(VOVworld) – Vietnam’s ministries and provinces are focusing efforts to improve the business environment by stepping up administrative procedure reforms to help enterprises integrate and develop. The move is in line with a revised government resolution released last month under which Vietnam hopes to rank fourth in ASEAN in terms of business environment and national competitiveness in the 2015-2016 period.

Last March the Vietnamese government promulgated a resolution to improve the business environment and improve administrative procedures to ensure transparency and accountability.

People complete business registration at the HCM City Department of Planning and Investment (Photo: tuoitrenews.vn)

Under the 2014 resolution, state administrative agencies are responsible for matching or exceeding the average of the ASEAN-6 by the end of this year.

Since the resolution was promulgated, Vietnam’s business environment has remarkably improved.

For example, the number of administrative procedures involved in starting a business has been reduced from 10 to 5, and the time to complete all of them has been shortened from 31 to 6 days. The time needed to pay tax and social insurance premiums has been cut from an average of 872 hours to about 400 hours.

Vietnam has made a number of improvements in its regulatory reforms toward changing into a business-friendly economy globally (Photo: tuoitrenews.vn)

Doctor Nguyen Dinh Cung, Director of the Central Institute for Economic Management, said of the program: “first, there has been a big change in the awareness and determination of government, ministerial, and provincial agencies to improve Vietnam’s business environment. Second, the government, and the Prime Minister in particular, have paid special attention to providing concrete directions and guidance for this plan. Finally, the acknowledgeable achievements over the past year were due to the efficient implementation of designed measures.”

Wendy Werner, the World Bank’s Trade and Competitiveness Manager in East Asia and the Pacific, said Vietnam is on the right track when its renovations, especially in taxation, are helping tax payers perform their duties more easily.

The result of these changes are recorded in the World Bank’s 2016 report on  the Business Environment, which discussed ways to deal with business bankruptcy, protect small investors, and access credit.

Vu Tien Loc, Chairman of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said that to improve its national competitiveness, Vietnam needs to reform the business environment continuously to conform to international practices.

He added: “the issuance of a series of resolutions since the beginning of this year is helping to clarity for the business community on Vietnam’s breakthroughs in regulation reform as  a result of the Vietnamese government’s determination and efforts to boost internal strength, liberalize the market, and reduce dependence. The government has outlined a co-ordinated program on regulatory reforms and an inspection and monitoring mechanism to step up the process.”

Compared to the 2014 resolution, the new Government Resolution sets even higher goals for 2015 and 2016. Specifically, Vietnam must reach the average level of ASEAN-4, just after Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand.