Forty two percent of surveyed companies reported that they countered difficulties in applying for business licences in Vietnam, said General Secretary of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) Nguyen Quang Vinh.

At the working session

This is one of the outcomes of a survey conducted by VCCI to assess the two-and-a-half years implementation of the Government’s Decree No.35/NQ-CP on supporting and developing businesses until 2020, and five years implementing Decree 19/NQ-CP on improving business climate and national competitive capacity. 

Vinh presented the outcomes during a recent working session with Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue, who is also head of the National Steering Committee on National and ASEAN Single Window mechanisms and trade facilitation, and the Ministry of Transport. 

According to Vinh, there have been positive moves in cutting business conditions, but the survey, conducted in 2017, found that 58 percent of enterprises had to seek conditional business licences. 

The most improvements were reported in company establishment and power access, while slowest movements were seen in the fields of bankruptcy, investor protection and import-export procedures.

“Administrative procedures in many localities have been streamlined, with the one-stop mechanism proved to be effective; however, implementation of online procedures has been slow”, Vinh underlined.

Only 13 percent of the enterprises complete business procedures online, he said, attributing the small number to the Government’s digitalisation process. 

According to the survey, businesses have expressed their satisfaction with local infrastructure and services like telephone (78 percent), electricity (74 percent), clean water (67 percent), internet (62 percent), industrial zones (46 percent) and transport (41 percent).

The ratio of firms subject to two inspections or more in a year dropped from 48 percent in 2016 to only 4 percent, with 24 percent of those firms reported overlapping of content of inspections. 

VCCI General Secretary Vinh said he believes the implementation of a set of criteria on corporate development, which were announced on October 13 this year, in 2019 will be a boost in improving the local business environment.

The full outcomes of the survey will be delivered to the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Ministers and concerned agencies soon, Vinh said.-VNA