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Improve business environment: Not even among localities

The two "motive forces" still have little change

According to the report on the implementation of Resolution 19 and Resolution 35 on improving the business environment and business development - the view from enterprises has been announced by the VCCI. All businesses have realized that business investment environment in recent years has improved significantly. However, the level of improvement is uneven across sectors, localities.

Assessing the level of change in 11 areas in Resolution 19, Head of Legal Department, VCCI Dau Anh Tuan, said that the two areas that are best evaluated are business establishment and access to electricity. Meanwhile, the field of import-export procedures, investor protection and corporate bankruptcy are considered to have no significant improvement. The space of reform is still very large and more efforts are needed from ministries, sectors and localities, but there seems to be a long way to go to impact the business.

Some provinces and cities were highly appreciated by the business community in provinces such as Dong Thap, Da Nang, Binh Dinh, Bac Lieu, Can Tho, Vinh Phuc, An Giang and Long An. The region with the highest percentage of respondents was the Mekong Delta.

"Notably, when assessing the positive changes in the field of taxation, enterprises in different localities feel different. Most of the provinces and cities in the south are well evaluated for tax reform, typically Dong Thap, Can Tho and Bac Lieu. The South Central Coast is also recognized by many enterprises for the change in tax administrative procedures such as Binh Dinh, Da Nang and Ninh Thuan. Notably, the two cities with the most businesses are Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City are in the group with less change," said Mr. Tuan.

58% of businesses still have to apply for "sub-licenses"

The report also pointed out that in the field of transparent inspection, many businesses still complain about the status of checking too many times with duplicated contents. According to the Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI) in 2017, the rate of enterprises who have been inspected twice or more per year is nearly 40%, of which 13% are duplications of content between inspection teams. It is noteworthy that most of the respondents said they had never met an interdisciplinary team. The authorities still go private, check separately, causing businesses to spend a lot of time. Up to 43% of enterprises were inspected for tax, 30% for fire safety and 20% for market management.

By the end of October, 2018, many ministries have reviewed the regulations on goods subject to specialized inspection. Some ministries have written down the list of goods subject to specialized inspection such as the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Ministry of Science and Technology... New list of goods group 2 was just issued having full HS code, facilitating the operation of enterprises and customs. However, according to some enterprises, there are cases where the reduction only focuses on small items, while those with large volumes are not cut. There is still a situation of goods subject to specialized inspection but there are no regulations on standards or criteria and methods of inspection.

Reflections from businesses show that the need to apply for "sub-license" is still common and difficult. According to the PCI 2017 survey, 58% of respondents are required to apply for a conditional business license. Of these, 42% said they had difficulty obtaining such permits. Some other business procedures still raise difficulties and businesses have to travel many times to complete. In addition, the majority of businesses complained that many ministries and agencies have been checking, while the Government has instructed not to inspect enterprises more than once a year. According to the survey of more than 10,000 enterprises, up to 40% have been inspected twice or more. In 2016, this figure is 48%

From his point of view, Dr. Nguyen Dinh Cung, Director of the Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM) affirmed that the actual result of the process of reducing business conditions... did not meet expectations. While ministries have reportedly completed the goal of cutting at least 50% of business conditions, the reduction procedure has a substantial impact on just over 40%. Experience shows that the process of removing licenses takes a lot of time, is difficult and arduous, but the recovery process is very fast, and the level of plugging after each recovery is more sophisticated.

Source: Customs News