Both the world and Vietnamese economies have been heavily affected by the COVID-19 pandemic since the beginning of this year. The complicated developments of the pandemic have disrupted supply chains as well as commercial activities on a global scale. |
At the same time, Vietnamese enterprises are also facing a lack of supply of raw materials for production and consumption markets for their products. This is an unprecedented challenge. Hundreds of thousands of businesses have had to narrow their production activities, tens of thousands of businesses have had to temporarily halt their business or even close their doors to wait for dissolution procedures. Survey results from the Ministry of Planning and Investment show that more than 85% of enterprises have been negatively affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, of which a number of industries such as aviation, accommodation services, tourism, textiles and garments have suffered the most with more than 90% of enterprises in these sectors having been hit hard by the pandemic. But in this difficult situation, the Vietnamese business community has once again proven its bravery, self-reliance, and perseverance in finding opportunities to survive and develop. In particular, Vietnamese entrepreneurs have been the nucleus and “captains”, always standing firmly to help businesses overcome difficulties amid the pandemic. A series of solutions have been deployed by entrepreneurs. They quickly looked for new sources of raw materials, focused on expanding consumption markets, changed key production and business products, and applied new forms of business such as e-commerce or online commerce promotion, among others. Thanks to these creative measures, many businesses have overcome their difficulties to maintain operations and continue making significant contributions to national economic recovery. Over the past nine months, domestic enterprises have affirmed their role as the main driving force for the growth of national export activities with export revenue estimated at US$71.4 billion, up 19.5%, accounting for nearly 35.3% of the nation’s export revenue while the foreign-invested sector posted US$131.03 billion in export revenue, down 2.9%. According to experts, although there still remains great challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic, there are yet opportunities amid risks. The opportunities include the advantage of Vietnam having brought about effective control of the pandemic and the process of restructuring the global supply chain. And to turn “risk” into “opportunity”, more than ever, entrepreneurs must assert their leadership role, not only in guiding the handling of situations but also in terms of inspiring others and persisting in their pursuit of developmental goals. To ensure the survival and development of businesses, entrepreneurs need to act decisively and promptly, with wise decisions and strategies and a long-term vision. At the same time, they should continue to be a pioneer in promoting innovation with a focus on digitising business operations and creating landmark changes to bring about new values and more profits for enterprises. Thereby, enterprises will have the foundation and motivation to overcome hardships during the pandemic and continue to seize opportunities and gradually participate in and move up the ladder in the global value chain. Impressive figures 99,000 was the number of newly established enterprises in the first nine months of 2020 with a total registered capital of VND1,428 trillion dong. Of which, the average registered capital of a newly established enterprise in the nine months reached VND14.4 billion, up 14.4% over the same period last year. In addition, 34,600 enterprises have returned to operations, up 25.5% over the same period last year, bringing the total number of newly established enterprises and enterprises resuming operations to 133,600 in the nine-month period, up 2.9% over the same period in 2019. Source: Nhan Dan Online |