ASEAN BAC Vietnam Bridging Enterprises with ASEAN Governments

ASEAN BAC was established on a basis of a meeting of ASEAN leaders, who recognised that enterprises are the vanguard force in implementing policies of the ASEAN governments. Therefore, the governments proposed the establishment of the council. Each government would nominate three members of ASEAN BAC with one representing the country’s business community; one, the production sector and one, the service sector.

ASEAN BAC Vietnam mainly gathers and submits inputs and comments of the Vietnamese business community to the Vietnamese and ASEAN governments, providing advice for governments when they issue policies on the business community.

 

Also, ASEAN BAC Vietnam provides advice on policies of ASEAN countries to improve the competitiveness of enterprises of each country and the whole region. At present, competitiveness of ASEAN countries remains weaker than developed countries, trademarks of ASEAN enterprises have yet to become strong enough. Therefore, they should co-operate to develop some prestigious trademarks to improve their competitiveness in the world market.

During the country’s accession to the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the improvement of competitiveness is very important for Vietnamese enterprises. At present, the Vietnamese business community remains small and has just a handful famous trademarks and small market share. However, there has been a sign of a change for the better in the local market. According to the results of a survey conducted by VCCI, among famous trademarks availabe in Vietnam, trademarks of Vietnamese enterprises account for over 50 per cent out of 500 surveyed enterprises.

 

However, Vietnamese enterprises have many weaknesses and have to change. The productivity of Vietnamese enterprises, in particular State-owned enterprises, for example, remains poor. In fact, they have many workers but value added and contribution to GDP created and made by the workers are still poor. This is the main reason for a poor competitiveness of Vietnamese enterprises.

 

Furthermore, low wages have produced a negative impact on workers’ morale. Low labour costs represent an advantage and a disadvantage, which should be addressed to improve the living standard of the workers.

In addition, Vietnamese enterprises remain weak in marketing, pricing, production promotion, and distribution development. A change for the better of the issues needs huge human and financial resources. In the short term, ASEAN BAC will promote co-operation among those industries of high competitiveness of ASEAN.

The first task is to perfect the organisation system of ASEAN BAC Vietnam. Apart from the establishment of ASEAN BAC Vietnam, the Secretariat has operated effectively. We will build clubs and forums for those enterprises interested in ASEAN BAC, and enterprises with experience and potential for developing industries, prioritised by the bloc to promote co-operation among the enterprises. 

 

Also, ASEAN BAC Vietnam will build a website to provide information about international integration of ASEAN and enterprises, publish publications about ASEAN’s integration for members, organise conferences, seminars and meetings to gather information, inputs and comments, and develop a list of ASEAN enterprises.

 

ASEAN BAC will provide consultancy services and seek co-operation opportunities for enterprises, organising training courses on languages, business management and administration, and marketing for enterprises of ASEAN countries.

 

In particular, we are building projects for enterprises in ASEAN. At present, the ASEAN Pioneer Project Scheme (APPS) is developed to ally ASEAN industries. This project is very important as it studies on advantages of ASEAN industries to co-operate to improve their competitiveness in the world market.

 

ASEAN BAC Vietnam co-operation in the banking sector is very important to improve the value of Vietnam dong. Also, co-operation should be promoted in tourism and in the coming time, a visa exemption may be applied within ASEAN.