The Prime Minister’s Conference with the Business Community took place last Saturday, 18 July 2026, at the Office of the Government in Hanoi. A BritCham delegation, led by Warrick Cleine – Chair of British Corporate Advocacy Council (BCAC) and Denzel Eades – BritCham Chairman, together with representatives from BUV, Standard Chartered, Prudential and Unilever, participated in the event.
Held under the theme “Removing Bottlenecks – Unlocking Resources – Driving Growth”, the Conference – the first of its kind – was chaired by the Prime Minister, and attended by Deputy Prime Ministers, Ministers, and provincial leaders. 40 FDI companies were invited to the event. Vietnamese companies that presented include: Viettel, PetroVN, Vietcombank, Xuan Truong, BRG, SME Association, Young Entrepreneurs Association, etc. Vietnam Business Forum Co-chair (KoCham) and Meiko (Chair of JCCI) also shared the difficulties and challenges faced by the FDI sector.
Key content:
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MOF’s report grouped business concerns into 6 areas, namely institutional and policy-implementation gaps, capital and land access, production costs, market and supply-chain pressures, science and technology capacity, and weak linkages across the state, private and foreign-invested business sectors.
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VCCI compiled~900 specific concerns into 53 bottleneck groups across 10 key categories, with the MOF report responding to 51/53 (details in attached file).
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VBF Chair Ko Tae-yeon called for greater policy stability and predictability, proposing that FDI enterprises be treated administratively on par with domestic firms. He highlighted inconsistent policy implementation across ministries and localities, delays in customs clearance and VAT refunds, and labour shortages in some industrial parks.
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MOIT will revise the Electricity Law, Petroleum Law and related legislation to streamline the Government’s role, limiting it to planning, technical standards and regulatory oversight while giving enterprises greater autonomy over investment, technology, operations and governance, with full legal responsibility. On electricity pricing, MOIT aims to ensure reliable and affordable energy supply and will consider business recommendations as it finalises the revised legal framework.
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In his closing remarks, PM Hung emphasised the need to address business concerns with all responses to be published on Government and VCCI portals to ensure transparency and accountability; requested Ministries to finalise amended Law and regulations for review by the National Assembly sessions in Aug and Oct 2026; and requested all levels of government to focus on 6 task groups: i. Accelerate institutional reform; ii. Improve access to finance; iii. Reduce business costs; iv. Promote innovation, digital transformation and human capital; v. Enhance the role of all business sectors and strengthen linkages between FDI and Vietnamese companies; vi. Improve implementation and administrative accountability.
Please find attached a short English summary of the reports and PM’s guidance, full reports in Vietnamese can be accessed here and the speakers’ remarks in Vietnamese can be found here.
