Vietnam makes progress in improving business climate

Speaking at the opening ceremony, Director of the Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM) Nguyen Dinh Cung said the issuance of the resolution affirms the Vietnamese Government’s determination in the effort.

Director of the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MoPI)’s Department of Business Registration Tran Thi Hong Minh said Vietnam ranked 104th in the 2019 Doing Business Report, up 19 places from 2017.

Among the three aspects of reform in Vietnam’s business climate recognised by the World Bank (WB) this year, two are in the field of business registration, including the announcement of business registration information online and reducing business registration costs.

According to the WB, Vietnam’s business startup process includes eight steps done over 17 days, while the average processing times for East Asia and the Pacific include 6.8 steps done in 25.9 days.

The Advisory Council of Administrative Procedures Reform announced in its 2018 report that business registration ranks second of eight in the index for the lowest administrative procedure compliance costs.

Minh urged the MoPI to speed up the process of business registration applications to within three days, instead of the current five days, in line with the Corporate Law.

The Ministry of Finance needs to reduce the waiting time for purchasing and printing VAT invoices to four days from the current 10 days for the business startup process, she said.

Deputy head of the Department of Reform and Modernisation from the Ministry of Finance’s General Department of Taxation Hoang Thi Lan Anh also suggested supplementing the Law on Tax Management and relevant policies.

Anh proposed that the finance ministry should amend accounting rules for micro-sized enterprises and launch e-tax services.

Vice President and General Secretary of the Vietnam Tax Consultants’ Association Nguyen Dinh Cu stressed the need to develop accounting software for businesses, especially small- and medium-sized enterprises.

Minh called for considering a plan to connect business, labour, and social insurance registration procedures online, thus laying an important foundation to build e-government and improve the efficiency of State management of business operations.