Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Measures to improve Vietnam’s businessenvironment continued showing effectiveness despite the COVID-19 pandemic,but the speed of improvement slowed compared to previous years.

The statement was made by Dau Anh Tuan, head of the VCCI's Legal Department, ata seminar in Hanoi on April 20 held to reveal the findings of thereport on “Vietnam’s business environment reform programme: Perspectives fromenterprises".

According to the report, the criteria of business establishment andaccess to electricity were rated the highest, with 72.5 percent and 65.9percent of businesses rated good or very good in improvement, respectively.Bankruptcy ranked last with 44.4 percent of businesses rated good or very good.

But the tendency of improvement seemed to be slowing down compared to previousyears, Tuan said.

The improvement trend of fields was quite contradictory. The rate ofimprovement of fields with low scores such as bankruptcy, investor protectionand import-export, went up, while rates of fields with high scores, such asbusiness establishment, access to electricity, went down.

With regard to corporate finance, while credit access in 2020 was perceived tobe more difficult than in 2019, tax procedures became much easier. Locally, theindicators were still more positive than in 2019, but the rate of improvementhad slowed down, he said.

He said that the administrative procedures related to construction, althoughimproved in recent years, had not really facilitated businesses. The mostdifficult procedures include land, site clearance, construction planning, urbanplanning, decisions on investment policy.

The report also showed that private and small-scale enterprises faced moredifficulties in completing construction procedures than foreign-invested andlarge-scale enterprises.

Informal fees are now the biggest problem businesses are facing, particularlyrecords handling officers and the legal regulations.

Tran Thi Hong Minh, Director of the Central Institute for Economic Management(CIEM), said there were still many obstacles for businesses such as complexregulation system and overlapping and unnecessary business conditions.

Specialised inspection activities moved slowly. The one-door customs mechanismhad not yet been effective as businesses still had to submit paper copies.There was a lack of connection between ministries, and the informationtechnology system was congested, she said.

Regarding judicial reform, the proportion of enterprises using courts toresolve disputes increased, but the judgment enforcement rates of enforcementagencies decreased, said Chairman of the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce andIndustry (VCCI) Vu Tien Loc.

“We have reduced the inequality between private and State-owned enterprises,between private and FDI enterprises. But there are still complaints aboutcorruption and interest groups,” he said.

“The stability of our laws and policies has reduced market access conditions inmany sectors and industries, creating very good conditions for small and mediumenterprises to enter the market. However, in many areas that require largeinvestment and prolonged capital recovery, the risk of policy changes is stillworrying, hindering many large enterprises to invest money,” he said./.