Businesses’ confidence recovered: Report

Workers at the Global Powersports Manufacturing Inc. in Trang Bom district, Dong Nai province

Despite lingering difficulties, businesses have recovered their confidence, the Private Economic Development Research Board (Board IV) under the Prime Minister’s Administrative Reform Advisory Council underlined in its latest report on business situation in 2023 and outlook for 2024.

In the report, the board said that compared to its previous survey conducted in April 2023, businesses have become more optimistic, as the proportion of businesses rating the current macro-economic situation as positive/very positive was 2.7 times higher than in the April survey.

Meanwhile, the current rate of firms assessing the economic situation of their industry as positive/very positive was 2.5 times higher than that in the April survey, and the rate of positive assessments about the macro-economic outlook for the next 12 months nearly 3 times higher.

At the same time, the rate of enterprises that intend to expand their business scale strongly doubled, the report said, adding that increase was also seen in assessments on capital assess prospects, market outlook and efficiency of local administration’s supports, showing stronger confidence of businesses.

However, businesses also voiced many difficulties. Among the 2,734 surveyed firms, 82.4% rated the economic situation for the second half of 2023 as negative/very negative, while 69.1% showed the same assessment for the economic outlook in 2024.

Regarding business plan, 72.8% intended to shrink their business scale and halt or stop their operations in 2024.

Illustrative image (Source: VNA)

The board stressed the need for the Government, ministries, sectors and local administrations to work harder to help business deal with five major difficulties in order number, cash flow, administrative procedure and law implementation, risks of criminalisation of economic transactions, and loan access.

According to the Vice Chairman of the Prime Minister’s Administrative Reform Advisory Council and head of Board IV, 2024 is a year with many variables due to the complicated global situation that causes significant impact on the countries' internal strength, while the internal strength of businesses has been eroded.

Therefore, drastic and timely actions must be taken by the Prime Minister and the Government for ministries, sectors and localities to continue to effectively accompany with, support, and build trust for people and businesses to overcome difficulties, the official said.

The board recommended that the Government and the Prime Minister continue speeding up public investment disbursement to improve the quality of major infrastructure systems in order to create long-term competitiveness, pay greater attention to human resources training, and improve the efficiency of the public administration and governance.

Alongside, it is necessary to build policies to support the private sector and transform the economy in green and circular direction to match the world’s sustainable development trend, it underscored./.