A teleconference was held in Hanoi on May 26 to discuss policy and mechanism reform to step up business recovery following COVID-19.

Minister and Chairman of the Government Office Mai Tien Dung 

The event was co-organised by the Prime Minister’s Advisory Council for Administrative Procedure Reform, the Vietnam Association of Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises, the US Agency for International Development via the Linkages for Small and Medium Enterprises (LinkSME) project.

Speaking at the event, Minister and Chairman of the Government Office Mai Tien Dung said the Prime Minister has directed a number of measures to tackle difficulties for production and trade, ensure food security and social welfare, step up public investment disbursement while cutting administrative procedures and specialised inspection procedures, in response to COVID-19.

He added that after five months of operation, the national public services portal has supplied 408 online public services, recorded more than 39 million visits and 150,000 accounts, processed nearly 85,000 files and received about 6,000 feedback from the public and businesses.

Since May 12, it has supplied additional six public services to the public.

According to him, the Government has issued resolutions and decrees to simplify procedures related to business during 2020-2025 and process administrative procedures online.

Dung said although Vietnam’s economic growth is predicted to stand only at 2.7-4.9% this year due to COVID-19 impact, international organisations said Vietnam is among a few countries to achieve positive growth and suffer less impact from the pandemic than other countries.

Participants were introduced about the Government’s Resolution No.68/NQ-CP on the promulgation of a programme on the reduction and simplification of provisions related to business activities during the 2020-2025 period.

Accordingly, Vietnam strives to cut and simplify 20% of regulations and 20% of costs related to business activities by 2025.

Representatives from the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the Ministry of Finance and the State Bank of Vietnam updated the process to receive the Government’s support package to ease difficulties caused by COVID-19 in the fields of social welfare, finance and banking.