Crisis management by effectively connecting agencies and businessesadministrators to help remove difficulties for businesses was one of thetop agendas of a CEO forum held by the Vietnam Economic Times on March15.

At the forum, economists forecast that this year would be more difficult than 2012 as the global economy continues to slow.

According to Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Tran Tuan Anh, toovercome the current difficulties enterprises need to activelyrestructure and strictly control their input costs as well as minimiseexpenses.
"Businesses should also strengthen their goods distribution networks in order to offer the best prices to customers," he said.

To boost exports, businesses should further focus on taking advantageof incentives from the Free Trade Agreements (FTA) that Vietnam hasalready signed, he pointed out.

And they need to deploye-commerce applications, online exports and check information fromVietnamese trade offices in other countries to exploit the availablemarkets and penetrate new ones, he added.

Ho Sy Hung, director ofthe Business Development Department under the Ministry of Planning andInvestment, said that companies need to continue exploiting andexpanding the market, boosting exports and limiting the import ofconsumer goods to stimulate domestic sales.

Improving tax policiesand administration is one of the solutions that would help businessesovercome difficulties, said Nguyen Quang Tien, an official from theGeneral Tax Department.

He also emphasised the need to build an electronic portal to provide tax payment services
Professor Dao Nguyen Cat, editor-in-chief of the Vietnam EconomicTimes, said that the process of market restructuring would continue totake place next year with the aim of a healthier market.-VNA