The allure of transparency

About ten or fifteen years ago, the whole country was in a frenzy of rolling out the red carpet to call for investment and attract talent. At that time, localities competed to attract investment with all kinds of priorities and incentives for investors such as tax and fee exemptions and reductions, shortening of administrative procedures... For those with high qualifications, they were arranged housing, given a large sum of money to settle down and immediately enjoyed state employment...

At that time, there was also a very unhealthy competition in the style of the local “red carpet” always offering more incentives than the locality that went first. And it was thought that, with “this momentum”, the whole country would move forward quickly, strongly, and steadily. But reality proved that was not the case. Therefore, everything boiled up for a short time and then died down as if there had never been a competition called “red carpet”.

Why is that? Some people, after paying close attention for a while, made a comment in the spirit of a helpless person, that: all invitations are actually just a pipe dream. Many talented people have come to follow those invitations, not necessarily because of the immediate benefits, but some because they want to contribute to the land where they were born and raised.

Some people want to have a place to show their talents, to show their burgeoning abilities but have no place to show them. But then, when they come, they are filled with hope, but when they leave, they are filled with disappointment. And most of the people who leave are not because they do not receive all the incentives as invited, but mainly because there is no environment for them to show their talents to shine, to bring practical benefits to the community, worthy of the priorities and incentives they are given. When they realize that those invitations do not seem to be sincere, they resolutely return everything to find a suitable working environment to be more effective.

Similar to the talents, many investors were attracted by those invitations and sought out the localities. The gullible ones rushed to open factories and recruit workers, but when they got started, they realized that the gap between invitations and actual actions was very large. As a National Assembly delegate lamented in the parliament: Many officials on duty extorted, harassed, demanded bribes, and grease fees, causing businesses to suffer and businessmen to be discouraged.

On the surface, they “roll out the red carpet” to invite investors, but underneath, they “spread nails”. Especially when they get caught up in the maze of administrative procedures, they just wake up, but the money has already been spent, the factory has been built, so they have to “follow through”. And so they have to blindly pay out the money that is called under the very civilized name of “unofficial costs”.

Informal means illegal, clandestine, “under-the-table transactions” without knowing where to account for them. And many business owners have been imprisoned for such expenses, which are not accepted in their country and are considered illegal. So they lose money and go to jail. Others have had to swallow their pride and continue to suffer. Therefore, people are always very wary of attractive invitations.

Moreover, when people invest money in business, they expect a transparent and open environment to make long-term profits, not to look at those immediate and short-term priorities and incentives. Therefore, that kind of “red carpet” trick has “lost its sacredness”, is no longer effective, and frankly, is outdated.

Therefore, it is necessary to create an effective working environment, to promote the full potential and strengths of each person so that talented people will come, along with that, it is necessary to create a transparent business environment so that investors will come to create more motivation for development. That is the most attractive invitation - the attraction of transparency.

Duy Huong