The HCMC government will redouble its efforts to further improve the business climate to support enterprises, according to the city’s plan to improve the Provincial Competitiveness Index this year, issued on August 21.

A view of HCMC. The city will continue improving the business climate to support enterprises

The city will focus on reducing by half the number of business conditions and commodities subject to specialized inspections, simplifying business conditions, improving the competitiveness of the tourism sector and reducing logistics costs.

Although the city has strived to improve the business environment, its competitiveness remains lower than that of other localities.

Therefore, HCMC targets an increase of at least 40 notches in terms of starting a business, 10 places in settling trade disputes and 10 spots in handling bankruptcies.

The city will promote post-inspections, while removing overlapping specialized inspections, so that each item is inspected by a single agency. The proportion of shipments subject to specialized inspections will be cut to below 10% from the current 25-27%.

Moreover, to help enterprises easily complete investment procedures, the municipal government will speed up the application of information technology and online public services in a bid to handle 30-40% of the procedures online by the end of this year.

The city will also increase the competitiveness of the tourism sector to develop it into a key economic sector.

In addition, logistics services will be improved to reduce the operation costs of enterprises to some 18% of the country’s gross domestic product from the current 20%, helping Vietnam restructure its economy and move up 10 places in the logistics performance index from the current 64th position out of 160 countries and territories.

In the past, enterprises in HCMC have repeatedly proposed solutions to the city government to reduce logistics costs, including easing the congestion at seaports and airports, especially Cat Lai Port and Tan Son Nhat International Airport, and on roads leading to Cai Mep-Thi Vai Port in Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province to reduce the overload at ports in HCMC.

Regarding HCMC’s business performance in the first half of the year, a representative of the municipal Department of Finance noted that the city’s budget revenue rose by 8% year-on-year. Of this, the revenue from domestic production and business activities as well as crude oil grew by 11.7% and nearly 39%, respectively. Meanwhile, the revenue from trade activities was 4.8% lower year-on-year, partly due to the prolonged time taken to transport cargo owing to traffic congestion.

Traffic congestion has also forced enterprises to carry out customs clearance procedures in Cai Mep-Thi Vai Port rather than at ports in HCMC, thus reducing the city’s revenue from import-export activities.

Therefore, the city government should promptly work out solutions to retain the attractiveness of logistics services in the city despite the poor-quality traffic infrastructure.

SGT