Transfer of public services to Association of Economic Organizations – A way to reduce budget expenses

Some associations have gathered many individual businesses with the same size, profession, manufacturing field, business, and service ... in some local areas. Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) at provincial level has gathered numerous members, accounting for over 60% of the production capacity of local areas.

Some national organizations and associations such as the VINASME, Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), Vietnam Cooperative Alliance (VCA), Vietnam Textile and Apparel Association (VITAS), Vietnam Banks Association, Vietnam Association of Leather - Footwear, Vietnam Private Business Association ... are  relatively well-functioning  representative to be a bridge between members and the state agencies to represents their opinion in drafting the law, making economic development policies in region and in the sector, and debating, counseling and socially expertise as Communist party, the State and Vietnam Fatherland Front required.
 
 In the past years, our society basically mostly pay attention to political organizations such as the Communist Party of Vietnam (as leading organization taking the role ruling party since August 1945); State (mostly functional management) and the mass organizations in which we mainly know only about political - social ones under the direct leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam such as Vietnam Fatherland Front (Party takes role of both leader and member), Vietnam General Confederation of Labor, the Vietnam Women's Union, Vietnam Veterans’ Union, Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union, Vietnam Farmers' Association. These organizations, unions are led and guided intensively to promote their huge role in the implementation of the guidelines and policies of Party and the State, political mission, goals, plans of the revolution/ the country, and the protection the interests of each organization, force, class, and gender ...

Meanwhile, in recent years, social - professional organizations, including the Association of the economic organizations having more favorable conditions for rapid development are still little known with its unidentified position of in society and have not acknowledged in a satisfactory way. Therefore, the role of representatives in businesses and the economic - technology sector haven’t promoted. Many associations working nominally, lacking system and capacity to carry out the mission of members’ representatives in domestic and foreign affairs, trade promotion, technical assistance and training to  improve members’ competitiveness in the country and meet the requirements of international economic integration.
 
Currently the country is in the process of integration into the powerful and far-reaching economic in regional and global areas. If the business cannot meet the requirements of integration will be discarded. And if each enterprise itself has to “struggle” or scramble for competitiveness, it will not make a positive change for the industry or the economy. Whether the conditions are favorable or difficult, reality has proved that the role of Association of the economic organization has grown both in width and depth. Many organizations have a very deep understanding of profession, small and medium enterprises, the environment, poverty reduction, the bank credit, and export ... Many of them was chosen to participate in global research projects, programs. The overall trend is that the association is often seen as useful partners of government in providing public goods and services, because these organizations usually can provide these services with higher quality and lower cost than that of government. The main cause of this problem is the voluntary element of the Association while solving the problems of the economy, society freely and voluntarily. This mechanism is contrast with the bulky and expensive areas of state management.

It should be confirmed immediately that the most important feature of the Association is not allowing sharing profit internally among members as a non-commercial organization; therefore, it is possible for association to receive and implement supporting programs from the government, or state-run activities without violence with Agreement signed with worldwide partners. The success of the association is their market expertise because they are object close to enterprises and people; so they understand what they need and made themselves meet those needs. Organization of this network is more favorable than the state’s one. Whenever receiving a public service transfer, the Association have to agree with the conditions and principles of the program, including criteria, subjects, procedure, monitoring and consolidation principles,.. Therefore, competitive factors on the effectiveness of work through quality and cost (advantage by getting a lot of volunteer manpower) are ensured to get government projects and state-run service. Therefore, the transfer of services from the state to the Association shall be known as the transfer of responsibility. The Association stand out too gather intellectual resources of society, of which there are many areas the State cannot do in the context of international economic integration. On the other hand, from the perspective of management science with the regulatory shift public services for Economic Association to implement, the State at that time just played the focal role, moving from direct service provider to sponsors that will reduce expenses for the budget. The State will have more favorable conditions to focus on management of macroeconomic and other issues of the country, avoiding dispersion in the use of human resources. On the other hand, one of the fundamental tasks of the State is to find and fill impaired areas of the market economy and more generally, national economy - society. Due to managing characteristic of state apparatus, there is no public authority mechanism that can erase these shortcomings, while the needs of the business, the people are very diverse and unpredictable. Thus, it is necessary to have a "soft subject" for regulatory that is an important mission of the Association during construction and development process of the national economy.

VINASME, the representative organization at national level of SMEs in Vietnam, accounts for over 97% in total businesses in Vietnam. In the process of formation and development with attention of the Party, State, of Vietnam Fatherland Front, the Association has engaged in critical, constructive policies legislation and participates in programs and projects of the State as international organizations. Especially there are project topics, the valuable documents of organizations/association in Vietnam and in the world such as: Business - organized NGO (BONGO); Government - organized (NGO) Peoples Organization (PO); Self - Help Organization (SHO). The Association is one among little number of organization having right of work in state run with its experiences and researches.

In the socio - economic context of our country, promotion the role of entrepreneurs in our country's Constitution in 2013, and innovation in asserting the business freedom of the people, of the Enterprise Law approved by National Association at the end of 2014 are the extreme right policy, as a leverage, which is favorable to stimulate, promote and exploit all potential resources in people, organizations, social - professional association, including the Association of the economic organizations.  Accordingly, the transfer of public service activities in the field of economics for Economic Association is needed, enough to convince on all aspects of theoretical and practical evidence. From there, the position and role of the Association of the economic organization is confirmed and promoted the best, contributing positively and importantly to the innovation, socio - economic development as the country's Party and State initiated.
 

 
To Hoai Nam
Vice President cum General Secretary VINASME