Attending the conference were economic experts: Mr. Phan Duc Hieu - Standing Member of the National Assembly Economic Committee; Dr. Can Van Luc - Member of the National Financial and Monetary Policy Advisory Council and Member of the National Committee for Pacific Economic Cooperation (VNCPEC), Chief Economist of BIDV; Mr. Cao Hoai Duong - Chairman of the Board of Directors of Vietnam Oil Corporation (PVOIL), Vice Chairman of Red Star Businessmen's Club; Mr. Nguyen Xuan Phu - Founder, Chairman of the Board of Directors of SUNHOUSE Group.

Attending the conference were representative leaders of departments, divisions, sectors, units, associations, Business Association organizations and more than 200 businesses in the province.

Opening the conference, Deputy Director of Bac Giang Department of Planning and Investment Luong Van Nghiep said that the socio-economic development situation of Bac Giang province in 2023 and the first months of 2024 achieved positive results. Investment attraction achieved good results; trade and services continued to recover strongly.

However, in the first 2 months of 2024, the production of some enterprises was still facing difficulties, especially large-scale enterprises manufacturing and processing electronic components. Some large enterprises continued to have difficulties in production and finding orders. The increase in land fund for industrial development was still slower than the speed of attracting investment in the province. This showed that, although still on the growth path, Bac Giang's socio-economic development still faces many challenges and difficulties.

The "Investment outlook 2024" conference aimed to provide information and predictions on the economic development, policy mechanisms, trends in the investment and business environment, and the wave of investment shifts of foreign countries entering Vietnam; opportunities, prospects, challenges and advice from economic experts for small and medium-sized enterprises in Bac Giang province in 2024.

Here, economic experts believed that 2024 was the year when the world and regional situation would continue to have complicated and unpredictable developments. Global economic growth, trade, and investment continued to decline. Domestically, inflationary pressure was still strong. Production and business was still difficult. Demand from Vietnam's large, traditional import-export markets continued to decline. Besides, the shortcomings, limitations, and inadequacies within the economy in terms of economic structure had not been completely resolved. Financial, monetary, and real estate markets still had potential risks. The scale of the country's economy was still modest yet its openness was large, its competitiveness and resistance to external impacts were still limited, etc. This showed that there were still many factors to expect the country's economic growth in 2024.

In which, the management of macroeconomic policies to meet actual development requirements, along with the great determination of the entire political system under the proper leadership of the Party and the drastic management of the Government were key factors of special importance.

Speaking at the conference, Prof. Dr. Andreas Stoffers - Director of FNF Vietnam Institute said that Vietnam ranked 59/179 countries in the Economic Freedom Index announced by The Heritage Foundation in 2024. For the development that Vietnam had experienced since 1995, 11 years after the reform period (1986), no other country had developed so rapidly in terms of economic freedom in the past 30 years. In 2023, Vietnam increased 13 places. What was impressive was not only Vietnam's position but above all the trend, this trend was clearly moving forward. Prof. Dr. Andreas Stoffers believed that Vietnam should make efforts by enhancing transparency and fairness in the legal system as ensuring legal regulations was implemented transparently and fairly, creating fairness for businesses and people.

To attract more high-tech FDI, Vietnam shall focus on investing in practical education, such as Germany's dual training system model. Increase transparency in stock and bond markets by strengthening independent rating agencies. Streamline and speed up administrative procedures. Prof. Dr. Andreas Stoffers hoped that this conference would help businesses choose more development solutions and help Bac Giang become an FDI center in Vietnam.

Dr. Can Van Luc - Member of the National Financial and Monetary Policy Advisory Council and Member of the National Committee for Pacific Economic Cooperation gave the world and Vietnam economic forecast in 2024; opportunities and challenges for the Vietnamese economy and businesses; some policies to support markets, businesses and solutions for businesses and Bac Giang province.

At the conference, discussions and exchanges between experts and delegates took place. The content focused on clarifying the prospects, comments, and assessments of economic and investment in 2024; local business investment and opportunities; promoting investment attraction and business development in the coming time; experience in production, business, and brand development; some promising occupations and those expected to face difficulties in the coming year; sharing ways for domestic enterprises to have the opportunity to participate more deeply in the production value chain of FDI enterprises; solutions to welcome the wave of FDI investment; urgent requirements for digital transformation and green transformation of businesses in the coming period. At the same time, speakers clarified a number of new policies affecting the operations of businesses and industries, etc.

Experts expressed their impression with Bac Giang's economic growth in the first quarter and in recent times. Many opinions said that the province shall pay attention to growth quality to ensure sustainable growth.

Mr. Nguyen Xuan Phu - Founder, Chairman of the Board of Directors of SUNHOUSE Group said that Bac Giang had a convenient location like the most beautiful house in the urban area. To exploit this advantage, businesses would prepare conditions to be able to do business in terms of premises, factories, machinery, people, and build relationships with partners, thereby promoting business investment. If that beautiful house was only for rent, it would have been a waste as the added value would have been not much. As for businesses having missed business opportunities at a certain point, they shall evaluate through the development process, what problems each business would encounter in the future, from raw materials and labor to proactively participating in the supply chain. In particular, businesses shall be proactive with long-term strategies. The success of the business equaled the success of the leader, it depended a lot on the wishes and direction of the person driving the business.

Mr. Phan Duc Hieu - Standing Member of the National Assembly Economic Committee emphasized that businesses must increase their resilience and quickly adapt to the situation; quickly update new policies and proactively learn about the impacts of mechanisms and policies, and come up with appropriate solutions. Currently, the opportunity to attract investment in the semiconductor industry was huge. Bac Giang could research and develop this field and prepare accompanying conditions, creating momentum for development. In addition, the government shall develop a comprehensive planning, the consultation must be substantive and broad, the business community and people were extremely important to avoid errors.

Sharing some experiences in boldly innovating for development, Mr. Cao Hoai Duong - Chairman of the Board of Directors of Vietnam Oil Corporation said that, as a business enterprise in the oil and gas sector, but facing the wave of green economy and transformation, the unit had promoted the conversion of traditional energy to green energy. Initially, the business also encountered many difficulties. Many opinions said that the building of charging stations to serve electric vehicles would reduce oil sales revenue, not "using rocks to block the way". However, with determination that green transformation was an inevitable trend, the business had built electric battery charging stations to meet market demand. To date, profits from electric battery charging stations accounted for 25% of the unit's oil sales profits. This was proof that it was necessary to identify and predict trends earlier and ahead of the curve for the business to be successful, which was why business leaders had to have innovative thinking.

Analyzing the challenges and economic prospects of the world and Vietnam in the coming time, Dr. Can Van Luc informed that in the current context, with reduced bank interest rates and a number of effective State management policies, the real estate market had shown signs of recovery since the fourth quarter of 2023. It could be seen that real estate transactions were mainly for people with real needs. One of the major influencing factors was that lending interest rates had dropped sharply over the same period, causing not only the real estate market to recover but also the stock market to get better.

Useful information and advice from speakers at the conference would be the basis to open up investment directions for businesses in 2024, helping businesses have a basis to make the right investment directions and decisions in the coming time.

Bac Giang continued to accompany and support the business community in the province to make good use of opportunities, join hands with the business community and businessmen of the province to develop and contribute to completing the set socio-economic goals. /.