Abolishment of sublicenses: Drastically affecting trust of enterprises

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Toys manufacturer for export in Matrix Vinh Ltd Company (Nghe An). Photo: H.Nu.

Strengthen SMEs

On July 1 2016, a series of business conditions were abolished in the first decrees of 50 decrees on business conditions which have been issued by the Government as follows: Decree 63/2016/ ND-CP on business conditions of testing services of motor vehicles, Decree 58/2016/ ND-CP on business conditions of products, services and export-import of civil encryption; Decree 62/2016/ ND-CP on operating conditions of judicial construction expertise and laboratory construction, etc.

Commenting on the process of business environment reforms, especially the process of amending business legislation which the Government is implementing, Mr. To Hoai Nam, Vice Chairman and General Secretary of Association of Vietnam Small and Medium Enterprises said that the spirit of the Government was trying to create a favorable business environment for enterprises, by step by step abolishing the unsuitable conditions which caused trouble for enterprises to enter the business market.

However, he was concerned that the process of completing business law is problematic. Government effort was very precious, but now Vietnam enterprises are worried about that the policies of the Government were very true, but definitely slower when they were done, different from original policies.

Therefore, the Government should urge and have certain mechanisms to monitor the units, agencies, departments to ensure that policies will be properly implemented. The units and individuals for any reason, which implement inconsistent with policies or orders of the Government shall be strictly punished. More than 3,000 sublicenses issued by ministries, local agencies that are no longer appropriate, have not officially been abolished, Mr. To Hoai Nam said it was the responsibility of the Government, the Ministry of Justice and a number of related agencies, to continue to review and abolish the licenses which were no longer appropriate.

Need to have a specific roadmap

Under the provisions of the Investment Law 2014 (as amended), from July 1, 2016, the business conditions which are regulated by ministries, departments and local agencies shall no longer be effective. After reviewing and classifying business conditions, there are currently 3.299 conditions stipulated in Circular 170, or decisions of ministries. Although the law stipulates, however, up to now, the decrees or legal documents have not yet been fully enacted, many business conditions are still in the process of waiting to be upgraded to the decrees, including business conditions which relevant agencies indicate illegal signs, causing worries to many enterprises.

In response to this problem, Mr. Mac Quoc Anh, Chairman of Hanoi Association of Small and Medium Enterprises said that the most important thing now is which provision should be removed and how to implement the appropriate roadmap, which need to be specific, serious, strict enforcing commitment of the public authorities. Currently, the Government is directing to abolish sublicenses, but can not determine that whether specific regulations or groups should be eliminated or enjoy priority services.

Commenting on the implementation process, Mr. Mac Quoc Anh said that all policies and guidelines are clear but the execution is very vague, "in the thought that if they are removed, whether we can manage or not, and if we keep them, it will be better or not", which means that the public authorities are not strong enough to change their mind.

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Therefore, in the next time, the roadmap and actions of leaders of authorities on this matter should be more aggressive. "The government has had many conversations with enterprises, representatives of Hanoi City have also had an conversation with enterprises, but SMEs are now deeply concerned. Once committed to the enterprise, the Government and relevant departments need to do thoroughly, if not, the Government will lose the trust of both domestic and foreign enterprises, both large and small enterprises, which put a huge impact on the investment environment", Mr. Mac Quoc Anh proposed.