is very important. Once the macro-economy has been stabilized, it is important to help enterprises overcome their difficulties and contribute to the quality of economic growth. Over the past few days, we have received more than 300 recommendations which have been forwarded to relevant ministries and sectors and reported to the Prime Minister. A number of of enterprises’ concerns will be addressed at this dialogue”.

Many enterprises report that they have trouble accessing credit capital. Only 32% of questioned enterprises said they can access bank credit regularly. More than 35% said they can access credit but with difficulty. The remaining 33% can’t access credits at all. According to the Association of small and medium-sized enterprises, from 2012 to September 2013, only a few enterprises were guaranteed loans from commercial banks, so many of them faced a lot of difficulties. Do Anh Tuan is Director of the Phuoc Tien Seafood Import and Export Company in Da Nang city: “Our company has signed a contract worth about 60,000 USD with a Japanese partner, but it is very difficult for us to access credit. We really hope the bank will take into consideration our development history, our contributions, our markets and our potential development. If we have potential for development, we should be helped”.

Ensuring fair competition and sustainable growth

According to an overview report on current enterprise status and socio-economic development tasks for 2014-2015, state-owned enterprises are playing a leading role in economic development, but in the long term, the sector will be the driving force for the national economy.

The private sector has taken over the lead in GDP from the state economic sector. At this dialogue, the Prime Minister will focus on facilitating the development of enterprises in general and the private sector in particular. The dialogue will also focus on ensuring the freedom of businesses and fair competition. Mr. Loc says it is necessary to create more favorable conditions for the establishment, investment and operation of businesses: “It is important to ensure an open and fair business environment. We need more incentives and support measures to help small and medium sized enterprises overcome their difficulties. There should be special programs for these enterprises to access resources, science and technology. The government, VCCI and the Ministry of Science and Technology have jointly organized seminars to connect scientists to help SMEs improve their competitiveness”.

The Vietnamese national economy and enterprises are entering a new development period. In addition to international integration, Vietnam really needs an economic sector that is capable of acquiring new technology and becoming partners of trans-national economic groups. The dialogue between the Prime Minister and enterprises in 2014 reflects the government’s attention to enterprises and motivating enterprises, particularly in the private sector, to overcome their difficulties and contribute to national economic development.