According to Mr. Dang Van Thanh, Chairman of TTC Group, the new driving force for growth for businesses this y...
According to Mr. Dang Van Thanh, Chairman of TTC Group, the new driving force for growth for businesses this year will come from Vietnam's market of over 100 million people and from changes in social responsibility towards each business community.
Mr. Dang Van Thanh, Chairman of TTC Group
For Chairman Thanh, the difficulties and challenges of the economy in 2024 are not just about forecasts or constantly updated hot information from hotspots around the world. It's about the increasing number of abandoned business premises on every street corner and road. He expresses concern about this situation but also sees opportunities in Vietnam's market of over 100 million people.
As 2024 unfolds with many anticipated challenges, how does he perceive the economic landscape of Vietnam and the difficulties businesses are facing?
The economic outlook for 2024 is not entirely optimistic, as international conflicts show no signs of easing, political situations in the Middle East are impacting business logistics costs, and export markets have not fully recovered. Domestically, the real estate market is struggling, and hidden inventory is starting to emerge.
The ongoing concern is how to identify demand and ensure supply capability. In a difficult economic context, with product outlets narrowing and unsold goods, the trend of vacating and abandoning business premises has become prevalent in large cities. This impacts the health of businesses, affects workers' incomes, and directly influences the market's purchasing power.
If boosting demand is seen as a new impetus for growth, what solutions does he believe are needed to realize this policy?
To support economic growth, every country always introduces measures to stimulate supply and demand. In Vietnam, the government and the State Bank have implemented supply-side measures such as boosting capital supply to the market, reducing VAT by 2%, extending and restructuring debt under Circular 02/2023/TT-NHNN, and reducing interest rates for businesses.
These measures are considered support for businesses to maintain production and business activities, helping them overcome difficulties and continue to supply goods and services to the economy. However, simply stimulating supply is not enough for businesses to survive and overcome challenges. To revive, businesses need to sell their products, meaning product outlets need to be opened. But to sell goods, market demand and people's spending need to increase. Therefore, it's not just about supply; measures to stimulate market demand with over 100 million people domestically are also necessary.
In practice, for capitalist countries, when the economy is sluggish and purchasing power is weak, they even resort to direct cash transfers to people's accounts to encourage consumption, stimulate demand, and increase purchasing power. Perhaps Vietnam has not done this yet, but in my opinion, to stimulate domestic purchasing power in the current context, reducing personal income tax for workers in the form of vouchers (shopping vouchers, gift vouchers) should be considered.
Reducing personal income tax through vouchers would bring joy to everyone, individuals, and businesses alike. When everyone is enthusiastic, the economy gains new purchasing power, compensating for reduced exports, leading to increased GDP.
In the economic cycle, money must flow in and out, and goods must follow supply and demand. Businesses supply goods to the market, and there must be consumer demand to create a cycle: production - consumption - production - consumption... The faster this cycle, the more the economy develops.
Currently, the difficulty in the economy is that domestic purchasing power is not strong enough, while purchasing power through global exports is declining. At this time, stimulating consumer demand by reducing personal income tax to create jobs and restore workers' income to normal levels is crucial.
Aside from the consumption market, many businesses are talking about difficulties in ensuring capital supply to maintain production. With interest rates for loans gradually decreasing, does he believe the demand for loans to expand production and business for businesses in 2024 will increase significantly?
For the manufacturing and business sectors, such as in TTC's agricultural sector, we always have a need for capital but will balance cash flow to reduce loan interest expense pressures. Currently, we also don't consider borrowing additional capital to expand production and business because the market conditions are not very optimistic, and we need to be cautious. This is also the general situation for many businesses.
Businesses want to expand production and business, but first, the goods produced must be sold. However, to achieve this, demand needs to be stimulated to increase purchasing power...
In reality, last year showed that interest rates have decreased, and the banking industry has made efforts to push capital, but the economy's capital absorption capacity is still weak due to businesses' low demand for capital. Because they also don't know what to borrow for when the goods produced are not being consumed.
Therefore, I believe that, in addition to stimulating supply, measures to stimulate domestic demand will also promote credit growth, thereby stimulating better growth for businesses.
Opportunities Come from Internal Changes
In Mr. Dang Van Thanh's assessment, despite the unfavorable context, there are always opportunities, and if a business wants to develop, it must always seek every opportunity for growth, especially for businesses in essential sectors.
"This year, the government continues to have timely and resolute support policies. Businesses will overcome current difficulties, coupled with stimulating domestic market demand... These factors will drive growth," Mr. Thanh believes. However, Chairman of TTC Group believes that opportunities only come to businesses that truly change from within.
Currently, many businesses are talking a lot about the trend of green growth as an inevitable trend. What is his comment on this trend?
Green development and growth are important issues that the market and everyone are concerned about. Perhaps, the concept of "green" has never been mentioned so much. Green is no longer just a concept of the environment, but in many economic sectors, it is seen as a guiding principle in all development criteria to ensure sustainability.
But in my opinion, we need to understand "green" from two perspectives: tangible green is green environment, landscape, reduced net emissions, while intangible green is ethics and responsibility.
How to go from "internal greenness" to green credit, green finance, green society, and green earth. According to me, everything comes from ethics and responsibility, and if we want positive change, it must start from within ourselves, then progress to the outside and everything around us. And don't expect the opposite if the internal does not change!
For TTC Group, we have long been aware of the importance of the "green" concept and pioneering ESG (Environment - Social - Governance) standards in operations, especially in agriculture, energy, and tourism.
Especially in agriculture, TTC has marked a milestone in comprehensive transformation to a smart integrated agriculture economy, leading the way with technology as the foundation, affirming its position as a "high-tech agricultural enterprise" through research and development activities.
So, what are TTC's plans in the context of the market in 2024?
In addition to the agriculture sector, which is always being boosted, we continue to increase activities in the energy sector, civil real estate, industrial real estate, tourism, and education.
In tourism, recently, TTC Group successfully merged with the TTC Imperial Hotel in Hue to develop tourism.
For industrial real estate, according to the plan, in 2024, TTC plans to repurchase and merge to expand industrial parks in Tay Ninh, about 500 hectares, and then expand industrial real estate in Duc Trong (Lam Dong).
Via Bao dau tu