Vietnam spells out ambitious goal to improve business environment

By Anh Minh January 2, 2019 | 11:36 pm PT

An employee works at an assembly line at a scooter factory in northern Vietnam. Photo by Reuters/Kham

Vietnam wants to climb 5-7 places in the World Bank’s ease of doing business rankings and reach the top four in Southeast Asia.

A government resolution issued recently set this target for this year and a climb of 15-20 places in the next three years.

Last year it fell one place to 69th among 190 economies, lower than Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore.

Vietnam’s World Bank Logistics Performance Index ranking should increase by 5-10 places in 2019-2021, the resolution says. Last year it jumped to 39th in a list of 160 countries and territories from 64th place in 2016.

In the Innovation Index of the World Intellectual Property Organization, the resolution wants the country to rise by 2-3 places this year and 5-10 places in 2019-2021 from 45th out of 126 countries and territories last year.

The government has ordered ministries and local authorities to review and simplify vague business conditions before the third quarter of this year.

The resolution says: "Government agencies must not make more business conditions which are against the law. Officials who implement new business regulations incorrectly will be severely punished."

It also halves the number of specialized items to be inspected and wants authorities to publicize this list before June this year.

The Ministry of Planning and Investment is entrusted with evaluating how these changes benefit businesses practically and reporting to Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc in June.

The decree encourages cashless payment and instructs the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) and the Ministry of Finance to identify transactions which can only be done through banks and not in cash and propose changes to the law to encourage non-cash payment for property transactions.

It also instructs the SBV to come up with a solution enabling people to deposit cash in e-wallets without requiring a bank account before the third quarter.

The government has said administrative procedures should not preclude innovation by businesses and research institutes and universities.

It wants ministries and local authorities to support startups, and large companies to invest in and back the latter.