VietNamNet Bridge - Ministries and branches are tending to be more abusive in their power when setting up numerous business conditions, thus severely distorting the Vietnamese business environment, experts have said.

Head of CIEM Nguyen Dinh Cung said many new business conditions have been set by state management agencies.

Regarding business locations, enterprises have to set up their production and business headquarters in areas within national and local development programs. 

“There are many strange development programs, such as the textile and garment factory development programs,” Cung noted.

“There are numerous development programs for many kinds of products, including some that I cannot understand exist,” he added.

Ministries and branches have also created thousands of requirements on the quantity and quality of businesses’ assets, machines and equipment.

The requirements, according to Cung, are just a “disguise” of the conditions on legal capital. 

Meanwhile, Vietnam has removed the requirement on legal capital, a move highly appreciated by international experts.

A legal document stipulates that land transport firms in cities must have at least 20 vehicles, while firms in remote areas must have at least five.

“Why 20, and why 5?” he said, adding that the requirements are barriers that hinder businesses from joining the market, thus putting small businesses at a disadvantage, and creating an unfair business environment.

“The Investment Law stipulates that there are 267 conditional business fields. But in fact, the number is up to several thousand,” he said.

An official with the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) noted that many kinds of licenses, which were removed during administration reform in 2000, have been restored. 

“As far as I know, the Ministry of Transport has restored nearly all the licenses which were removed more than 10 years ago,” he said.

Head of VCCI’s legal department Dau Anh Tuan said 100 printing businesses were shocked when hearing that Decree No 60 asks them to follow complicated procedures to obtain “awkward licenses”.

“The director of a business told me that businesses are told to ask for the watchdog agency’s permission for importing a kind of paper cutting machine, and it will take businesses 40 days to obtain the license,” Tuan said.

Under current regulations, businesses have to spend two days to file the invoices for one bill of lade (B/L). As such, if a shipping firm has 100 B/L a year, it will have to spend 200 days just to “take care for B/L”.

“Businesses have to ask for permission to buy Reuters’ business bulletins. They have to ask for permission if they want to set up security units of their own. These are quite strange requirements,” Tuan said.

TBKTSG