There remains a significant gap in business environment between Vietnam and other regional countries, while administrative procedures need to be simplified, thus helping domestic firms make major breakthroughs in their development, has said Vu Tien Loc, Chairman of Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI).

At the event

The Vietnam Business Forum (VBF) on theme of "Roles and responsibilities of FDI community in rapid and sustainable development", was jointly held in Hanoi on January 10 by the Vietnam Business Forum Alliance, the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the World Bank and the International Finance Corporation.

The occasion is an annual policy dialogue forum that takes place between the government and the local business community with the aim of building a favourable business environment and boosting sustainable economic development nationwide.

In his speech at the event, the VCCI Chairman stated that positive results in the business climate have been reflected in the socio-economic outcomes during 2019, which have exceeded the set targets.

These results can be seen in the increase in the country’s scores in the rankings of the World Economic Forum and the World Bank.

Most notably, the number of newly-established private enterprises has reached record figures for several consecutive years. Indeed, 2019 saw the nation’s total import-export turnover surpass the US$500 billion mark for the first time, while the export growth rate of domestic private enterprises also quadrupled in comparison to FDI enterprises.

The GDP growth rate could exceed as much as 8 per cent annually if the existing hurdles of administrative formaities have been removed, he noted.

The VCCI has recently submitted a report discussing overlaps on regulations and laws on business and investment to both the Prime Minister and the National Assembly, requesting that drastic measures should be taken to deal with these overlaps in the near future.

The VCCI Chairman pointed out that this year will mark improvements in the domestic business environment as the VCCI has proposed the implementation of 13 groups of major solutions, which will serve to improve the country’s business climate.

Regarding to indicators for starting a business, Loc underlined the need to continue to speed up the simplification of business post-registration procedures, including aspects such as the labour declaration, social insurance registration, the purchase of invoices, and the opening of bank accounts.

It is essential to simplify procedures such as the purchase of invoices, self-printed invoices or the use of e-invoices, improving the implementation of procedures of tax refund, and tax exemptions aimed at avoiding conflicts between tax authorities and businesses with regard to tax obligations.

Loc also laid stress on the importance of combating corruption and lowering overall business costs with a specific focus on the application of information technology to supervise the implementation of administrative procedures.

He urged state agencies to push ahead with the application of the national public service portals in order to carry out effectively administrative procedures.