Hanoi (VNA) – The business environment has seen remarkableimprovement, which wins positive response and support from the business circleand public opinion, said Dau Anh Tuan, head of the Legal Department at theVietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI).

Tuan made the remark at the 2018 Vietnam Business Development Forum heldin Hanoi on June 19 by the Economy and Forecast Review and the Ministry ofPlanning and Investment.

According to Tuan, many businesses reported that the working attitude ofstaff members at authorized agencies has become friendlier and enthusiastic,while informal expenses reduced from 66 percent to 59 percent in 2017.

He also pointed out that many business conditions, specialized inspectionsand unreasonable regulations have been removed by authorized agencies,providing more favourable conditions for enterprises.

At the same time, the VCCI official pointed out several problems thatneed prompt actions, one of which is the shrinking average size of privateenterprises coupled with their weak competitiveness amidst integration andrising competition.

He cited experts’ assessment that the “health” of private enterprises ingeneral has not shown any remarkable improvement.

The private sector also lags behind other economic sectors in terms of participationin national export activities and export performance.

Tuan added that private enterprises still face many unfavourablebusiness conditions, for example stricter requirements on workshop area, specializedequipment, management personnel and capital in some fields than those applied toforeign-invested counterparts.

Moreover, management agencies tend to require greater budgetcontribution by the private sector, thus tax continues to be a burden onprivate enterprises, he said.

Addressing the forum, Phan Duc Hieu, deputy director of the CentralInstitute for Economic Management (CIEM), said Vietnam must climb 28 more stepson the word business environment rankings in order to achieve the target set inthe Government’s Resolution 19, despite the country’s strong rise in theranking last year.

He went on to stress that besides improvement of the business environment,what really matters is to create breakthroughs in providing substantive supportfor enterprises, which requires resolve and consistent efforts of theGovernment, local administrations, ministries and agencies.

Tran Thi Hong Minh, Director of the Business Registration ManagementDepartment under the Ministry of Planning and Investment, reported at the forumthat the business registration process had been shortened to 12 working days in2017, down 12 days compared to 2016. At present, it takes an average 2.36working days for provincial administrations to grant a business registrationwhile the regulated duration is three days. As many as 40 provinces completethe procedure for only two days.

In the first five months of this year, a total of 52,322 new enterprisesjoined the economy, up 3.5 percent from the same period last year. The figurefor 2017 is 127,000, compared to more than 110,000 in 2016.-VNA