In order to identify problems and find solutions to improve the quality of legal documents on business, on November 11, the Vietnam Confederation of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) cooperated with the Institute of Legal Science, Ministry of Justice organizing the Seminar “Quality of Regulations and Business - friendly Environment”. The workshop was conducted within the framework of the Project Strengthening the voice of businesses in the supervision and implementation of economic restructuring (under the Australian Program to support Vietnam's economic reform - Aus4Reform).

Overview of the Workshop "Quality of Regulations and Business-friendly environment".

Information at the seminar, Mr. Dau Anh Tuan - Deputy General Secretary, Head of the Legal Department of VCCI said that although there have been many moves to promote reform, in reality, businesses still reflect problems and inadequacies when carrying out business activities. This is partly due to the fact that the quality of legal documents is not really good, especially the guiding documents.

According to Mr. Tuan, the Report "Quality of Circulars and Official Dispatches with the Effect of Institutional Reforms" published at the seminar mentioned the fact that the circular still stipulates business conditions - which is prohibited in the Investment Law 2020; The provisions in the circular still do not ensure consistency, transparency, feasibility, causing many difficulties for businesses. In particular, there are Circulars that have been suspended from implementation when they have just taken effect in a short time.

Mr. Dau Anh Tuan - Deputy General Secretary, Head of the Legal Department of VCCI.

Specifically, the report said that, there are circulars promulgating "public" business conditions, there are circulars promulgating business conditions in "hidden" form, integrated in technical standards and regulations. For example, the code of "good practice" in pharmaceutical business, "good practice" sets requirements on facilities and human resources, so it is also a business condition, forcing enterprises to meet if you want to join and operate in this field.

The Circular promulgating business conditions will make the investment and business environment less favorable; barriers from business conditions are issued without being closely monitored by state agencies as well as the business community," said Mr. Tuan.

Mr. Nguyen Van De - Chairman of the Vietnam Private Hospital Association at the Workshop.

Also, at the Workshop, many opinions also expressed that it is worrying that enterprises have little opportunity to contribute opinions on the final draft version of the Circular before it is issued.

There was a Circular that had to be suspended after issuing, for example Circular 15/2019/TT-BKHCN on the national technical regulation on stainless steel was suspended after 8 months of promulgation… As a result, both enterprises and state management agencies have to spend a lot of money and time to "re-do it from scratch" before deciding to suspend the validity of this document.

Mr. Nguyen Van De - Chairman of the Vietnam Private Hospital Association said that Circulars are creating more difficulties for businesses, not to mention these circulars are often bigger than Decrees.

“Circulars are more dangerous than corruption, because poor quality Circulars make businesses unable to do, hinder businesses, people have no jobs, the State cannot collect the budget… Rather, the Circular is to promote businesses to follow the law, pre-zoning for businesses prohibited areas,” said Mr. Nguyen Van De.

Mr. Nguyen Quoc Hiep - Chairman of Vietnam Association of Construction Contractors (VACC) shared at the Workshop.

At the workshop, some comments also agreed that if the above issues are not clarified, the situation of the pipe law, the framework law, even the Circular is bigger than the Decree as Mr. De said, will return.

Mr. Nguyen Quoc Hiep - Chairman of the Vietnam Association of Construction Contractors (VACC) said that the earlier VCCI's research was released, the better. In real estate, 12 laws are involved, and no law follows any other, so the business is in a mess, many meetings are still unfinished.

According to Mr. Hiep, this irony lies in the Law, Decree, for example, the Housing Law stipulates that the investor's warranty is 60 months for an apartment building, the Construction Law stipulates the maximum warranty period for special grade and grade 1 works, the maximum is 24 months.

“These two Law documents were assigned to draft by the Ministry of Construction, but written by two Departments of the Ministry, they have issued two different regulations on the same issue. I questioned the Ministry of Construction but no one answered. Businesses don't know how to do it, so some businesses told me they didn't dare to invest anymore," Hiep shared.

Ms. Tran Ngoc Anh - Representative of the US - ASEAN Business Council shared at the Workshop.

Also sharing about the above situation, Ms. Tran Ngoc Anh - Representative of the US - ASEAN Business Council said that in fact, businesses participated in many documents, but did not know how to receive it. However, when the document came out, it was not accepted and could not be implemented, to the extent that there were cases where the management agency had to issue an official dispatch to handle it.

But in the form of official letters, many times businesses receive it without knowing how to apply it, because the answer "list existing regulations" while the business needs to comply with which regulations is unclear.

According to Ms. Anh, there is also suffering from regulations that are not compatible with other countries, so many businesses are fined, not allowed to clear customs, so it is necessary to reform from the method of making legal documents.

"Regulations are made by humans, if you want to untie, you have to remove all barriers," Ms. Anh said.

At the workshop representatives of the Association of Business, enterprises and experts also raised many concerns about the development and issuance of policies by units and Government management agencies. 

It is known that, in order to improve the quality of documents, continue the reform process, and facilitate the business environment, in its research report, VCCI has proposed 5 recommendations: Transparency in the process of developing the Circular; Having criteria on business conditions; Control the authorization for Circulars from Law; Improve the quality of RIA reporting (impact assessment); Transparency in the process of receiving complaints.