Proposed Solutions to Limit the Negative Impact of the Crisis on Import-Export Activities

b. Recommend some specific measures.

- Firstly, it is necessary to continue to persevere with the major policy directions set out in 2008, specifically stabilizing the macro-economy, consolidating the financial and banking systems, and properly resolving domestic issues, such as trade deficit, budget deficit... to strengthen the economy's resistance.

Continue to implement strict policies on government spending and public sector investment to avoid the risk of budget deficit. Tightening government spending and transferring public investment to the private sector helps businesses have more capital to expand production, business and markets. Choosing to invest in large and important infrastructure projects that were not available in the past, now invest to stimulate economic development.

Investment sources from state-owned enterprises, especially from corporations and state-owned general companies, need to be directed towards projects with modern, environmentally friendly technology. Focusing on developing supporting industries is also an important direction to create highly competitive products with greater added value.

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- Second, continue to raise vigilance, not be subjective in monitoring, grasp the situation, proactively prepare plans, policies, measures and capabilities to support the economy, and guard against unexpected shocks that may occur. Relevant agencies need to provide accurate and timely information on developments in the domestic and international financial markets, ensure communication work to serve the leadership of the Party and the management of the State, and strengthen the confidence of the people and investors and businesses.

It is necessary to strengthen and improve the quality of information work, forecasting the domestic and international situation, to have correct policies and guidelines and correct management.

- Third, effectively implement measures in the banking and financial sector. Banks need to pay more attention to internal management, liquidity management, and closely monitor credit granting in high-risk sectors (real estate, securities, and consumption). There needs to be a synchronous solution package for each part of the financial market, with special attention to the securities market and real estate market. Strengthen investors' confidence in the Vietnamese financial and banking system by creating clarity and consistency in policies and policy implementation.

Effective use of monetary tools with flexible adjustment according to

Market developments such as exchange rates, interest rates, credit limits, etc. Lower interest rates appropriately according to market signals. Handle bad debts of commercial banks, ensuring these debts are at a safe level.

Innovate and restructure the banking system to make it healthy and avoid the impact of the global economic crisis. Strengthen the Government's supervision of the financial system, banking and stock market, review and make the financial system and banking healthy. Build an early warning system with specific criteria to have plans and solutions to prevent negative fluctuations in the banking and financial system.

- Fourth, diversify export markets to avoid the impact of declining imports from the US and some countries heavily affected by the global financial crisis, and strengthen new markets, large markets in the region less affected by the crisis such as China, India, etc., shifting towards expanding the domestic market. Apply policies to encourage the development of export goods, rapidly increase export turnover and reduce trade deficit.

Implement a flexible exchange rate regime to support exports and increase preferential credit for export production. Strengthen and promote the development of the domestic market, especially the procurement of agricultural raw materials, ensure close linkage between the development of raw material production areas and the processing and export industry, develop the distribution system of important materials and the retail system, and improve service quality.

Along with expanding new export markets, businesses need to pay attention to conquering the domestic market. The years of innovation have brought improved living standards to Vietnamese consumers. However, having money does not mean that consumers are provided with suitable products. It is also not natural that consumers still have a preference for foreign goods. This is a weakness of Vietnamese goods serving the domestic market and also a great development opportunity for Vietnamese businesses if they know how to assess the situation correctly.

Fifth, limit unemployment and support the unemployed with unemployment benefits, training and retraining policies to help them overcome immediate difficulties and improve their skills and ability to change jobs when new opportunities arise. In addition, support poor households, especially in rural areas. Consider a policy of postponing or exempting tuition fees for farmers' children for a period of time. Farmers can also be supported by

maintenance and improvement of irrigation systems or continued output guarantee policies for agricultural policies.

- Sixth, encourage competition and control monopoly. Monopoly is quite common in the Vietnamese economy. The manifestations are secret collusion in pricing products and services, blocking the market, limiting the appearance of competitors, etc. The current monopoly subjects are companies, state-owned corporations, industry associations, etc., so the prices of many goods and services are quite high compared to the international market such as gasoline, transportation, etc. On the contrary, some monopoly prices are Vietnam's advantage, but companies demand to increase them to the same level as the world price, losing this advantage. The problem is to control monopoly, strengthen the competition organization to promote healthy competition in the market.

- Seventh, closely monitor foreign investment sources in Vietnam, continue to improve the investment environment, promote foreign investment, including monitoring the implementation of foreign direct investment projects from the US and European countries to provide support when necessary.

- Eighth, the State Securities Commission, the State Bank of Vietnam and the Ministry of Finance should strengthen monitoring, assessment and forecasting of the possibilities and levels of capital withdrawal in the Vietnamese market, affecting foreign exchange reserves and the psychology of domestic investors, to prevent market disruption. Prepare market support plans in advance, ensure the provision of full and continuous information on foreign investors' activities, transparent information on business situations and timely make recommendations when necessary, in which the factor of reassuring public opinion is important.

- Ninth, reform and remove obstacles in administrative procedures, site clearance, project approval and disbursement to facilitate projects and programs to be implemented quickly. For real estate business, along with promoting and encouraging investment in building low-cost houses for the poor, policy beneficiaries, housing for workers in economic zones, concentrated industrial zones, housing for students, it is necessary to limit and impose high taxes on real estate speculation.

- Tenth, businesses need to focus on reducing costs to improve their competitiveness with cheap goods remaining from a number of countries that produce and export similar products. Businesses need to focus on developing new products.

Domestic capital, production capacity, manufacturing, construction of works at low cost

Cheap labor is an advantage for Vietnamese enterprises in the context of global economic difficulties. Prices of materials, raw materials, technology, machinery and equipment in the world market are falling, enterprises should grasp quickly to have timely solutions.

The global financial crisis and economic recession pose enormous challenges, but Vietnam can take advantage of the opportunities brought by the crisis, such as: taking advantage of cheap raw materials to increase the construction of necessary infrastructure; taking advantage of the world's low-interest capital; taking advantage of the unemployed high-quality human resources from the world's leading corporations for Vietnam's development. The problem is: Choosing the right choice, good solution, and implementing it effectively.

3.3 Proposed solutions to limit the negative impact of the crisis on import and export activities

3.3.1. Solutions to promote exports:

Increasing export turnover will contribute to high economic growth and improve export efficiency. To do so, it is necessary that the current export structure of Vietnam needs to be changed in the direction of promoting the export of high value-added goods, products with high technology and intellectual content, gradually reducing the proportion of raw goods exports; promoting service exports. It is necessary to explore and discover products in which Vietnam has comparative advantages to shift the export structure. When considering comparative advantages, it is important that in addition to existing static advantages, it is also necessary to consider dynamic advantages, which are advantages with potential and will appear when conditions are favorable to increase the competitiveness of Vietnam's export products.

To carry out the above tasks, we must have specific and synchronous measures.

On the part of the State: to boost exports and reduce trade deficit, the role of the State is extremely important. In the current situation, the State needs to do the following work well:

Firstly, the State needs to prioritize and allocate capital to focus on investing in upgrading trade infrastructure, especially at border gates, as well as roads and railways leading to the border, seaports, river ports and related facilities. In particular, it is necessary to pay attention to some major border gates bordering China, Laos, Cambodia... from which to connect with Thailand, Myanmar... to better exploit trade agreements in the Mekong Sub-region. State management agencies need to strengthen the application of work quality management processes and the quality of services.

public administrative procedures, regularly monitor and effectively manage the quality of administrative procedures as well as public services.

Second, it is necessary to pay due attention to the activities and effectiveness of trade promotion, especially market research activities, promote trade promotion at the government level, and develop e-commerce to reduce marketing costs. The State and relevant agencies should soon fundamentally change export programs in the direction of designing specialized programs for each new product (or product that needs support), focusing on a number of new markets (or specific markets that need priority development); implement programs to promote the national image and Vietnamese products in the mass media abroad; enhance the role of Vietnamese diplomatic and trade representative agencies abroad, to act as a bridge to help domestic enterprises find information and penetrate the market.

Third, the State needs to have a more open policy towards foreign investment to increase investment attraction, especially investment in areas where domestic enterprises have limited capacity to implement; must innovate credit mechanisms and policies related to exports in the direction of creating conditions for credit provision for investment in export production, aiming at credit services serving buyers, instead of only serving domestic exporters; encourage the participation of commercial banks in export activities, shifting from commercial lending to financing production projects for export purposes. Research the development and promulgation of policies to support Vietnamese enterprises abroad to boost the export of goods to the host country; at the same time, have appropriate policies to encourage multinational companies operating in Vietnam to consume products through the existing market network of these companies.

Fourth, proactively study international dispute resolution mechanisms within the framework of ASEAN and WTO to be able to apply them effectively when international disputes arise related to national interests and the interests of Vietnamese enterprises; promptly and synchronously implement policies and measures to diversify vocational training forms according to the policy of socializing education and training. Simplify regulations on procedures and conditions for participating in educational service business, to accelerate the quality of vocational work and business knowledge, which are still limited in Vietnamese enterprises; promote the policy decision-making process through mechanisms to strengthen the connection between the State and

businesses, as well as between ministries and branches.

Continue to widely disseminate Vietnam's roadmap and commitments in the WTO to all sectors, enterprises and all classes of people to raise awareness of international economic integration and the WTO, thereby being more proactive and improving the effectiveness of Vietnam's increasingly deep integration. Complete the legal system on trade and services, especially import and export policies to suit the context of international economic integration, ensuring support for export enterprises while not violating WTO regulations.

Fifth, perfect the policy system to create favorable conditions for production and export. Create all favorable conditions to have an attractive environment to attract foreign investment, so this is the shortest way to increase competitiveness and boost the export of our products. Next, it is necessary to promote the connection between state-owned enterprises and private enterprises in the form of vertical and horizontal, in which vertical connection is to provide components for foreign-invested companies and horizontal connection is to cooperate with multinational companies in many fields to produce and export. It can be initially in the form of foreign brands, following their networks, gradually moving towards self-manufacturing, product design and building brands, completely mastering their own products.

Quickly and synchronously innovate financial policies, investment, science and technology development. In addition, it is necessary to train and develop high-quality labor resources, especially a team of engineers and skilled manufacturers in the fields of export production, reform customs procedures for import and export goods to continue to encourage exports, and create confidence for businesses participating in exports.

In addition, the State needs to pay due attention to the export of services. The general trend of the world economy is that services increasingly account for a high proportion of GDP and service trade is one of the basic contents of modern trade according to WTO regulations. In our country, the export of services has not really been focused on in the past, but we still have a lot of potential for development, so focusing on the development of export services can contribute to increasing total export turnover, bringing in income and creating many jobs.

- For businesses: Businesses are an extremely important factor in the process of international economic integration, especially when Vietnam officially joins the WTO. It is important to focus all efforts to improve the competitiveness of businesses. This is a task that all levels from central to local

Localities, sectors, levels, organizations and businesses need to work together. Businesses need to pay attention to implementing the following measures:

Enterprises need to proactively conduct surveys and evaluate their markets, financial capacity, and production capacity; pay attention to effectively utilizing the State's incentive policies for products and industries that are in the State's development orientation in the coming period to determine for themselves a strategy for developing key export products, a strategy for developing exports of new products, and a specific program to approach key and potential export markets. Enterprises need to develop a strategy for expanding links and cooperation between enterprises to rationalize specialization and production cooperation based on the strengths of each enterprise, expand production, reduce costs, and improve competitiveness.

Enterprises also need to improve the quality and efficiency of human resource use in the direction of professionalization and industrialization, improve labor productivity, thereby indirectly reducing operating costs, have specific programs on training and recruitment, use and regular retraining of human resources; quickly access and absorb, apply human resource management and use skills; quickly rationalize production-business processes, save costs, improve operational efficiency. Strengthen the implementation of production-business management systems to reduce risks; reduce the rate of poor quality products, save costs; effectively exploit the benefits of information technology and promote the application of e-commerce, improve production and business efficiency.

Enterprises need to strengthen the connection between producers - suppliers of raw materials and input materials with enterprises and scientific research agencies, effectively organize the supply chain from the stage of exporting raw materials and input materials to the stage of organizing effective production, contributing to improving the competitiveness of enterprises and their products in the period of international economic integration, continuing to improve the quality and effectiveness of trade promotion activities such as market research, product promotion, signing contracts with foreign partners... For industries related to taste and creativity, it is necessary to focus on improving the skills of designing creative product models to be beautiful and suitable for the diverse needs of consumers. This issue needs to learn from the experiences of other countries.

In agriculture, it is necessary to increase the export of processed, high-quality products and items with high added value; research to bring to the market

new products, based on the application of science and technology; continue to exploit traditional markets, while constantly developing exports to new markets, focusing on the application of advanced science and technology in agriculture, focusing on varieties, farming and planting methods, promoting investment in equipment and technology in processing and harvesting products; strongly developing the processing industry so that exported goods have high added value and reduce losses for farmers. In addition, it is necessary to promote research and forecasting of market demand from enterprises so that enterprises are always proactive in production, business and export of goods, and at the same time have appropriate policies to the opportunities and challenges brought about by international economic integration.

A very important issue for export goods in particular and Vietnam in general is the issue of branding. Most of Vietnam's products today are not registered for trademarks, products are consumed under the labels of famous brands in the world. The lack of product branding has significantly affected the export of products and the profits of manufacturing and exporting enterprises. Therefore, in addition to the above activities, enterprises need to pay attention to building their own brand, a unique characteristic.

On the part of industry associations: industry associations need to quickly perfect their organizational structure and operating model towards professionalization, effectively perform their role as a supporter for businesses in finding markets and raw materials, helping to link businesses together to expand production capacity; be an effective representative to reflect the requests of businesses to the government; need to organize, collect, analyze and process information about the market, about the requirements of importers, about the import policies of import markets, and of competitors to advise and support businesses in accessing the market, organizing production and exporting.

3.3.2. Solutions to rectify import structure, prevent large trade deficit and use imported goods effectively

The growing trade deficit is an unfavorable sign for the economy; it shows that the ability to produce and sell domestic goods is still weak. The effort to gradually reduce the trade deficit and move towards a trade surplus needs to be specifically and immediately set out, because currently Vietnam's trade deficit is not funded by the internal strength of the economy but mainly by external resources. This contains many risks (risks

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