After 5 years of implementing Resolution 19: Business environment changed but not "hit" destination

	The Resolution No. 19-2018: Pressure must be always hot to boost action
	Resolution 19: improving business environment but a long way to go
	Many challenges in implementation of Resolution 19

Vietnam has increased its rankings in the business environment ranking after five years of implementing Resolution 19 / NQ-CP. Picture: ST.

Increasing 30 rankings in the chart

According to Nguyen Thi Minh Thao, Head of the Business Environment and Competitiveness Unit of the Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM), after the resolution of Resolution 19 was improved, if in 2014 we ranked 78 and in 2015 fell to the 90th position, by 2018 Vietnam's business environment has risen to the rank of 69. Before 2014, in 2013, the rank of Vietnam was 99, so far Vietnam has increased 30 ranks in the ranking of the World Bank. Business environment continues to increase in scores and even increased very fast in 2017 (up 14 levels). In 2018, despite the declining business environment, most of the business environment indicators improved with 8 out of 10 improvement scores. Accordingly, the Start-up Index has improved; Construction permits maintain good rankings; Access to electricity continuously increased, rising; Property ownership registration in 2018 has improved for the first time in five years; Contract dispute resolution has also improved through the publicity of the verdict. Vietnam's logistics performance in 2018 has improved the most over the past decade.

Of the 10 indicators in 2018, the index of Access to Electricity has risen dramatically, from 66 in 2017 to 27. From 2014 (Vietnam is 156/190), 2018 Vietnam rose 129 points in this index. According to Dr. Nguyen Dinh Cung, Director of CIEM, this is a very high position, a great effort, not easy to achieve and also, "very worthwhile learning when EVN has thoroughly studied this metric from when Vietnam started implementing Resolution 19. "

In addition, one of the highlights of Vietnam's business environment improvement is Business Startup. Tran Thi Hong Minh, Director General of the Ministry of Planning and Investment, Ministry of Planning and Investment said that Vietnam has reduced the fee for registration of businesses, so that since January 20, it was reduced 50% compared with the previous regulations and 100% exemption if the company registered online. Period of seal making as well as procedures for notification of seal samples are reduced. Accordingly, the time to seal for the enterprise is only 1 day instead of 5 days, and the procedure for notifying the seal is also recorded to 2 days instead of 5 days of the previous report.

On improving the tax index, according to the World Bank's Doing Business - World Business Report 2018, the taxpayers rank 86/190 (an increase of 81 steps compared to 2017), and this is the fourth consecutive year. Tax reforms are recognized in the Business Environment Report. Comparing with ASEAN 4 and Asean 6, Vietnam ranks 4th, following is Singapore (7th), Thailand (67th) and Malaysia (73rd). However, in the Doing Business Report 2019, this index of Vietnam has decreased despite not much change in score.

According to CIEM's report, Vietnam has set a high target for improving the business environment but these are feasible, specific and measurable targets. We also have specific solutions, clear responsibilities. The direction of the Government is specific, drastic, consistent, regular and continuous. As a result, there are clear results, different from before, there is a positive impact on business activities of enterprises, making the belief of enterprises, the market increased, the quality of business environment, nationally and in local improvements business results are better.

Determination of many times to improve remarkably

In addition to the achieved results, in fact there are many limitations of the business environment that have not been overcome and are a barrier to business operations of enterprises. One of the highlights of the business environment, according to a World Bank report, Vietnam has risen 19 places this year, but the ranking still ranks above 100, there is still much work to do to improve this indicator.

Mrs. Nguyen Thi Minh Thao said that the biggest negative point of Vietnam business environment in 5 years of implementation of Resolution No. 19 of the Government on the index of bankruptcy solving enterprises is not improved, even goes down and needs to be changed. Today, the mechanisms and procedures of bankruptcy like today makes enterprises have difficulties in carrying out bankruptcy procedures. This is an index relating to court activities, and for the past five years we have neither seen reforms in court proceedings nor had mechanisms for businesses falling into bankruptcy to recover rehabilitation or failing to restore the bankruptcy procedures faster. In the World Bank's Doing Business - Doing Business 2012 ranking, Vietnam's Bankruptcy Rating Index was the lowest in the 10 indexes at 34.93 points, down 0.23 points, ranked 133/190 of countries, down 4 points in the ranking. In another study, Attorney Nguyen Quang Hung and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) noted that, in one study, contract resolution in Vietnam over 10 years has not changed when it still lasts 400 days.

Experts said that despite many achievements, the results are still far from the target. Accordingly, Vietnam has not achieved the ASEAN 4 average for business environment. In terms of cutting down business conditions, the number of abolished business conditions is still low compared to the target of abolition (at least 50% of current business conditions) and the quality of cuts is not up to the requirements. The number of goods subject to specialized inspection has decreased significantly, less than the target of reducing at least half of the goods subject of inspection.

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Appreciating the efforts of some agencies such as the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Health, EVN Group, Quang Ninh, Dong Thap ... in the effort to improve business environment, CIEM’s report also said that the results of the reduction of business conditions were uneven, with a large gap between indicators, between ministries, sectors and localities. Only in the indexes, sectors and fields are there still hot issues; the issue is paid attention to by the public, with comments and strong demand from enterprises as well as business associations.

It is said that the reason why we have indexes decreasing or standing still is that we can reform very strongly but other countries move faster. "Vietnam's decline was not for reason of no reforms, but for reforms for the country to be better. Therefore, we have to resolve 3, 4, 5 times more than before to reach the target. However, a remarkable improvement in overcoming other countries will be an immense challenge after the ministry has been pressured to implement Resolution 19 over the past five years," said Phan Duc Hieu, Deputy Director of CIEM.

Experts also say that there is a competition in the race for prosperity of nations by improving the business environment, improving national competitiveness. Therefore, the relevant agencies should see that this is an opportunity. If reform is not done at this time, the opportunity for reform will be lost, rework costs will be much more expensive because of long reworking time and benefits will decrease.