Business Enabling Environment Team Lead

Scope of Work

Business Enabling Environment Team Lead

Background

The purpose of the USAID Improving Private Sector Competitiveness (IPSC) (“the Project”) is to remove constraints and build the competitiveness of small and growing businesses (SGBs) in Vietnam, including those led by vulnerable populations. With this Project, USAID/Vietnam is supporting Vietnam’s competitiveness: vertically at the policy, market and firm level; and horizontally by working along the entire spectrum of enterprise growth models, from household businesses transforming into registered firms to small firms on the cusp of scaling up. Deloitte Consulting LLP (“Deloitte”) is implementing this Project on behalf of USAID. The Agency for Enterprise Development (AED) of the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) is the Vietnam Government counterpart of IPSC.

The Project is made up of four interrelated Objectives:

• Objective 1. Building business management capacity of SGBs, including those led by vulnerable populations (particularly women and ethnic minorities).
• Objective 2.  Improving efficiency and productivity by promoting innovation, technology adoption, and sustainable business models.
• Objective 3.  Enhancing business enabling environment for a broad-based inclusive economy (BEE).
• Objective 4. Strengthening business-to-business (B2B) and cross-sectoral linkages.

Summary of Activities

Objective 3 is aimed at supporting the Government of Vietnam (GVN) in improving the business enabling environment, focusing on advocating reforms that facilitate improving regulatory effectiveness, adopting methodologies and tools that increase efficiency, increasing the quality of public-private dialogue (PPD), and reducing the compliance burden on businesses to maximize the potential growth of SGBs. Objective 4 initiatives are intended to enhance the capacity and collaboration with business support organizations (BSOs) to improve advocacy, support, and business development services.

The Business Enabling Environment Team Lead will manage implementation of activities targeted at business environment reforms and ensure the quality of technical assistance delivery, including proposing policy reforms and managing a PPD mechanism of engaging SMEs in policy activities. The Business Enabling Environment Team will also manage activities to improve the capacity of business associations. Activities promote and sustain cooperation and services among public and private BSOs and business development service providers (BDSPs) to improve private sector competitiveness.

Specific Tasks

The Business Enabling Environment Team Lead shall perform the following tasks:

• Provide overall technical and managerial leadership for Objectives 3 and 4, ensuring an integrated vision and a focus on achieving results.
• Lead the technical team in initiating, proposing, designing and implementing technical assistance activities to support the Government of Vietnam’s (GVN’s) efforts in business environment reforms, including: formulating and implementing reform initiatives and policies to generate new growth drivers for the sector; improving coordination between promulgation and policy enforcement agencies in the policy making and implementation process by creating new or improving existing coordination mechanisms; facilitating cross-agency information sharing to reduce the compliance burden on SGBs; designing and formulating selected policies (regulatory sandboxes) to promote new business models and new business sectors; strengthening the capacity of central and local agencies to play the leading role in policy dialogue and consultation processes more effectively and proactively, ensuring that policies are issued in a comprehensive and inclusive manner; and designing and proposing mechanisms and tools for the private sector to support monitoring and supervision of regulatory reform activities and policy implementation.
• Foster and maintain collaborative relationship with GVN counterparts, USAID, business associations and other stakeholders to engage policy making and policy dialogues
• Lead initiatives to facilitate more efficient PPDs in policy formation and implementation.
• Work with relevant stakeholders to create and manage mechanisms for effectively engaging SMEs in policy activities.
• Lead resource planning, implementation, and reporting under the BSO portfolio to improve the capacity of business associations and services delivered to their members.
• Promoting BSOs engagement and participation in relevant IPSC business enabling environment and SGB support activities.
• Supporting business development service providers (BDSPs), including consulting firms, academia, incubators/accelerators, and other businesses to target their services to SGBs and expand their market reach.
• Managing technical interventions with BSOs and monitoring annual work plan activities to ensure they are on-time and accomplished according to the plan.
• In conjunction with the MEL Manager, collect and report on relevant data for reporting to USAID and project partners. Prepare policy notes, briefings, success stories, and other materials.
• Contribute regular inputs for IPSC’s weekly, quarterly, and annual reporting.
• Carry out additional tasks within the scope of the expertise and experience as requested by IPSC management.

Qualifications

• At least a master’s degree in public management, economics, business administration, law or related field with a minimum 10 years of full-time professional experience.
• Proven experience in effective strategic planning and direction setting, with strong conceptual and analytical skills.
• Knowledge of policies and regulations relating to SME development.
• Experience in activities enhancing PPD in policy activities.
• Practical understanding of policy formulation or legal document making/revision processes.
• Proven experience in coordinating and collaborating with government agencies and business associations.
• Demonstrated experience in capacity building or supporting BSOs and business associations.
• Experience working on international donor-funded projects, USAID-funded projects preferred.
• Experience working with complex networks of stakeholders (government agencies at central and local level, business associations, and enterprises).
• Demonstrated high level organizational and time management skills, including the ability to manage workflow and balance competing priorities to ensure deadlines are met.
• Experience working in a team environment, possessing excellent people skills.
• Vietnamese nationality.
• Fluency in English and Vietnamese and proficiency in reporting and presenting.

Reporting Requirements

The Business Enabling Environment Team Lead reports to IPSC’s Chief of Party.

Place, Period of Performance and Level of Effort

Level of effort:              Full time

Expected start date:         July 2024

Location:                         Hanoi, Vietnam with travel to other provinces as required

Submission and Deadline:

Interested candidates are invited to submit their CV and Cover letter in English to [email protected] Please state “Application for BEE Team Lead – Full name” in the subject line.

Due to the high volume of applications, only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. Deadline for applications is COB 14 June 2024, Hanoi time.

USAID Improving Private Sector Competitiveness Key Concepts and Definitions

• Small and Growing Business (SGB): An organization/economic unit of Vietnam, including enterprises, under the provisions of the Law on Enterprises, cooperatives operating under the provisions of the Law on Cooperatives, and business households registered in accordance with Vietnamese law, which employs no more than 500 full-time employees, has growth potential but lacks the resources of knowledge, finance, human resources, and technology to realize its goals and growth potential. 
• Pioneering SGBs or Pioneering Enterprises (PEs): A growing Vietnamese enterprise with Vietnamese-branded products, good competitiveness, the ability to lead and expand in the industry, sector, and locality, good management capacity and willingness to innovate and produce products with high added value, with the vision/objective to build a Vietnamese brand in the international market.
• Business Development Service Provider (BDSP): Agencies, organizations and enterprises in both the public and private sector with functions, duties/business lines providing non-financial services to support enterprises to improve operational efficiency and business development.
• Business Support Organization (BSO): An organization with the function and mission to connect and support business development, often including business associations/clubs, industries, etc.