VietNamNet Bridge – The Government has shown a strong determination to trim business conditions in a bid to prop up startups and support businesses to become a pivotal driving force for the nation’s growth.

Illustrative image -- File photo

The Government’s firm stance is explicit in Resolution 35 that came out last month and what Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc underlined at a meeting in Hanoi last week. He urged the Government Office to work with ministries to quickly complete draft decrees specifying business conditions for the Government to issue on July 1 at the latest, the date when business conditions which were illegally issued by ministries and agencies in their circulars and documents will be invalidated as required by the revised investment law.

However, there is concern that ministries and agencies will simply add business conditions in their circulars to the draft decrees although the Prime Minister has many times ordered a lifting of the requirements that hinder business operations.   

The “Policy Dialogue” program aired last week on Vietnam Television (VTV) unveiled there are 6,000 business conditions issued by ministries, agencies and local authorities but most of them will become invalid on July 1. From next month, there will be only six sectors prohibited and 267 others made conditional.   

Tran Dinh Thien, director of the Vietnam Institute of Economics, said firms are grappling with too many paperwork problems. He told the program that his institute’s study has found the more business conditions there are, the more money law enforcement agencies can earn.

Thien said the problem must be solved and officials involved must be held responsible for it, otherwise the Government’s effort to cut business conditions and improve the business environment would come to naught.

In pro-business Resolution 35, the Government wants the number of businesses to rise to one million from more than 513,000 operational firms as of last year, and the private sector to make up around 48% of the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) and 49% of total investments in 2020.

Experts warned that the targets might be out of reach if no bold measures are taken to solve problems. Prime Minister Phuc acknowledged many thorny issues remain unsolved but stressed the Government will find solutions to them.

SGT