Switzerland backs Vietnam business reforms

The four-year (2014-18) project for "Expansion of National Business Registration System (NBRS)" between the Ministry of Planning and Investment and the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO to new commercial entities is expected to cost US$5.45 million.

In 2008-13 the project was funded by the MPI, Switzerland, Norway's Agency for Development Cooperation, and UNIDO.

NBRS is being used for single-point, fully-computerised services for business, tax, customs, statistics, and public-security registration of firms in 63 provinces.

As a result, online enterprise registration and enterprise information services, covering the records of over 864,596 enterprises and subordinate units registered under the Enterprise Law and 164,000 annual financial statements of shareholding companies, are available through the National Business Registration Portal at www.businessregistration.gov.vn.

The average registration time has decreased from 15 days in 2008 to only 3.5 days as of last year.

Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Dang Huy Dong said business registration reform to date has not only reduced the cost and time for registration nation-wide, but also demonstrated that client-friendly and efficient public sector services benefit the development of the private sector.

Miroslav Delaporte, country representative of Switzerland's State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), said improvements in the business environment, including business registration reforms have helped mobilise capital and unleashed the entrepreneurial spirit of the Vietnamese people."

Nilgun Tas, chief of the Competitiveness, Business Environment and Upgrading Unit and deputy to the director of the Business, Investment and Technology Services Branch at UNIDO, said the private sector will not only gain access to efficient services of NBRS, but also benefit from more appropriate enterprise supporting policies, designed and implemented based on the full picture of all commercial entities operating in Vietnam.

"There is also great potential to link the NBRS with additional public services, for example, with social insurance, secured transactions, trademark, and patenting services, among many others and as such to expand this e-Government initiative wider."