Efforts made to unlock the flow of legal policies

According to the 2023 Business Legal Flow Report, released by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), the reform and simplification of administrative procedures and cutting costs for businesses, have been strongly promoted.

The Government, along with ministries, agencies and localities, have been making great efforts to remove obstacles for businesses. However, there have still been some legal "bottlenecks" that cause many businesses to incur costs and reduce competitiveness.

The business community hopes the Government will identify and soon "unlock" the flow of legal policies to support businesses and create a favourable business investment environment for businesses’ development in the new period.

Legal barriers

According to the VCCI, in 2023, central agencies issued 16 laws, 98 decrees, 33 decisions, and 510 circulars, including several major policies, such as the Land Law, Housing Law, and Draft Law on Special Consumption Tax, which have received great attention and response from people and businesses.

In addition, nearly 100 opinions related to obstacles and shortcomings from businesses' feedback on regulations affecting investment and business activities have been sent by the VCCI to relevant agencies. Most of these problems received feedback and recognition, and the plans to review and amend them were set out to remove issues for businesses in matters of administrative procedures, costs, etc. In particular, policy drafting thinking and the implementation process of management agencies have been improved a lot, creating more favourable conditions for businesses.

However, there are still some problems in promulgating construction standards on fire prevention and fighting, inspecting goods in transit, ceiling interest costs in bank transactions, etc. They have not yet been thoroughly resolved or there is no consensus of opinions between management agencies and businesses. Chairman of the VCCI Pham Tan Cong said the activities to cut and simplify business conditions were carried out very drastically, but recently have not been as strong as in the previous period.

There is a paradox that in the process of drafting new legal documents or amending and supplementing existing ones, unreasonable regulations and business conditions have appeared or have been integrated in the form of sub-licenses in technical regulations or certificates, which have been creating additional burdens for businesses. Therefore, with the continuous movement of economic activities, state management agencies must remove this "bottleneck while changing their mind about reform, towards creating transparent and innovative institutions practically and drastically, to issue more appropriate and favourable policies for businesses in production and business.

Chairman of Vietnam Association of Construction Contractors (VACC) Nguyen Quoc Hiep said administrative procedures related to investment in Vietnam are complicated, causing businesses to waste a lot of time and money. Therefore, legal procedures need to be thoroughly streamlined, and there must be clear judicial regulations on responsibilities in handling administrative procedures. In addition, the relevant authorities at all levels must join hands in administrative reform.

Realistic and effective cuts

Over the years, the State has taken measures to overcome inadequacies related to policy, through reviewing and amending obstructive regulations. The Government Office's report on administrative procedure reform shows that from 2021 to 2023, 2,770 regulations in 224 legal documents out of 15,801 business regulations, updated and publicised on the consultation and business regulation lookup portal, were reduced and simplified.

However, according to experts, these activities have not considered the overall "root" of the problems in the legal document system. The number of business conditions cut is very small, so they have not created favourable conditions. In addition, the number of regulations considered to be reduced and simplified was mainly compiled according to administrative reports, but there has been no assessment of reform quality. Therefore, in reality, the compliance costs of businesses have decreased but not by much.

Dr. Nguyen Minh Thao, from the Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM), said since 2019, especially since 2020, the issue of business environment reform and cutting business conditions has tended to slow down. Business conditions are still general and unclear, creating many barriers, limiting business freedom, containing risks and creating additional compliance cost burdens for businesses.

To improve the business environment under the Government’s direction, Dr. Nguyen Minh Thao noted that the ministries and agencies should make efforts to review and drastically reform, to reduce administrative procedures and compliance costs for businesses. The reform must be detailed, specific, transparent, easy to understand, easy to identify, and consistent in implementation and with current laws. In addition, before amendments and reforms, it is necessary to increase consultation and get opinions from businesses, to ensure that business conditions must be specific, transparent, clear, easy to understand and feasible. These efforts will gain more confidence among investors and businesses, increase the attractiveness of the business environment and "bottlenecks" in the flow of legal policies for businesses in the near future.

Source: Nhan Dan News