More than 20,290 businesses, including 8,681 non-state enterprises, 10,111 newly established enterprises, and 1,500 foreign direct investment companies, joined the survey.

Final outcomes shows that the Mekong Delta localities remained the best performer over the past recent years.

Scores of top five competitiveness localities in 2018. Graphics by VGP

Quang Ninh continued to maintain its top position for the second consecutive year, with the overall score of 70.36 points thanks to its introduction of administration reform initiatives.

The second place fell to the Southern province of Dong Thap with 70.19 points, followed by Long An (68.09 points) and Ben Tre (67.67) in the Mekong Delta and the central city of Da Nang (67.65 points).

The Report indicates “petit” corruption paid by enterprises to get licenses dipped to five-year low of 55% in 2018 from 65% in 2017.

Meanwhile, reform of administrative procedures has greatly improved in 2018 as 74.7% of respondents said public employees performed duties effectively and 74.1% said paper work has been simplified compared to 51.2% in 2015.

However, post-business registration procedures emerged as new problem as respondents said they had to wait for more than one month to have enough necessary papers for official business operation.

In addition, 34% respondents said they encountered difficulties when applying for certificates for conditional business lines./.