Clean, transparent investment channels a must for Vietnam

Last year was considered an unlucky year for many big faces in Vietnam, including chairman of FLC Group Trinh Van Quyet; chairman of Tan Hoang Minh Group Do Anh Dung; Nguyen Thi Thanh Nhan, chairwoman of Advanced International JSC (AIC); and Truong My Lan, chairwoman of Van Thinh Phat Group. From an entrepreneur's perspective, what do you think about this?

From an objective point of view, this is painful not only for the business circle insiders but also for many investment fields in Vietnam. In my opinion, we need to review and re-evaluate all the gains and losses over the past period.

I think the root cause is our laws and policies do not meet the "necessary and sufficient" requirements of global and Vietnamese realities, leading to too many loopholes for a number of individuals and organizations to "shake hands" with each other to abuse policies and mainpulate the market to make illicit profits.

Most entrepreneurs and businesses abide by the regulations, but it is difficult for them to develop because of overlapping laws and policies, so their investment results are not as good as expected.

Meanwhile, for some businesses that operate based on relationships with civil servants and officials in the state apparatus, sometimes they do not need investment capital to grow their assets rapidly and they can dominate the market, profit from policies, and gain an advantage in "hot" investment areas.

As we have seen, for a long time, many big companies and corporations have violated the laws mentioned above and when looking into these cases, law enforcement agencies have found that under the iceberg lie the helping hands of corrupt officials.

Some people say that the recent arrests of many famous businesspeople have caused panic or loss of confidence among investors in the financial and securities markets, whilst negatively affecting the real estate market. But others say that this is an inevitable consequence of the "ulcers" that have existed for a long time. If we don't accept pain, the consequences will be even worse. What is your opinion?

The fact famous businessmen have been detained is no surprise because they themselves knew they were violating the laws. They had blatantly "joked" with the law and the consequences surely came to them despite "solid protection walls”.

We urgently need to "clean up" the contingents of businesspeople and civil servants today, but I think we need to consider how to do that in order to avoid causing panic and concern among entrepreneurs, businesses and state employees.

In my opinion, the Party, Government and law enforcement agencies need to define specific limits to avoid falling into unreasonable "retrospectiveness" because the nature of a case is different in each period. The question is whether we criminalize civil relations or not. We need to clarify this and make it transparent and fair, thereby helping entrepreneurs, businesses and civil servants feel secure.

Party and Government leaders have affirmed that they are doing everything to make the financial, securities and real estate markets clean and transparent. As an overseas Vietnamese businessman-investor, what do you think about Vietnam’s current business investment environment, and what are your recommendations?

Making public and private investment areas in Vietnam clean and transparent is a prerequisite and a must even though it is rather late. In a developing country, the financial, securities and real estate markets are the key to mobilizing social resources for developing the key areas of the country.

At this time, it is not possible to have a comprehensive view of Vietnam's economy in 2023 and 2024. Reports by the Government and National Assembly provide a rosy and optimistic picture with growth of 6.5% or more, but my view is different.

With more than 20 years of investment experience in Vietnam and 30 years of doing business, I think that Vietnam's economy will face difficulties in 2023, so achieving a GDP growth of 3.5% will be a success, and curbing inflation at below 4% will bring happiness to people and businesses.

To ensure social security, and stabilize and develop the economy, we need to look directly at the truth, face the very dark global picture, and be prepared for a possible global crisis even more serious than in 2010 in the short and medium terms. For this, the Party and State will design suitable policies and response measures.

I believe that sound forecasts and mapping out reachable core goals are prerequisites for stabilizing society and regaining trust from the public, entrepreneurs and businesses.

Lawyer Truong Thanh Duc, director of ANVI law firm

Big economic criminal cases have recently had a clear impact on many economic sectors and fields, including finance and banking. Violations must definitely be strictly handled, though I think the approach is very important. Prosecution agencies dealing with many large cases while Vietnam and the world face uncertainties like high inflation and credit tightening has caused a negative effect on investors and the market, thus depriving them of confidence.

It is clear that many corporate bond issuances lacked transparency and encountered risks and violations. As a result, when some entrepreuers were arrested and put under further investigation, many others grew startled and worried. Enterprises want to buy back bonds to avoid trouble but don't have the money, which could lead to an imbalance and mass collapse. I think stabilizing investor psychology is a major priority.

This includes speeding up project transfer to recover capital, and shortening the procedure to obtain land use right certificates from one month to a mere half. There should be mechanisms to reschedule and extend debt payment deadlines, and support cash flow. Regulations should also be loosened for bond issuers. Enterprises should further be allowed to address their own violations to avoid legal action. Only when they fail to remedy the consequences and intentionally conduct violations should they face legal action.