On February 8, 2006, in Hanoi, VCCI Board of Management held the 7th meeting of the 4th National Congress. The meeting discussed on VCCI activities in 2005, plan of action 2006 as well as the issues raised with the Prime Minister in the following day (Feb. 9, 2006).
2005 is regarded as “bumper crop” for VCCI in promoting trade and investment of local and foreign enterprises. VCCI has organised several market surveys, economic forum, business meetings at home and abroad, especially business missions accompanying Vietnamese leaders’ visits to foreign countries. 2005 is also the first year that VCCI organised “Vietnam Days” in foreign countries starting with the US, Germany and Singapore. It is a comprehensive programme promoting trade, investment, tourism and culture, introducing Vietnamese image to the world.
Beside traditional activities, VCCI has initiated in 2005 the survey on Province Competitiveness Indexes (PCI) of 42 provinces and cities in Vietnam. It shows the increasing difference in economic development of the provinces and also encourages them to improves their competitiveness. Another survey by VCCI shows that nearly 60 per cent of the enterprises have increased their turnover, and 70 per cent of them recorded over 10 per cent. The survey in three consecutive years proves that profit is equally attained in all three groups: small, medium and large enterprises. However, the profit rate remains low: 3.8 per cent in State-owned enterprises, 4.9 per cent in non-State enterprises and 7.8 per cent in foreign invested enterprises.
VCCI has recommended on behalf of the business community many contributions to dozen of laws and sub-laws, especially the unified Enterprise Law and Common Investment Law. Regarding the latter two laws, VCCI has participated from the first draft, reviewing together with UNDP some 800 legal documents. In addition to direct consultation by conferences and seminars nation-wide, VCCI has developed networking to get maximum views of the business community. As a result, over 5,000 enterprises have contributed to the drafting of legal documents.
Regarding the development of enterprises and entrepreneurs, in 2005, VCCI negotiated and concluded with ILO and GTZ (Germany) two projects assisting small and medium sized enterprises and implementing successfully in 8 provinces and cities of Vietnam.
As 2006 is an important year for the socio-economic development of Vietnam with such major events as APEC Summit and WTO accession, VCCI, beside traditional activities, has to organise APEC CEO Summit 2006 and meetings of Business Consulting Council (ABAC). In the same framework, VCCI will organise the meeting of Chambers of Commerce of APEC members.
Nguyen Thoa
Vietnamese
