Deputy Prime Minister Vũ Đức Đam speaks at a meeting organised by the National Council for Sustainable Development and Competitiveness Improvement held in Hà Nội on Friday. Photo chinhphu.vn

HÀ NỘI — Although Việt Nam has made strides in enhancing the business environment and competitiveness capacity, there’s still room for improvement, heard participants at a meeting held in Hà Nội on Friday.

The meeting, organised by the National Council for Sustainable Development and Competitiveness Improvement, aimed at reviewing the implementation of the government’s efforts on the issues from 2019 and assign tasks for next year.

Đậu Anh Tuấn, head of the Legal Department of Viet Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry said results of surveys on administrative procedure and tax procedure reform and business environment improvement in 63 provinces and cities showed the proportion of enterprises with positive assessment continued to increase for the third consecutive year.

Việt Nam was placed 67th out of the 141 countries in the Global Competitiveness Report 2019, up 10 places compared to its 2018 ranking and also up 3.5 points, which are the fastest increases in the world.

The country has moved up three ranks on the 2019 Global Innovation Index (GII) to place 42nd out of 129 economies around the world.

With this jump, Việt Nam has leaped 17 spots since 2016. This year’s result is also the highest ranking Việt Nam has ever achieved.

Ministries and branches have been aware of their responsibilities and actively participated in improving their scores and index rankings in the fields under their management.

However, Tuấn said, some people still worried about the pace of the reform progress.

“As reported by the World Bank in the Doing Business Report, Việt Nam has five major administrative reforms in 2018 but with only three this year. This raises concern about a potential slowdown in renovating business environment and improving competitiveness in Vietnam,” he said.

Tuấn suggested the Council focus on supervising the effectiveness of government policies’ implementation.

Phan Đức Hiếu, deputy director of Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM), agreed, saying overlapping of legal documents was common.

Most of ministries only publicise business conditions after cutting down some of them but they didn’t give guidance and training for localities or enforcement units as well as monitoring the results of reform.

“Statistics from CIEM showed that many business conditions stipulated in decrees and laws are hindering and making things difficult for business. It’s time to review business conditions that have been recently issued but not effective,” he said.

Deputy Prime Minister Vũ Đức Đam, as the chair of the council, said the council needed to adopt practical solutions to produce a more attractive and competitiveness environment. He also asked members of the council to quickly contribute ideas to develop a resolution for next year.

The National Council for Sustainable Development and Competitiveness Improvement was established in July 2012, with the aim of advising the Government and the Prime Minister in guiding the creation and implementation of strategies, policies and programmes relating to sustainable development and competitiveness enhancement. — VNS