Hanoi (VNA) - There is still significant room for stronger reformsto create a more favourable business environment and make Vietnam amongcountries with the best business environment in ASEAN, according to the VietnamChamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI).

VCCI’s Chairman Vu Tien Loc spoke at an event on January 12 to announce thereport about Vietnam's business regulations in 2020, saying that Vietnam wasamong few countries reporting positive economic growth last year.

Loc said drastic efforts in hastening institutional reforms and improvingpolicies and mechanisms for enterprises helped the Vietnamese economy overcomedifficulties as the COVID-19 pandemic heavily affected every socio-economicfield.

The report, which looked at notable business regulations in 2020 with a focuson market entry and the legal framework for the digital economy, revealed thatthere were 17 laws, 158 decrees, 39 decisions and 310 circulars issued lastyear.

The number of circulars issued strongly decreased compared to previous years,which reflected that the quality of legal documents improved significantly,thus, it would not be necessary to issue too many circulars to provideinstructions, VCCI pointed out.

About 55 percent of opinions of businesses were received and responded to,compared to 44.08 percent in 2019 and 42.51 percent in 2018, the report found.

“Policy-makers are paying more attention to enterprises’ opinions,” the reportwrote, adding that the management thinking of policy-makers was witnessingrenovations in recent years.

The current business legal system was not perfect, VCCI said, however. Somelegal documents issued in 2020 still put in place unnecessary regulations whichcaused difficulties for businesses.

Dau Anh Tuan, head of the VCCI’s Legal Department, said that there were stilloverlaps, inconsistencies and a lack of transparency in existing legaldocuments.

Some inspections were also causing burdens and delays for enterprises.

Tuan said the existing overlaps, inconsistencies and lack of transparencyrequired stronger reforms to be carried out with a drastic spirit to create themost favourable business environment for enterprises and position Vietnam amongcountries with the best business climate in ASEAN.

The management thinking must be renovated in the trend of rapid and intensiveinternational integration to raise transparency and develop practicalregulations which serve enterprises in an effective way, Tuan said./.