Principles and regulations are set to serve development, but, ironically, many of them have become obstacles that hinder development.

Many businesses say state officials are not enthusiastic in solving enterprises’ problems and don’t even take applications to at least discover the enterprises’ problems.

Favorable institutional conditions should be created for individuals to correct mistakes and continue to strive for mastery and advance in their careers, even if they resign.

Former Minister of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs Tran Dinh Hoan once said that Vietnamese ministers would be paid US$1,000 a month by 2000 (VND20 million at that time). However, the current pay (in 2022) is only over VND10 million.

The goal of developing 1 million businesses by 2020 has failed. The biggest challenge lies in the business environment.

Hanoi, HCM City and several other localities can be proud of always being at the top of rankings on budget collections, FDI attraction, competitiveness, and people’s wealth.

Despite encouraging achievements, administrative reform is still not a strong driving force for business environment improvement.

The 2021 report on provincial competitiveness index (PCI) released by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) on April 27 showed that unofficial fees are on the decrease, but remain common in some spheres of state management.

A more open mechanism is needed to create resources and driving forces for socio-economic development amid the safe and flexible adaptation to the pandemic.

Vietnam has marked an obvious advance in providing public services. Instead of going directly to state agencies for marriage, birth, land use right and temporary residence registration, people can now sit at home and follow procedures online.

Hanoi’s authorities have decided to remove 28 administrative procedures in the field of investment.

As mentioned in Part 1, stagnation has taken root in many fields, and personnel work, especially cadre planning and rotation, is no exception.

If public agencies consider the work of people and businesses as their own, the number of complaints about administrative procedures will decrease.

Vietnam’s judicial agencies seemingly cannot catch up with business environment reform. Two judicial indicators – contract enforcement and business bankruptcy – have not seen considerable improvement.

The Prime Minister’s working group has made outstanding milestones in the last five years, making a significant contribution to improving the business environment, boosting Vietnam’s prestige in the international area.

More than 2,800 administrative procedures have been available on the National Public Service Portal which was launched in December 2019.

The government’s 2011-2020 master program on the state administration reform has come to an end.

The National Single Window had successfully connected 200 administrative procedures of 13 relevant ministries by the end of August, in addition to processing over 3.2 million records and more than 40,000 enterprises.

The insistence of National Assembly deputies on removing the household registration system, or ho khau, as it is called by Vietnamese, shows their great determination to remove the paper that is limiting civil rights.