Entrepreneur Coffee – A Connecting Forum Accompanying Enterprises

Implemented against the backdrop of Phu Tho province stepping up investment environment improvements, the “Entrepreneur Coffee” Program creates an additional direct dialogue channel between local authorities and the business community. From its first session on April 24 to date, the program’s value has been gradually affirmed through its problem-solving approach: obstacles are directed to the right competent agencies, responsibilities and resolution deadlines are determined, and several prolonged cases have found clear directions for resolution...

Following the 3rd session of the Entrepreneur Coffee Program, obstacles at Quang Yen Industrial Cluster (Phong Chau ward) were removed.

Bringing “Bottlenecks” to the Dialogue Table

Every Friday morning at the headquarters of the Provincial People’s Council and Provincial People’s Committee, the Entrepreneur Coffee Program takes place with the participation of provincial leaders, heads of relevant departments and sectors, and business representatives. Replacing crowded conferences and lengthy reports, Entrepreneur Coffee focuses on discussing difficulties in investment, production, and business alongside processing options. Chairman of the Provincial People’s Committee Tran Duy Dong emphasized: “The core objective of the program is to narrow the gap between state management agencies and the local business community.”

Right from the first session, issues ranging from urban planning on both sides of the Lo River, energy projects, and social housing in industrial parks (IPs) to tourism projects were raised directly by businesses. Following discussions, each item was assigned to specific departments and sectors for handling; many tasks were assigned alongside concrete deadlines. By the second session, ASTEMO Phu Tho Co., Ltd. reflected that its project was located outside an IP and set to expire in 2031, while the enterprise wished to continue investing locally. The Provincial Chairman assigned departments and sectors to guide the business in building plans for after project expiration, while studying the possibility of arranging a location inside an IP when conditions are met.

At the Entrepreneur Coffee Program, entanglements regarding land, construction, planning, and investment are reviewed jointly by relevant agencies, rather than forcing enterprises to visit each point of contact sequentially. The case of the Quang Yen Industrial Cluster project serves as an example. During the third session of the Entrepreneur Coffee Program, Nam Hoang Viet JSC reported that its 69.4-hectare industrial cluster project still faced obstacles in site clearance and resettlement arrangements. Provincial People’s Committee Chairman Tran Duy Dong requested a clear roadmap for each task component, striving to complete the resettlement area and hand over clean land in December 2026 to break ground on the project in March 2027.

Following the dialogue, the Thanh Ba Area Land Fund Development Center Branch worked with the consulting unit, the investor, and Quang Yen commune to categorize problematic dossiers; while deploying steps for land acquisition, measurement, inventory, compensation, support, and resettlement. Mr. Le Thanh Vinh, Project Director of Nam Hoang Viet JSC, shared: “Entrepreneur Coffee creates conditions for us to directly exchange difficulties with provincial leaders. The distance between local government and businesses is significantly narrowed when recommendations are received and processed promptly.”

Dialogue also helps identify common industry-wide obstacles. During the fourth session of the Entrepreneur Coffee Program, construction enterprises reflected four key groups of issues regarding bidding; material prices and price indices; waste dumping site planning; and material mine licensing procedures. One enterprise noted that backfill sand prices for a project under construction since 2023 increased by over 60%, whereas published prices at times represented only 60–70% of actual market prices. These reflections provided input data for management agencies to review sector-wide issues. Matters within provincial authority were assigned for handling; issues exceeding local authority were synthesized into recommendations for Central agencies to consider.

Substantive Efficiency Following Each Program

Dialogue with businesses is not a novel model. What determines efficiency lies in what transpires after the meetings. Through Entrepreneur Coffee sessions, processing procedures are becoming increasingly clear: businesses state issues; departments and sectors explain; provincial leaders conclude, designate lead agencies, and set resolution deadlines. However, accompanying businesses does not mean every enterprise proposal receives approval.

For instance, at the fifth session, Vinh Thinh Construction & Services Co., Ltd. proposed adjusting its “Coldwater Aquaculture Serving Tourism” project in Tam Dao into the “Golden Lotus Cultural & Tourism General Services Area,” with a total projected investment of over 27 billion VND. The project faced planning and legal procedure entanglements. After hearing analyses from departments and sectors, Provincial People’s Committee Chairman Tran Duy Dong decided not to consider adjusting the project at that moment; assigning the Department of Construction to lead an inter-agency delegation to review licensing processes, geological safety, planning compliance, and respective party responsibilities. This handling approach demonstrates the necessary boundaries in supporting enterprises: fully qualified matters must be accelerated; obstacles arising from coordination or procedures must be unblocked; while planning and legal issues must be clarified prior to making decisions.

Following the merger, the province possesses a broader development space, alongside an increased volume of enterprises, projects, and inter-agency issues. Thus, the value of Entrepreneur Coffee does not stop at resolving individual cases. Recommendations raised through dialogues have helped the province identify bottlenecks to review management processes and reform administrative procedures. Post-dialogue monitoring mechanisms thus carry decisive significance. Each assigned task requires a dedicated point of contact to follow through to final results. Delays must have identified causes, responsibilities, and next-step processing deadlines.

The efficacy of Entrepreneur Coffee lies not in the number of sessions organized or participating businesses, but in the number of recommendations resolved on time, projects unblocked, and bottlenecks solved at their root. When conclusions at the dialogue table are followed through to the end with concrete progress and results, a single Friday morning hour truly converts into tangible efficiency in improving the investment and business environment.

By mid-August 2026, Phu Tho attracted 89 FDI projects with total registered capital of 1.707 billion USD (a 97.8% increase in capital year-on-year); recorded 3,265 newly established enterprises with total capital of 34.6 trillion VND; and saw 752 enterprises resume operations—raising the total number of active businesses to over 41,000. In parallel with Entrepreneur Coffee, the province applied “24-Hour Green Lane” and “50% Green Lane” procedures in resolving administrative procedures for businesses. By the end of July 2026, the two green lanes processed 272 dossiers; the on-time and ahead-of-time resolution rate reached 98.23% for the “24-Hour Green Lane” and 100% for the “50% Green Lane”...

Ngoc Tuan