Economic growth and business development are regarded as the key to creating jobs and maintaining livelihoods for the people, which will improve their incomes and boost domestic consumption.

It is undeniable that business registration has witnessed positive signs in recent months but the number of new and returning companies still dropped by 1.4% from a year ago, while those withdrawing from the market rose by nearly 20%. The average registered capital and staff levels also fell sharply with no signs of rebounding.

Statistical data suggested that at the moment, the resilience of many enterprises, especially small and medium-sized ones, has reached its limits. Recently, the Government has focused on addressing a number of existing issues of the economy and proactively dealing with emerging issues. As a result, the business community’s confidence in the investment environment has been bolstered.

However, according to experts, the economy is facing unprecedented challenges, requiring further synchronous measures to create an synergy that is strong enough to remove the bottlenecks that are hindering development, and to effectively tap into business support resources.

In addition to the task of stabilising the macroeconomy and curbing inflation, it is necessary to pay more attention to addressing the difficulties facing businesses, especially to improving their access to and absorption of capital, improving the business environment, enhancing productivity, implementing the signed free trade agreements effectively and renovating trade promotion activities to increase exports.

For now, the introduction of any regulations that cause further difficulties and increase compliance costs for enterprises should be avoided, while the bottlenecks concerning value-added tax return and fire prevention regulations should be handled immediately.

International experience and the reality in Vietnam show that whenever the economy is adversely affected by external factors, there must be strong drivers at home coming from business reforms. Only when the major bottlenecks are removed can production and business activities be revived.