Fair Competition Needed to Build on Post-WTO Investment

On June 5, 2008 Mrs Dang Thi Hoang Yen, Chairwoman of the Management Board of Tan Tao Group during the Business Forum, gave a speech entitled “WTO investment – the Strategy of attraction and effective investments” to the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI).

Progressively standardized macro development policies have brought new opportunities for non-State enterprises to implement their full capacities. In the case of the Tan Tao Group, for example, prior to Vietnam’s accession to the WTO (2007), the Group only invested in 4 industrial parks creating 30,000 employees comprising 60% of women.

However, since Vietnam became the 150th member of the WTO the Tan Tao Group has attracted large investment capital from top foreign investors who have become strategic shareholders of the group, assisting Tan Tao Group with financial and human resources. Accordingly, Tan Tao Group has been entrusted by the Government of Vietnam to invest and develop more than 40 nation-scale projects across the country including the largest 4,400MW Electric Thermo Center in Vietnam; a water sanitation plant with a capacity of 300,000 cubic meters per day; deep sea ports capable of receiving ships of up to 120,000 tons; urban zones; modern Cities; and industrial parks thus creating hundreds of thousands of stable jobs in the 5 coming years. This was what, previously, none of non-State enterprises dared to dream of.

Mrs Dang Thi Hoang Yen – Chairwoman of the Management Board of Tan Tao Group shares business experiences with entrepreneurs

However, to speed up the international economic integration of Vietnam and to continue to attract strong foreign investment as a means of realising domestic potential, Mrs Hao made several suggestions to the Government.

1. "To step up efforts to improve macro policies in order to create a fair playground for non-State, foreign-invested and State-owned enterprises. Gradually removing the “RESTRICTED AREAS” for non-State owned enterprises and “SPECIAL PRIVILEGES AND ADVANTAGES” for State-owned enterprises. Only such measures will help the economy of Vietnam to reach its transparent competition and to secure sustainable development."

1. "To renovate and to improve the financial and monetary policies to facilitate the development and integration of the financial and capital market in Vietnam. In the short term, the Government should study ways to speed up the interconnection with financial, capital markets in regions including Singapore, Hong Kong…etc in the progress of integrating into global markets. This interconnection will provide a powerful driving force to help Vietnam restructure its banking system and improve financial and monetary policies… in accordance with international standards to create the climate of confidence in the international financial milieu, in foreign and domestic investors."

"To restrict the macroeconomic management via administrative interference; to clearly specify the roles and responsibilities of individual Heads of macro-management institutions. In reality, financial market, securities and banks have been significantly interfered by administrative measures, consequently jeopardizing foreign investors’ confidence in Vietnam."

1. "To draw and promote the advantage of having young population: 70 percent of Vietnam population < 30 years old. The Government should issue transparent policies to attract talented persons in the State management. Vietnamese people are recognized as intelligent, laborious, hard-working, however and for long time, these assets haven’t been properly evaluated; a good evaluation would help to release their creativity and see their devotion promoted. Recently, a Vietnamese Corporation organized a contest to recruit a General Director, which is regarded as a good signal to be widely applied to motivate talented and good persons to take part in the management and the economic development of the country."

1. "In recent years, the State has shown good respect for enterprises with significant contributions to the development of the country. Therefore, a problem, the criminalization of economic activities, previously became an obsession of enterprises but now has been lessened. Executive bodies should define: enterprise‘s activities should develop according to economic rules and must be regulated by the law, shouldn’t be interfered and criminalized…, and the Government should attempt to make Vietnam‘s enterprises act as in developed countries: Only care about taxation agencies, not afraid of the police."

"The above are our suggestion that we would like to propose to the Government and to the macro-economy policy management institutions of Vietnam."

Speaker: Mrs. Dang Thi Hoang Yen – Chairwoman of Tan Tao Group.