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| The 5th Vietnam CFO Forum highlights CFOs' key roles for growth during tough times. — VNS Photo Hoang Nhu Quynh Hoa |
HCM CITY (Biz Hub) — Senior financial executives are playing increasingly influential roles in strategy and implementation, working closely with CEOs and management boards to creatively assess and design growth opportunities, a forum heard on Wednesday.
Nguyen Thi Thanh Truc, chief financial officer in HSBC Viet Nam, made the statement at the 5th Viet Nam CFO Forum 2013.
Titled Resilience Strategies in Hard Times, the fourm was organised by the Viet Nam CFO Club, Japan Association for CFOs and ACCA Viet Nam.
The forum attracted more than 250 delegates including representatives from International Association of Financial Executives Institutes, Viet Nam Association of Corporate Directors (VACD), members of Viet Nam CFO Club, Japan Association for CFOs, the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, CEOs and CFOs of big corporations.
Truc pointed out that th new core competencies for CFOs are collaboration, business partnering and talent management.
She said that to cope with changes driven by the global economic situation, a paradigm shift in corporate management was needed, especially in financial issues.
For instance, working in silos should be changed to partnering with other corporate functions, she said.
Apart form traditional roles such as measuring and monitoring business performance, meeting local regulatory requirement, process and business improvement, driving cost reduction, CFOs need to be more strategic in thinking, understand competitive advantage, customers and products, she added.
More compelling and meaningful analysis, better ways of communicating to non-finance colleagues should be also included. Moreover, CFOs need to forward looking risk management.
Agreeing with Truc, Han Manh Tien, chairman of VACD, said Vietnamese businesses are currently not equipped to assess or predict evolving situations in business and investment environment.
Hence the role of CFOs in a difficult period becomes more important. They should work with business owners and partners to solve all obstacles and drive the company ahead towards sustainable development, he said.
Le Anh Tuan, head of the research department at Dragon Capital Co. said the world and domestic economy has overcome the most unstable and vulnerable period and will be stronger in the coming year.
The recovery of some leading economies such as Europe, US, China and Japan is leading the recovery, he added.
While cautious and defensive policies were called for during the past few years, it may be time for businesses to think about growth and expansion strategies now, he said.
Tuan said next year will see a better growth than this year. Total investment is expected to reach 31-32 per cent of GDP in 2014-2015. To reach 31-32 per cent, capital for investment has to increase $9-11 billion higher than that in this year.
For next year, currency is certainly one of the causes of inflation, however, other specific factors also have also strong impact on inflation such as oil price, and food prices. — VNS