Prime minister to hold video conference with businesses tomorrow

The press conference announcing the video conference between the prime minister and the businesses community

At a press conference yesterday held at the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI), Deputy Minister Vu Dai Thang said that the PM's conference with the business community is important to collect opinions to boost the economy as well as show solidarity to all local and foreign-invested businesses in the country.

"We would like to listen to the opinions and advice of the business community to the government, ministries, and agencies to build and perfect mechanisms and the policy framework supporting businesses. The government, ministries, and agencies will also deliver messages and make commitments related to developing the business environment," Deputy Minister Thang added.

The video conference aims to encourage the business community amidst the difficulties of the global health crisis, as well as express the commitment of the government and the prime minister to resolve difficulties, seize opportunities, and recover business operations.

Thus, the conference plans to focus on four major content. First, it will assess the general impacts of COVID-19 on business activities, then estimate the impact of supporting policies on the lives of people and the operation of businesses.

Third, the conference will identify opportunities for development in the new landscape, strengthen restructuring and innovation among businesses to adapt to the pandemic, and promote sustainable and autonomous economic development.

Fourth, the ministries, agencies, localities, and especially businesses will be invited to share their opinions and make recommendations to the government related to solutions for the recovery and evolution after the pandemic, concentrating on supply chains, as well as effectively exploiting the domestic market, preparing local material resources, and promoting promising sectors (digital economy, digital transformation, and health equipment/products).

According to a survey of 130,000 businesses of the General Statictics Office conducted at the end of April, 86 per cent of respondents suffered negative impacts from the pandemic. Large businesses (making up 2.8 per cent of total respondents) suffered the heaviest impacts, while micro-businesses (accounting for 62.6 per cent) experienced the smallest impacts.

Businesses revenue in the first quarter dropped to 74.1 per cent against last year and is anticipated to decline to 70 per cent in the first four months.

The decision to hold the conference came after Vietnam has reported no community transmission of COVID-19 for nearly three weeks and the country is striving to reboot its economy, after growth slowed to 3.82 per cent in the first quarter of 2020.

The Ministry of Planning and Investment will be responsible for collecting enterprises’ opinions and reports from ministries, agencies, local authorities, and trade associations. It is also tasked with preparing the documents for the conference and formulating a government action plan based on the inputs from the conference.