The Government is expected to publish a list of prohibited and conditional business sectors to facilitate implementation of the Enterprise Law whose amendments and supplements will be passed at the ongoing session of the 13th National Assembly in Hanoi.

According to the group responsible for drafting amendments to the law, hundreds of prohibited and conditional sectors have been added to the list and more are under review.

Nguyen Dinh Cung, acting director of the Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM) and head of the drafting group, said there were 52 prohibited business sectors in the nation’s existing laws on investment, enterprises and trade.

In addition, there are around 335 conditional sectors stipulated in 255 legal documents issued by ministries, cities and provinces. In fact, the list of prohibited sectors may be much longer and the specific figure will be announced after the group finished its job.

“There are numerous legal documents. Every year, 600-700 circulars and thousands of legal documents come out,” Cung calculated.  

Cung said that not specifying business scopes in the business registration certificate will secure the rights of citizens and enterprises to do business in compliance with the Constitution. This will help enterprises reduce fees and avoid commercial and legal risks.

Supplements and amendments to the Enterprise Law ban the business activities that adversely affect national defense, security, social order and safety, historical, cultural and morale values and traditions of Vietnam, and people’s health; deplete natural resources; or harm the environment.

Specialist Nguyen Mai said that the rule was unclear and may affect almost all sectors as warned by NA Chairman Nguyen Sinh Hung at a recent meeting.

Mai said Vietnam’s economic history showed that ministries usually tended to propose investment and business conditions for new laws and this led to more sub-licenses.

Mai suggested solutions to dealing with the problem that the Government should consider a rational number of conditional and prohibited sectors and said the list of the sectors must be put in the appendix of the law.

He proposed the Government issue a decree on conditional and prohibited sectors and relevant investment and business licenses rather than allowing ministries to do this job.

The Government will release the full list of conditional and prohibited sectors and get it approved by the NA.