In difficult times, businesses expect administrative procedures to be open and convenient. Illustration: H.Diu

More than 82% of businesses plan to downsize or suspend

According to the directive document of the Prime Minister, from the beginning of 2021, ministries have reduced and simplified more than 2,200 business regulations in 177 legal documents.

The Prime Minister has approved the plan to reduce and simplify more than 1,100 regulations related to business activities; provided more than 4,400 public services online on the National Public Service Portal. Accordingly, by May 2023, the total number of administrative procedures nationwide was 6,422, a decrease of 376 administrative procedures compared to the same period of 2020.

In fact, the improvement of our country's business environment has been highly appreciated by the domestic and international business community. A new report published by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) shows that Vietnam is the most dynamic country worldwide, up 12 places in the measure of business attractiveness, while Thailand increased 10 places and India only increased six places.

But the report on the socio-economic situation in the first five months of 2023 of the General Statistics Office said that, on average, 19,000 enterprises were newly established and returned to operation a month, while 88,000 enterprises withdrew from the market, up 22.6% over the same period last year; on average, 17,600 enterprises withdraw from the market a month.

A survey of more than 9,500 enterprises from the end of April 2023 by the Research and Development Department of the Private Economy and the Advisory Council for Administrative Procedure Reform (Board IV) showed that 82.3% of enterprises expected to reduce their business size, suspend business or cease operations in the remaining months of 2023.

The numbers and survey results mentioned above have shown that businesses are facing great difficulties. According to the assessment of the National Assembly deputies through discussions at the socio-economic hall in the last days of May and the beginning of June, administrative procedures in a number of fields are still barriers to production and business activities. Delegate Trinh Xuan An (Dong Nai delegation) pointed out four bottlenecks that businesses have been facing: a shortage of orders, bottlenecks in capital flow, inadequate institutions, and complicated administrative procedures and legal risks that may be encountered in the course of production and business activities.

Also, on this issue, the survey results of Board IV showed that one of the biggest difficulties and challenges enterprises face is the implementation of administrative procedures and meeting the provisions of the law, with more than 45% of surveyed enterprises selected. In the opinion of experts and businesses, the settlement of administrative procedures still goes through many intermediate layers, causing delays and bottlenecks in implementation; the organization and implementation of administrative procedures in some places are not strict, and there are still phenomena of harassment and negativity, requiring additional unofficial fees.

Urgently improve the business environment

Dr. Vu Tien Loc, Member of the National Assembly of Hanoi, Chairman of the Vietnam International Arbitration Center (VIAC), former President of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), emphasized that legal problems and administrative procedures need to be resolved more quickly. “The government has to be the foreman, the National Assembly has to promulgate many exceptional, special and special mechanisms have shown that the institutions and general policies have problems with many obstacles and loopholes. Accelerating reform institutions, perfecting the business environment, and improving the economy's competitiveness are once again urgent issues that must be raised," said Dr. Vu Tien Loc.

Therefore, the direction of the Prime Minister has required ministries, branches and localities to focus on reviewing, reducing and simplifying regulations and administrative procedures related to investment, production, businesses and people's lives are guaranteed to reduce, simplify at least 20% of regulations and cut at least 20% of the cost of complying with the Government's instructions. In which, the study proposes to immediately cut unnecessary procedures and intermediate steps; overlapping, non-quantifiable business conditions for transparency in inspection, appraisal, evaluation and approval; specialized inspection activities are still overlapping, with the participation of many agencies and units.

Recently, VCCI has agreed in writing with the proposal of the Ministry of Industry and Trade to develop a draft decree annulling Decree No. 59/2006/ND-CP dated June 12, 2006, detailing the Commercial Law on goods and services banned from business, restricted from doing business and doing business with conditions, in order to create favorable conditions for enterprises. According to VCCI, Decree 59 is not suitable in terms of promulgating authority, inconsistency between the list of goods and services banned from business, restricted from business and conditional business of the Investment Law 2020.

On the side of FDI enterprises, Mr. Hong Sun, Chairman of the Korean Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam (KOCHAM), said that some procedures related to granting investment and construction permits are still delayed, negatively affecting the progress of disbursement and investment, Korean businesses want Vietnam to improve the investment and business environment more drastically. Because if Vietnam is late in amending regulations related to administrative procedures as well as in improving the business environment, Vietnam will lose the opportunity, and miss the important moment to attract investment, not only from Korea but many countries around the world.

Kim Sung Hun, General Director of Amkor Technology Vietnam Company, suggested that ministries and sectors issue clearer and more detailed standards on sub-law documents related to fire prevention and fighting and easing regulations when censoring and appraising specific business models of industries using high technology.

Kim Huat Ooi, Vice President and General Director of Intel Products Vietnam, suggested that the OSS could soon be restored to improve the ease of doing business and reduce implementation time for all types of permits for construction, environment, etc.