BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT REFORM PROMOTE INVESTMENT, GROWTH

Producing goods for export at MXP Sports Goods Production Joint Stock Company (Nguyen Duc Canh Industrial Park, Thai Binh Province).

Issued in the context of slowing economic growth due to the negative impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, Resolution 02/NQ-CP has inherited many of the contents and spirit of previous years, but has added additional elements. necessary new points to fuel the reform and provide necessary support for the socio-economic recovery program.

Root treatment

The resolution aims to strongly improve and enhance Vietnam's position on international rankings of business environment and competitiveness, in order to adapt to the development trend of the second industrial revolution. investment and increase the resilience of the economy in the context of complicated developments of the Covid-19 epidemic. Rapid increase in the number of newly established enterprises;

reduce the rate of enterprises being dissolved or ceased to operate; reduce input costs, informal costs for businesses and people. Stepping up the removal of difficulties and obstacles caused by the negative impact of the Covid-19 pandemic; promptly support people and businesses to restore production and business, flexibly and effectively adapt to the epidemic. To achieve the above-mentioned objectives, the Resolution sets out the main tasks and solutions. In which, there is a requirement to continue to strengthen the responsibility and proactiveness of the ministries assigned to act as focal points to monitor the improvement of the sets of indicators and the ministries and agencies assigned to assume the prime responsibility for and take responsibility for the improvement of the indicators. index groups, component indexes...

Dr. Nguyen Dinh Cung, former Director of Central Economic Management Research (CIEM) pointed out two new points of Resolution 02 that he was interested in. That is to cut down the list of conditional business investment lines and remove the overlap, difference and contradiction of regulations in investment and business activities. The previous Resolutions mainly asked to cut business conditions, so they were just cutting the tops. This time, it clearly stated the request to cut the list of conditional business lines, that is, to cut the roots.

At the same time, solution groups are also set out in a more focused and detailed way. The Government has assigned the Ministry of Planning and Investment to assume the prime responsibility for, and coordinate with concerned ministries, branches and localities in, studying and reviewing to reduce the list of conditional investment and business lines; narrow the scope of some lines of business, take some lines out of the list of conditional businesses if there are other more effective management measures. The implementation of removing occupations from the list if the management requirements lack a scientific basis, lack of practical basis, do not have management objectives or have no clear management objectives, will have to be completed in 2023. “When it is no longer a conditional business line, the conditions for that line of business will also disappear by itself. This is a good approach, but it will be difficult to do,” said Dr. Nguyen Dinh Cung.

According to Ms. Nguyen Minh Thao, Head of the Research Department on Business Environment and Competitiveness (CIEM), Resolution 02 offers many solutions to improve Vietnam's indexes that have low scores, relevant factors. for the innovation phase, Industry 4.0 aims to create development and creativity for the economy. At the same time, propose solutions to administrative procedure reform associated with decentralization and local empowerment through monitoring, inspection, inspection and post-inspection mechanisms. Specialized management and inspection activities continue to be pushed higher to achieve the same level as other countries in the region as well as create favorable conditions for businesses. With the removal of investment and business barriers and focusing on groups of issues and fields that help improve labor productivity, promote growth, etc., Vietnam's business environment will certainly have its own set of challenges. necessary changes to approach international standards.

What is important is implementation

The feeling of the slowdown in business environment improvement was very clear during the recent outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. The unprecedented difficulties faced by the economy, which should have been an opportunity to speed up reforms, but unfortunately the lack of consistency in the administration, implementation of prolonged distance made the operation production and business are stalled, broken. The survey results of the Vietnam Confederation of Trade and Industry (VCCI) and the Ministry of Planning and Investment both recognized one thing in common about the business community's greatest desire in more than a year of fighting the pandemic. That is simplifying administrative procedures, ensuring transparency and clarity in policies; fairness and friendly attitude of enforcement officers. Businesses believe that the solution to administrative procedure reform is a sustainable, long-term solution and also acts as a support package for businesses, especially in terms of investment procedures. investment, land, environment.

But in practice it is not easy to achieve this support. For example, during the time of commenting on the draft Decree detailing a number of articles of the recent Law on Environmental Protection, business associations have submitted five petitions to the Government, the Prime Minister, the Ministry of Industry and Trade. Natural Resources and Environment, expressed their desire to have a dialogue because some comments have not yet received feedback from the drafting agency or have not been absorbed and edited to be highly feasible and in line with the commitments. international cooperation, harmonization of interests to help protect the environment and create favorable conditions for production and business.

With the perseverance of the business community, many issues have been removed and absorbed, especially the abolition of the regulation on the establishment of EPR Office (manufacturer's liability regulation) due to lack of legal basis. . Chairman of the Vietnam International Arbitration Center Vu Tien Loc shared that businesses expect this from government agencies, rather than financial support.

Reform is an arduous journey. Therefore, the great concern of Dr. Nguyen Dinh Cung is that Resolution 02/NQ-CP was issued in a timely manner with specific goals, solutions and tasks, but the most important thing is to be implemented. How to achieve the best results, because the implementation of Resolution 02 this time will be very difficult when touching the field that is the domain of the "please-give" mechanism. Since 2014, the Government has identified improving the business environment, enhancing competitiveness, promoting innovation, and moving towards sustainable development as a focus of reform, an important task, often often.

Through eight years of reform efforts, Vietnam's position on global prestigious rankings has been raised. The positive improvement in the quality of the business environment is also evident in the assessment results of the Provincial Competitiveness Index (PCI). But reform is showing signs of slowing down. From 2020, due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, improving the position on the rankings is increasingly difficult and requires higher efforts. of ministries, branches and localities as well as sharing and cooperation from the business community and people.

“In the past, we have come up with many solutions but have not achieved good results. One is because the solution is not successful, the other is the lack of specificity, the lack of a chairperson. Without administrative pressure from the Prime Minister, without pressure from public opinion and the business community, there would never be any reform in the administrative apparatus. What is expected of experts and businesses now for Resolution 02 to be well implemented is that the Government soon organizes conferences and seminars to kick off the implementation of the resolution. The most important thing is to have a person, with a superior side to protect the sword to implement the Resolution in a final way. The resolution can only live when events and problems arise, which are continuously monitored, monitored and reported", said Dr. Nguyen Dinh Cung.