VCCI: Control mechanism on additional business conditions necessary

VCCI said that the review should have clear results with a specific roadmap

In the suggestion document of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Vietnam (VCCI) on the draft Resolution No. 02/NQ-CP of the Government on tasks and solutions to improve the business environment and enhance the capacity of national competition in 2022 and following years, in terms of cutting the list of investment and conditional business lines and reforming business conditions, VCCI said that ministries and sectors still regularly conduct reviews on the list of conditional investment and business lines.

However, this review should have clear results with a specific roadmap, that is, the list of conditional investment and business lines must be revised in a timely manner. This will make an important contribution to facilitating the production and business activities of enterprises, thereby improving the business investment environment of Vietnam.

Therefore, VCCI proposed to set a timeline and request specific results for ministries and sectors in the implementation of this important task. Moreover, the review of the list of conditional investment and business lines should be in the direction of narrowing the scope of some industries and removing the industries from the list if there are other effective management measures.

According to VCCI, the improvement of the business investment environment set out by the Government since 2014 can only be effectively implemented if there is synchronization in the review and abolition of business investment lines, business conditions (existing) with effective control of proposals for new business investment lines and business conditions.

Recently, there has been a phenomenon in which state authorities proposed to add new conditional business lines but have not proved the suitability of the state management objectives of that industry compared with the provisions of Article 7 of the Law on Investment, or overlap in management scope with other business lines on the list.

In addition, some reformed areas on business conditions tend to be tightened. The regulations are stricter than business conditions, while the arguments are not really convincing. The review and abolishment of existing business conditions have been carried out but lack a mechanism to control the issuance of new ones. This will result in ineffective improvement of business environment activities.

Therefore, VCCI proposed the drafting agency to supplement the content on the task of controlling the supplementation of conditional business lines and new business conditions in the draft.

Regarding the reform of management and specialized inspection of exported and imported goods, according to VCCI, the draft has set out solutions and tasks but it has not assigned specific tasks and which ministries and sectors will in charge. This will make it difficult to supervise enforcement. Therefore, VCCI proposed to the drafting agency to add specific ministries and sectors to perform this task in the draft.

Besides the solutions to reform administrative procedures, it is necessary to remove barriers in investment and business activities and reduce harassment and trouble for enterprises in the process of production and business activities.

Therefore, VCCI recommended that the drafting agency should consider supplementing this content, thereby requesting ministries, sectors and provincial-level People's Committees to continue effectively implementing the Prime Minister's directives on strengthening handling and effectively preventing harassment and trouble for people and businesses in solving issues and regulating inspection and examination activities for enterprises.