VCCI Highlights in 2018

11:26:32 AM | 4/26/2019

In the past year, VCCI has carried out many support activities for the business community.  These activities have helped businesses with pressing legal issues related to international integration

 

 

 

1. GMS Business Summit
 

 

The GMS Business Summit was co-organized by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on March 30, 2018, on the sidelines of the 6th Greater Mekong Subregion Summit (GMS-6) and the 10th Cambodia-Laos-Vietnam Summit on Development Triangle Area (CLV-10). This was the first time the GMS Business Summit was held under the initiative of Vietnam. The event was attended by the President of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the ASEAN Secretary General, the Executive Director of the World Bank (WB) and representatives of nearly 100 international organizations and development partners. In particular, the GMS Business Summit attracted the attendance of more than 2,000 GMS and non-GMS businesses, representatives of nearly 40 Vietnamese provinces and cities and many localities of GMS member countries. About 300 domestic and international reporters attended and reported on the summit.

 

 


The GMS Business Summit focused on urgent issues for GMS development such as defining new drivers of economic growth amid fundamentally changing world economies; developing modern, well-informed agriculture for the region; developing and seeking financial resources for regional infrastructure. Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc attended and chaired the GMS Government – Business Dialogue.

2. Vietnam Business Summit - VBS 2018

 

 

Following the success of VBS 2017 in Da Nang City, VCCI hosted the Vietnam Business Summit 2018 (VBS 2018) on September 13, 2018, on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) on ASEAN 2018. Themed “Vietnam - We mean business: Connect and Innovate”, VBS 2018 emphasized entrepreneurship and Industry 4.0 as new drivers of global economic development.

 

 

 

 


VBS 2018 was attended by more than 1,300 delegates, including over 500 prestigious WEF members; business delegations from the United States, Korea, China, India, Chile and Oman; foreign business leaders in Vietnam, representatives from embassies, diplomatic and economic representative offices and international organizations in Vietnam.
The success of VBS 2018 not only contributed to improving Vietnam's reputation in the international market and promoting Vietnam's image as an important point of global value chains to international investors, but also affirmed the role and brand name of VCCI as a mentor and a bridge for Vietnamese businesses to reach out to the world. This was an important premise for Vietnam to host VBS 2019 and make VBS an important annual event for domestic and foreign business communities.

3. Vietnam - Korea Business Forum

The forum was co-organized by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) and the Korean Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) on the occasion of the visit to Vietnam by South Korean President Moon Jae-in and more than 200 businesses from March 22 to 24, 2018.

The event was joined by more than 750 delegates from Vietnamese and Korean businesses. Major Korean businesses continued to see Vietnam as an attractive investment destination. This forum attracted more attendants than other similar business events held by the two countries. After the visit, many trade and investment promotion activities continued to be implemented by the two countries’ agencies and bring positive results to their business communities.

Following up substantive activities aimed to boost trade and investment, on March 22, 2019, VCCI cooperated with the Ministry of Finance of Vietnam, Korea’s EDAILY Magazine and the Financial Supervisory Service to open the 8th International Economic and Financial Conference.

The event was attended by about 300 delegates from Korea and Vietnam, including Government officials, economic experts, businesspeople and news agencies. It discussed trends and opportunities for strategic economic, financial and insurance cooperation between Vietnam and South Korea, aiming to boost joint growth.

4. Continued business support and development to 2020

VCCI is carrying out Action Program for implementation of Resolution 35/NQ-CP on business support and development to 2020. The agency has carried out all five assigned tasks and worked with central and local authorities, business associations and business community to bring solutions mentioned in the Resolution to fruition.

Proposals from enterprises and business associations focused on such issues as accelerating administrative reform and business facilitation; creating a favorable business environment and supporting business innovation; ensuring business rights and equal rights to access business resources and opportunities; reducing business costs; and protecting legitimate rights and interests of enterprises.

5. National Conference on Sustainable Development

 

 

With the theme “Enhancing Competitiveness, Realizing Sustainable Development Goals amidst Industrial Revolution 4.0”, the National Conference on Sustainable Development aimed to facilitate and promote public-private partnership (PPP) to deliver global sustainable development goals (SDGs) in 2030 by pursuing green growth and facilitating the dissemination and scaling up of global solutions. On this occasion, representatives of the Ministry of Planning and Investment and the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry launched the High-level Forum on Partnering for Green Growth and the Global Goals 2030 or P4G National Forum. After the conference, VCCI had six recommendations for the Government on building policies on national competitiveness improvement, business support for sustainable development and then realization of SDGs.

 

 

 
 


On April 17, 2019, VCCI hosted the Workshop on “Scaling up circular economy models in Vietnam”. This symposium is part of the National Conference on Sustainable Development 2019. Workshop recommendations will be summarized to report at the National Conference scheduled for November 2019.

6. Largest informant and advisor on WTO and important trade agreements for enterprises

In 2018, VCCI carried out many support activities for the business community to learn more about new generation free trade agreements. It consulted the business community on international trade agreements; compiled nine publications and manuals on “Summary of Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP),” “Summary of FTA commitments for footwear businesses,” and “Rules of origin and procedures of origin in underdeveloped countries.” It also boosted communications at 23 seminars and conferences on free trade agreements to which Vietnam is a signatory like CPTPP, ACFTA-AHKFTA and EVFTA. VCCI also contributed 20 reports on remarks, suggestions and research projects on integration; and carried out the Communication Campaign on CPTPP on mass media like VTV1, VTC10, National Assembly Television, newspapers and magazines.

These activities have helped businesses with pressing legal issues related to international integration, particularly the use of anti-dumping, anti-subsidy and safeguard measures in commercial activity in Vietnam and the world.

7. Releasing Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI) 2018 on March 28, 2019

VCCI and USAID have been working together to produce the Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI) report since 2005. For the last 14 years, both Vietnamese policymakers and the private business community have capitalized on the report’s insights. Through its work, PCI has influenced policy priorities and reform choices, generating momentum for policymakers to improve their reform efforts and even positively altering the daily work and management of local officials. The PCI data and analysis empower businesses, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), to speak out about the obstacles they face, even when these barriers involve sensitive issues. The report actively promotes dialogue between local government officials and the business community. PCI continues to be an important driver of economic reform in Vietnam, which contributes to improved economic governance at the provincial level, leading to strong investment and economic growth in Vietnam.

 

 

 

 

 

 

PCI scores have continued to improve over time. In 2018, the PCI index reached an all-time high. The gap between the best and worst performing provinces in both the annual PCI and core PCI rankings has continued to narrow. Some of the governance sub-indices that showed strong improvements include policy biases and administrative reforms while there are modest improvements in access to land, law and order, and proactive leadership.