Representatives from ministries, business associations and experts gathered at a conference in Hanoi on June 18 to review the implementation of a Government resolution on improving the business environment and national competitiveness, also known as Resolution 19.
Director of the Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM) Nguyen Dinh Cung said the event aims to evaluate the progress of the resolution and collect recommendations on addressing obstacles during implementation to be submitted to the Prime Minister.
Representatives from the CIEM Department for Business Environment and Competitiveness held that remarkable improvements have been seen in business start-up procedures since last year.
The Law on Enterprise 2014 allowed firms to finish their business registrations in three days instead of six, as set by the Resolution, while the investor protection index was raised by 105 spaces, reaching the average level of ASEAN countries, they noted.
Meanwhile, Vietnam remained slower than other ASEAN countries in terms of power access despite a 12-space rise last year, while a similar situation is occurring in tax and social insurance payments despite a 27-space improvement.
A stagnant point in the implementation of the resolution is the duration of resolving bankruptcy and business dispute procedures, they added.
As scheduled, ministries and localities should have issued a plan of action to realise the resolution by the end of April this year. However, the Ministry of Planning and Investment reported that so far, it has received plans from only 11 ministries and 11 localities. The other 14 ministries and 52 localities have failed to finish their plans on time, including Ho Chi Minh City .
Furthermore, the submitted plans have not clarified specific measures and targets.
During the conference, participants also proposed that relevant ministries promptly review regulations on import and export goods to reduce time and costs for businesses during customs clearance process.
They also asked for guidelines in meeting technical standards from a number of strict markets./.
