Improving the business environment: Need to be stronger, more drastic and faster

	Enterprises need action and practical efficiency
	A stepping stone to bring import-export turnover obtained 1 trillion USD by 2025
	Tasks and solutions for socio-economic development and national competitiveness improvement in 2023

Remove difficulties for enterprises in order to boost production and business. Photo: Tuyet Nhung

Low business belief

As a practice, since 2014, in addition to Resolution 01 on key solutions to implement the one-year socio-economic development plan, the Government will also issue Resolution 02 on solutions measures to improve the business environment and enhance national competitiveness. These are considered the biggest supports for businesses to overcome challenges. 2023 is the first time that the Government has combined two Resolutions 01 and 02 into one after 9 years of independent existence.

According to Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Tran Duy Dong, from mid-2022, businesses face many difficulties due to unpredictable fluctuations in the world causing high input costs and a serious decline in the market; many businesses have to cut production and reduce labor.

The number of businesses suspending operations increases and thus entails many social consequences. While businesses desperately need help from institutional reform packages and improving the business environment, the interest level of ministries, branches and localities seem to be slowing down. Many goals, tasks and solutions have not met the requirements as directed by the Government and the business community. In some areas, barriers are even bigger, making it difficult not only for businesses but also for enforcement officers. Therefore, businesses' confidence in institutional reform and business environment improvement is still fragile.

On the global rankings, some improvement indicators have not been sustainable and there are also many specific indicators where the quality and ranking of Vietnam is low or declining. Compared to 2021, a number of indicators in 2022 decreased, such as Innovation, which decreased by 4 places (from 44th to 48th); Sustainable development maintained the score but decreased by 4 places (from 51st to 55th); the level of participation in e-Government decreased by 2 places (from 70th to 72nd).

“In general, improving the position on the rankings is increasingly challenging, especially in the context that the economy has just gone through a difficult period due to the pandemic and is facing many unpredictable fluctuations. To create impetus for the economy to recover and grow, business environment reform is an indispensable solution and requires the strong, drastic and accelerated participation of ministries, branches and localities,” Deputy Minister Tran Duy Dong said.

Dissolve the fear of violating the regulations of civil servants

Mr. Nguyen Hoa Cuong, Deputy Director of the Central Institute for Economic Management, said that there are still many shortcomings in the business environment. Many current legal documents do not ensure consistency, suitability and feasibility, causing many costs for businesses and leading to difficulties for localities in handling investment and business procedures.

Pressure from costs that businesses are still suffering such as raw materials, costs of compliance with regulations on business conditions, and port infrastructure fees.

On that basis, Deputy Director of the Research Institute of The Central Economic Management Board made a number of recommendations, focusing on proposing solutions to further promote the reform of administrative procedures, creating favorable changes for the business environment, promptly removing difficulties for enterprises, especially, ministries, branches and localities need to consider enterprises as the center and carry out institutional reforms for the development and encouragement of enterprise's creativity; consider improving the business environment and enhancing competitiveness as a key task.

Talking to Customs News, economic expert Nguyen Dinh Cung said that the good clarity in policy management has been thoroughly understood over the years, including macro stability; reforming, restructuring, changing growth models and deepening international economic integration. In which, macro stability is still necessary, but policies need to be flexible, avoiding some rigid manifestations like in the past.

Regarding economic reform and restructuring, Mr. Cung said that there must be institutional reforms that are strong enough, consistent and especially in line with the market. In the previous period, the focus of institutional reform was on reforming administrative procedures and improving the business environment. However, for the coming period, institutional reform needs to shift the focus to developing different types of factor markets so that these markets can play the role of resource mobilization and allocation.

According to Mr. Cung, in order to restore the momentum of institutional reform and improve the business environment in the current period, it is first necessary to strengthen the capacity of central agencies. Accordingly, it is necessary to restore the operation and strengthen the capacity of the National Council on the business environment and national competitiveness. The Prime Minister should regularly request ministries and localities to step up business environment reform, especially the 10 key tasks specified in Resolution 01/NQ-CP.

Enterprises expect more support to reform business environment

“The Government should regularly request ministries and localities to step up the implementation of Resolution 01 on reforming and improving the business investment environment. Promote and maintain continuity in the reform and improvement of the business environment and the implementation of Resolution 01 on the basis of connecting and bridging with the business community. Especially, it is necessary to neutralize the fear of violating the regulations of civil servants in the state apparatus," said Cung.