Reforming business environment: Being heavily 'performing'

Reforming business environment: Being heavily 'performing'

Although experts of the Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM) reported to the Government on the achievement of business conditions reduction and specialized inspection, it even increased than before. Not only that, the ministries also take advantage of the review and reduction process to "divide" the management, causing difficulties for enterprises...

Reform slowdown

Within the framework of the Program "Australia support Vietnam's economic reforms" (Aus4Reform), on October 28, CIEM jointly organized the conference: "Doing business in Vietnam 2016 – 2019: Results and some implications".

According to Ms. Nguyen Minh Thao, Head of Business Environment and Competitive Capability Department (CIEM), in the period of 2016 - 2019, especially from June 2016 to June 2017, Vietnam's business environment had the most positive reform.

Ms. Nguyen Minh Thao, Head of Business Environment and Competitive Capability Department (CIEM)

However, in the last 2 years, the score has improved very slowly, which makes the rankings decreas by 1 rank each year. In 2017, there were 5 indexes recorded for reform, in 2018 there were only 3 indexes and in 2019, ther were only 2 reformed indexes (tax payment and credit access). According to World Bank’s Business Environment Report, Viet Nam dropped 1 rank from 69 to 70, while the score has increased by 1.2 points.

Regarding the Competitive Capability, as said by the ranking of the World Economic Forum, this year, despite Vietnam increased by 10 rank (up 3.5 points), there are still 8/12 categories have low rank... “We are tending to slow down the reform while many countries are pushing it so hard. As the result, we failed...” - Dr. Nguyen Dinh Cung - Former CIEM Director said.

Lack of reality

According to Ms. Nguyen Minh Thao, despite many recorded reforms, our business environment is still facing many barriers, of which the biggest obstacle is business conditions. More ominously, legal documents also show a “division” of the management among ministries and branches, making it more difficult for enterprises. There are even situations where some ministries and branches “taking advantage of” transparency requirements in the management regime for goods to expand their management subjects.

Such as technical inspection of occupational safety. We only needed to apply for a license at Department of Labors, War Invalids and Social Affairs before but now according to Decree 44/2016/ND-CP, it is required that we have to apply at 9 Ministries with the same content of work. In many cases, all the standards, procedures, forms,... on occupational safety inspection of the ministries are the same, but they still require a retraining process. Enterprises have to pay official expenses of about 10 million VND/person, not including order costs.

Similarly, lifting equipment have the same standards, but if it is a tower crane then it is under the authority of the Ministry of Construction; the remaining cranes are managed by the Department of Labors, War Invalids and Social Affairs; equipment used in airports, waterways, building, ship repairing, railway vehicles… are belongs to the Ministry of Transport. Or as in the management of boilers and air conditioners, there is also a "division" management between ministries (Department of Labors, War Invalids and Social Affairs manages boilers with a capacity not exceeding 16 bar and air conditioners with a capacity greater than 90,000 BTU, while the Ministry of Industry and Trade manages boilers with a pressure greater than 16 bar, Ministry of Science and Technology manages air conditioners with a capacity less than 90,000 BTU...).

In particular, in the field of the Specialized Examination, there are some new documents have been promulgated but are contrary to the direction of the government, or just show unguaranteed quality reform. 

For example, in the past, Department of Labors, War Invalids and Social Affairs did not manage and do specialized examination for import and export goods. However, after the Government requested the ministries to review and amend the regulations in order to cut 50% of the list of management items, do specialized examination and transparentize the management regime, Department of Labors, War Invalids and Social Affairs "seems to exploit this opportunity" - Ms. Thao said - promulgated Circular 22/2018/TT-BLDTBXH regulates the list of goods of Group 2 with the addition of many goods are specialized examination category.

“The Ministry of Industry and Trade also promulgated Decision 765/QD-BCT announcing the list of items (with HS codes), including hundreds of iron and steel items, under its management that do not need to take the specialized examination. However, this Decision is just about not checking specialized in the clearance period but after that. Whether or not the achievement disease? Reported data will have hundreds of goods being removed from specialized examination category...”- Ms. Thao reflected.

Ministry of Science and Technology used to request quality inspection for PVC-covered wires, but now they require quality inspection for wires and cables. "Thus, the range of goods is much wider..." - Head of Business Environment and Competitive Capability Department concerned. Agreeing with this view, Dr. Nguyen Dinh Cung shared: "The Ministries are significantly smart. They not only have a fame of reform but also increase State management scale of themselves."

Source: baophapluat.vn