Dear EuroCham Members,
It has been an incredibly intense and rewarding few weeks for our European business community here in Vietnam. We have just successfully wrapped up our inaugural Whitebook Dialogue Week 2026.
When our Board of Directors presented EuroCham’s Impact 2030 strategy earlier this year, we shared the ambition to make EuroCham’s advocacy work more direct, more inclusive, and more impactful. The Whitebook Dialogue Week was designed precisely to achieve that goal. By condensing a series of high-level engagements into one focused week, we brought your business challenges straight to the Vietnamese policymakers. The goal was simple: moving beyond merely identifying bottlenecks to accelerate the path to practical solutions.
Looking back, I believe the results speak for themselves. Steering our community through an intensive marathon of nine constructive consultations (spanning the National Assembly, seven ministries, and the State Bank of Vietnam), was a powerful reminder of one of Vietnam’s greatest strengths: its genuine openness to dialogue. In an increasingly fragmented world, Vietnam’s willingness to engage with business, to debate our operational realities, and benchmark itself against international standards remains one of the primary reasons why we continue to invest in this country with confidence.
During this advocacy sprint, our Sector Committees made good headways. We championed broad, cross-cutting reforms that lift all boats, alongside highly specialised, niche topics where European expertise shines brightest. While we could easily spend hours diving into the technical nuances of these exchanges, there are three key takeaways that I believe will define our operating landscape in the months and years ahead:
#1: Real Momentum on our “Must-Win Battles”
When we launched the 17th edition of the Whitebook earlier this year at the Global Gateway Business & Investment Forum under the witness of EU Commissioner Jozef Síkela, we reviewed 39 Must-Win Battles (MWBs). These are the critical regulatory bottlenecks that would unlock the most immediate value for your operations. Prior to this dialogue week, the Government had already fully adopted 7 of them. Over the course of this single week, I am delighted to share that we made tangible progress on more than 20 additional MWBs across multiple industries. This progress takes many shapes and forms. Sometimes it comes through legislative amendments incorporating our specific recommendations. Sometimes through clearer guidance untangling current procedural bottlenecks. Sometimes through joint public-private workshops where we will co-create the regulations of tomorrow. Regardless of the form it takes, the common factor is movement. And movement matters.
#2: Driving Accountability and Harmonisation from the Top
We are seeing a profound shift toward transparency and accountability driven right from the very top. Driven by the “15 days and nights” campaign to slash 50% of unnecessary administrative procedures, the state is using data interconnectivity (under Resolution 66.7) to break down ministerial silos. Furthermore, the Prime Minister’s Official Dispatch 36 strictly mandates that ministries must align their positions before reporting to the government. For our members, this means fewer instances of “regulatory fragmentation” where different ministries or provinces interpret the same decree in conflicting ways.
#3: The Evolution to “Post-Control” and Decentralisation
On multiple fronts, the Government is moving away from burdensome, front-heavy bureaucratic processes and aims today toward a risk-based “post-audit” supervisory mechanism. This evolution is visible in the upcoming construction permit decentralisation taking effect in July 2026, the draft amendments to the Law on Environmental Protection slated for the National Assembly this November, and the Law on Food Safety, which will significantly reduce inspection frequencies for compliant, low-risk enterprises. This same practical, post-control approach was also well-received in our discussions regarding Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIA).
The shifts are still unfolding, but the direction of travel is increasingly clear. Taken together, these discussions reinforced something that we have observed increasingly over recent years: the European business community is becoming a trusted and constructive partner in Vietnam’s reform journey.
With that in mind, this first edition of the Whitebook Dialogue Week is a solid starting point for an exciting new chapter in EuroCham’s advocacy efforts. The marathon is not entirely over yet, as we still have highly anticipated pending meetings with the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Science and Technology on the horizon. Still, the momentum created over the past weeks has been encouraging.
Vietnam’s policy landscape is reshaping itself at breakneck speed. New regulations are being proposed, reviewed, and adopted weekly, at a velocity few countries can match. As this country accelerates its reforms, EuroCham is committed to gearing up our own engine to match that momentum, keeping a clear focus on delivering value for our members.
We look forward to bringing even more of you into these future engagements. Whether you contribute your technical insights through our 20 Sector Committees, lend your voice to our quarterly Business Confidence Index (BCI), or join us directly at the table, your perspective is our fuel.
To enable your voices to be heard, please participate in our upcoming BCI Q2 2026 survey, arriving in your inbox at 6 AM on 15 June. So, I hope to count on you to take just 5 minutes to tell us exactly what bottlenecks you are struggling with so that we can untangle them for you, ensuring your business resilience and sustainable growth.
Thank you for your continued trust and for being the backbone of this remarkable journey.
Stay connected, and chat soon.
Best regards,
Bruno Jaspaert
Chairman EuroCham Vietnam
