Frog meat is processed for export at Tan Thanh Loi Company Limited in Long An province. State management agencies need more practical solutions to help enterprises in dealing with difficulties. — VNA/VNS Photo Danh Lam

HÀ NỘI — The increasing number of businesses becoming operational again since the beginning of this year indicates positive economic development prospects, said Vũ Tiến Lộc, chairman of the Việt Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI).

However, Lộc said, there are still many firms facing difficulties and obstacles due to institutions and overlapping legal systems.

In the first half of 2019, there were 67,000 newly registered enterprises nationwide and 21,600 enterprises resumed operations, but in general, growth has tended to slow. It is forecast that the overall growth rate will decrease in the last months of the year.

Although several new-generation free trade agreements like the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) have encouraged domestic institutional reforms, many businesses said progress still lags behind expectations, and overlapping or conflicting regulations and jurisdictions of State management agencies, and different laws such as the Investment Law, Land Law, Construction Law and Environment Law, have hampered their operations, he said.

According to the monthly report of VCCI summarising the implementation of the Government Resolution 35/NQ-CP on supporting and developing enterprises by 2020, up to 48.57 per cent of businesses expressed satisfaction with answering the petitions of the ministries, branches and localities; 14.29 per cent responded as very satisfied and 31.43 per cent answered unsatisfied. Particularly, 5.71 per cent of enterprises did not participate in the evaluation.

"This result shows that the State management agencies need more practical solutions to meet the aspirations of enterprises in dealing with difficult practices," Lộc said.

He also confirmed that the chamber will continue to implement a number of solutions to accompany and support businesses, especially small- and medium-sized enterprises better compete in the context of deep global integration.

Assessing the current situation of domestic enterprises, Nguyễn Đình Cung, Director of the Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM) said that the management capacity of Vietnamese enterprises is not good compared to enterprises in Southeast Asian countries.

The World Economic Forum 2018 ranked Việt Nam at the bottom in the corporate governance index of listed companies in six ASEAN member states. Meanwhile, the competitive capacity of Vietnamese firms was placed 104th among 140 economies in the region. This means the Vietnamese business community needs more assistance to improve their competitive edges, thus better integrating into the global economy, he stressed.

"As the CPTPP, EVFTA and many other free trade agreements offer good opportunities for Việt Nam to open to international trade, VCCI will help local firms take full advantage of the pacts," Cung said.
"VCCI will continue national programmes on supporting businesses to enhance their capacity to compete, integrate into the global economy, and develop sustainably," he added. 

It will also accelerate the implementation of bilateral cooperation agreements in trade and commerce with strategic partners, while improving the quality of business forums with key markets. — VNS