Analysts say both favorable conditions and difficulties will exist in 2024. In January 2024 alone, the number of businesses leaving the market was twice as many as the number joining the market, according to Head of the Central Institute of Economic Management (CIEM) Tran Thi Hong Minh.

Minh said businesses need a strong reshuffling of the business environment more than ever before.

That is why the government restored the program on reforming the business environment via Resolution No 02 dated January 5, 2024.

The resolution conveys the message that improving the business environment is the priority.

According to the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s (VCCI) Deputy Secretary General Dau Anh Tuan, from 2021 to the end of 2023, ministries cut and simplified 2,483 business requirements stipulated in 201 legal documents. The Prime Minister approved the cutting or simplification of 1,191 business conditions shown in 221 legal documents.

The moves helped make business conditions simpler, while problems were fixed.

However, Tuan commented that many proposals on business condition reduction and legal procedure simplification were not really significant.

“A lot of problems mentioned by businesses have not been reconsidered. Agencies cut business conditions in current legal documents, but added new conditions when compiling new documents,” Tuan said.

Passenger transport firms, for example, are required to provide content of transport contracts to provincial transport departments in e-mails before every trip. 

Food processors are required to add iodine to salt for eating or food processing.

Ly Kim Chi, chair of the HCM City Food and Foodstuff Association, said more measures need to be taken to create a momentum for business environment improvement. There should be mechanisms to punish ministries and agencies that are slow or refuse to follow the government’s instructions in implementing resolutions.

She said now is the right time to change the way of implementing reforms by creating more mechanisms to supervise the bodies implementing institutional reform and national business environment. 

“It is necessary to ask agencies to implement the decisions to improve business environment immediately and set deadline for fulfilment. If agencies cannot fulfill tasks as scheduled, their heads will be disciplined. If necessary, complicated cases should be forwarded to the government’s taskforce in charge of administrative procedure reform for consideration."

Nguyen Le