Although Vietnam has made strides in enhancing the business environment and competitiveness capacity, there’s still room for improvement.

A meeting organised by the National Council for Sustainable Development and Competitiveness Improvement aimed to review the implementation of the government’s efforts on the issues from this year and assign tasks for next year.

Dau Anh Tuan, head of the Legal Department of Vietnam 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.

Vietnam 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 to place 42nd out of 129 economies around the world.

With this jump, Vietnam has leapt 17 spots since 2016. This year’s result is also the highest ranking Vietnam 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, Tuan said, some people still worried about the pace of the reform progress.

“As reported by the World Bank in the Doing Business Report, Vietnam 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.

Tuan suggested the council focus on supervising the effectiveness of government policies’ implementation.

Phan Duc Hieu, 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 Vu Duc Dam, as the chair of the council, said the council needed to adopt practical solutions to produce a more attractive and competitive 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.