Motivation breakthrough in improving business environment

In 2019, the Customs sector continues to set the goal of creating maximum favorable conditions for businesses to reduce cargo clearance time, thereby contributing to improving the business environment. In the photo: Customs operation at Huu Nghi International Border Gate Customs Branch, Lang Son Customs Department. Photo: Huy Kham.

Let businesses have business motivation

Improving the business environment, improving competitiveness is a priority of the Government in recent years, notably the Government continuously issued 5 Resolution No. 19 on improving economic environment (since 2014). According to the Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM), in the five years of implementing Resolution No. 19, our business environment and competitiveness have had many positive improvements, been appreciated by the business community, putting a lot of faith and expectations in the Government's reform efforts. The indicators set targets to increase mark or increase rank, in which, the business environment of our country is evaluated to improve positively. For example, there are 6/10 business environment indicators of our country in 2018 that have improved compared to 2014. Namely indicators of Access to electricity (up 108 steps), Tax payment and Social Insurance ( increased 42 levels), investor protection (increased 28 levels), business start-ups (increased 21 levels), Access to credit (increased 4 levels), Licensing construction (up 1 level).

However, Ms. Nguyen Thi Minh Thao, Head of Research Department of Business Environment and Competitiveness (CIEM) said that the improved content mainly focused on issues that businesses reflect upon regularly and continously; Indirect indicators have not focused on improvement and some indicators have not changed, even dropped in the rankings, such as corporate bankruptcy index and contract dispute resolution. In addition, there is no close and active coordination between ministries, branches, localities and enterprises, some reforms are still not yet realistic, along with the attitude of Ministries and civil servants who in the performance of many tasks, cause trouble for businesses.

Evaluation of the implementation of business environment improvement in 2019, according to Mr. Dau Anh Tuan, Head of Legal Department, Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), it is essential to conduct risk management. Accordingly, for enterprises with high risk of violations, or industries with high potential for violations, they must be closely inspected and controlled and vice versa for low risk scenarios. Those that do business seriously must have reduced inspections and controls for stabilizing their business and production. According to Mr. Dau Anh Tuan, Resolution No. 02 assigns ministries and sectors to build a risk management process and if done, will have a very good impact, creating good business motivation.

Mr. Dau Anh Tuan proposed, firstly in 2019 and next year, to cut down on business conditions and administrative procedures by having a more formal way of doing it, it should have standards and criteria to define business conditions, for what is appropriate and inappropriate. Secondly, it is necessary to have a mechanism to announce the control of business conditions, because at present, despite the reduction of business conditions, how to control business conditions does not appear again without criteria. “The market index, although it increased by 21 grades, needs a stronger breakthrough because Vietnam was only assessed relatively well in business registration. MPI needs to be the lead agency in implementing this task,” said Mr. Dau Anh Tuan.

According to Mr. Dau Anh Tuan, Resolution 02 is more clearly linked to the responsibilities of the heads of ministries, branches and localities in considering the improvement of the business environment as a priority and task of directing. “This is a very important step of Resolution 02 and we appreciate it very much. At the same time, the Resolution assigned VCCI and independent business associations to monitor, this is an important change whereby ministries and local branches do not have to complete the action program, but must watch people for how people and businesses benefit,” Mr. Dau Anh Tuan emphasized.

Need a favorable and safe business environment

Resolution 02 - the new name of Resolution 19, enacted in early 2019, continues by setting a target for the period 2019-2021 to bring Vietnam to the ASEAN-4 group in all rankings. According to experts, the new points of Resolution 02 will bring an initiative and sense of responsibility in implementing policies to facilitate enterprises in 2019 and subsequent years.

Regarding improvements in the business environment, it is known that in September 2018, the Prime Minister established the National e-Government Committee, with the Prime Minister's determination to build an e-Government towards Digital economy and digital society. According to the Minister, Chairman of the Government Office Mai Tien Dung, the most important thing currently in the the Prime Minister’s directive, is to serve the people and businesses, therefore, we must provide public services towards people and businesses. “The problem is very important, if we have electronic transparency, transparency in records from national data centers, public service centers in provinces, localities, ministries and branches, we will be cutting down the time spent by people and businesses when implementing administrative procedures, avoiding troubles, harassment, and with benefits,” Minister Mai Tien Dung said.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc in his speech at the beginning of 2019 also affirmed: In 2019, it will have to step up administrative reform and e-Government construction; strengthen inspection, reception of citizens, settlement of complaints and denunciations, and prevention of corruption and waste. At the same time, simplifying and cutting down administrative procedures, creating better conditions, more favorable conditions, reducing costs and time for people and businesses.

According to experts from CIEM, the need is for encouraging investment, the State needs to ensure the business environment is not only convenient but also safe. The weakness of legal institutions that protect legitimate rights and interests of businesses is one of the top concerns of businesses today. Bad signals about a healthy business environment include: Delays and wrongdoings in trials; criminalizing economic relations and enforcing unresponsive court decisions; the phenomenon of courts not recognizing and cancelling arbitration decisions... Therefore, in parallel with administrative reforms, judicial reform should be a focus for improving the upcoming business environment.

Vietnam makes giant stride in business climate improvement The Government Resolution No 19 has brought about remarkable improvements in business environment and national competitive capacity ...

In addition, according to CIEM's assessment, discrimination, corruption, administrative procedure barriers, and especially the "backyard business" movement are besieging private businesses that are doing genuine business. Therefore, in the fight against corruption in the private sector, the role of the State is huge. The State needs to create a business environment and legal provisions to ensure transparency and feasibility so that economic entities can compete healthily, not based on relationships or protection.

Thus, prioritizing the reform of the business environment in the direction of facilitating production and business activities of enterprises is one of the key tasks of the Government, ministries, branches and localities in 2019 as well as in the forthcoming years. With the spirit of speeding up, creating and breakthrough development, the State expects the ministers and heads of localities to have management breakthroughs, and practical solutions to create a favorable and safe business environment, putting more motivation for businesses to expand investment and development.