Single-window counters at Bình Dương Province Department of Planning and Investment. The Vietnamese Government has issued a decree which reduced the time for starting a business from 16 days to six days in a bold effort to improve the business climate.— VNA/VNS Photo Danh Lam

HÀ NỘI — The Vietnamese Government has issued a decree which reduced the time needed to start a business from 16 days to six days in an effort to improve the business climate.

Under Decree 122/2020/NĐ-CP which took effect in mid-October, there were now only three procedures – which would take six days altogether – to complete before starting a business in Việt Nam.

Specifically, three days would be for handling business registration procedures, two days for opening a bank account and one day for issuance of invoices.

In comparison, the World Bank’s Doing Business 2020 report pointed out that one must go through eight procedures in 16 days to start a business in Việt Nam. The report ranked Việt Nam 115th among 190 economies and sixth in ASEAN in terms of the ease of starting a business.

According to Bùi Anh Tuấn, Director of the Agency for Business Registration, the decree reduced the administrative procedures businesses must conduct. Specifically, enterprises now needed to submit only one set of documents at the business registration agency, instead of four, including business registration, employee use declaration, social insurance registration and printed invoice registration at four separate agencies.

The information would be shared among relevant management agencies online.

Tuấn said that this would help create favourable conditions for starting a business while ensuring the Government’s management target as well as reducing time and costs for handling the procedures.

The decree also created a mechanism for State management agencies to exchange information online and apply information and technology in handling administrative procedures which would help improve transparency, he added.

Tuấn said that the decree was a bold effort in improving the ease of starting a business in Việt Nam as well as improving the overall business environment.

The Government’s Resolution No 02/NQ-CP dated January 1 stressed that improving the business climate and national competitiveness was the priority of the Government this year, setting the target that Việt Nam would rank fourth in ASEAN in the ease of doing business and move up 10-15 spots in the ranking of the ease of starting a business.

According to the Decree No 22/2020/NĐ-CP dated February 24, newly-founded firms would be exempt from license fees in the first year of operation, meaning that paying license fees would no longer be a procedure for starting a business.

As the National Assembly passed the Law on Enterprise 2020 which would take effect from the beginning of next year, the procedure of seal announcement would also be eliminated from the process of starting a business. — VNS