Business climate improvement effort yet to pay off
Through Resolution 19 the Government has shown its resolve to make life easier for businesses but a slew of hindrances to production and business activities have remained.
In a comment on a review report on three years’ implementation of the resolution, the Ministry of Planning and Investment said the gap between what the resolution targets and what has been achieved is woefully wide.
The resolution is intended to improve the business environment and the competitiveness of the nation to catch up with leading ASEAN economies.
The Government will meet with city and provincial leaders on December 28 in a teleconference to review the execution of the resolution.
If well implemented, the resolution would help shore up private sector investment. But it was not until this year that ministries and localities had begun showing some change in their thinking and actions.
The report by the Ministry of Planning and Investment says most ministries, agencies and local authorities are fully aware of the objectives, tasks and measures set out in the resolution.
The 2016 version of Resolution 19 identifies 13 groups of general tasks and solutions and 83 particular tasks for ministries, agencies and local authorities. So far, 35 solutions have been adopted and have brought results (42.2%); 19 have been carried out without a clear effect (22.9%); and 29 have not been implemented (34.9%).
A number of cities and provinces have drastically enforced the resolution and achieved encouraging results as shown in a number of indicators. Many of them have executed Resolution 19 on a regular basis, including HCMC, Quang Ninh, Hanoi, An Giang and Dong Thap.
At the conference “Hanoi 2016 – Cooperation for investment and development” held in the capital on June 4, the city’s leaders said: “Hanoi will be a pioneer to improve the business environment and competitiveness in the spirit of Resolution 19.”
However, Resolution 19 has not received an enthusiastic response from many ministries and localities.
In 2014, when the resolution first came out, most of the ministries, agencies and localities did not draw up action plans. Those who did devise a plan failed to meet criteria for business climate improvement based on international practices, says the report.
In response to the 2015 version of Resolution 19, only a handful of local governments mapped out action plans, and many just did it perfunctorily. The action plans of some localities set out goals but contained no specific tasks and solutions.
With Resolution 19 of 2016, many provinces have neither adhered to the resolution nor produced clear results, such as Thanh Hoa, Quang Binh, Lao Cai, Thai Binh, Quang Nam, Nam Dinh, Thai Nguyen and Quang Tri.
The latest version of the resolution was issued on April 28, but months later some provinces came up with action plans, like Khanh Hoa on September 14, Hau Giang on August 23, Kien Giang on August 8, Son La on August 12, and Ca Mau on August 17.
Therefore, the Ministry of Planning and Investment report says that most indicators of Vietnam’s business climate have yet to reach the average levels of ASEAN 4, or even ASEAN 6. A number of countries in the region have carried out a lot of reforms and outdone Vietnam, with Indonesia and Brunei having moved up 15 and 25 notches respectively.
In the 2016 Global Competitiveness Rankings of the World Economic Forum, Vietnam comes 60th among 138 nations and territories, down four places from last year (56/140). This ranking is only above Laos and Cambodia, and below most other ASEAN countries.