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Dr. Nguyen Dinh Cung, Director of Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM).

This is the 4th consecutive year the same number for the Government Resolution has been issued. On this occasion, Dr. Nguyen Dinh Cung, Director of the Central Institute for Economic Management, one of the key "architects" of Resolution No. 19, had a talk with the Customs Newspaper reporter on the new points of the draft Resolution 19-2018 as well as recommendations after the promulgation of the Resolution.

After three years of implementation, how can you assess the impact of the series of Resolution No. 19 on the business environment in particular and the economy in general?

In fact, Resolution No. 19 made a huge difference, on two points. Firstly, the Vietnamese business environment is promoted in all aspects of world ranking organizations. In 2017, there was an increase of 14 ranks, the most successful year in 10 years.

Secondly, with the impetus from Resolution No. 19, the sense of responsibility of the ministries, branches and localities in improving the business environment and national competitiveness has been enhanced.

At present, ministries, branches and localities have taken the initiatives in implementing many solutions under their competence to improve and enhance their competitiveness. It is possible to see quite clearly the positive "emulation" among the ministries in the "race" to improve the business environment where a manifestation is the PCI index .

In addition, the Government regularly and continuously assess the implementation of solutions to improve the business environment. It must also be said that this is a "race". The spirit of Resolution No. 19 shows that this race is not among domestic agencies, but among Vietnam and the economies in the region and the world.

However, at the recent international conference, you said: "There are ministries on the destination, but there are ministries that still have not come".Could you elaborate on this statement?

Yes. So far, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has reached the target of cutting one third to one half of current business conditions in its management, in accordance with the spirit of Resolution No. 19-2017. Although the Ministry of Construction drafted a decree to submit to the Government, not only proposed to abolish the business registration but also proposed to abolish some business lines. The Ministry of Public Security and the State Bank proposed to keep the current business registration and most other ministries have not reached the target. Some Ministries have reviewed, proposed to abolish, modified the business registration and proposed amendments, but did not record the number of business registration, (Ministry of Justice). In which, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism proposed to cut off 3 industries from the list of investment sectors, conditional business and proposed additional business registration for some conditional businesses without specific plans, results of the review of business registration in each sector; or conditional businesses with abolished or changed number of business registration.

It is noteworthy that the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs has not yet made a detailed review; has not registered the number of business registrations, nor proposed to cancel business registration. The 3 ministries (the Ministry of Transportation, the Ministry of Health, and the Ministry of Science and Technology) are still in the process of review and have not had any results. The Ministry of Education and Training has not reported on review and reform of business registration under the Government's Resolution No. 19.

So in this context, if approved by the Government, how are new solutions in Resolution No. 19 to further promote the movement of the entire State management system?

The Government promulgates a resolution on this issue each year to renovate the way the Government operates and to maintain "pressure" and discipline for administration with the ministries and localities in implementing the task to improve the business environment. Every year, there are steps to note experience in implementation of objectives and tasks of ministries and localities. For example, Resolution No. 19-2014 does not mention the comprehensive reform of business registration and specialized audit. The content of Resolution No. 19-2015 is mentioned, but it is not clear what to do. The Resolution No. 19-2016 and especially 2017 version have clarified what to do, setting a specific target of abolishing a 1/3 to 1/2 of business licenses.

Generally speaking, Resolution No. 19-2018 focuses on 3 main points:

Firstly, focus on improving Vietnam's indicators which remains low, such as starting a business.

Secondly, continue to improve business. At the moment, the direction is right, but there are still long lines for many ministries, as mentioned.

Thirdly, focus on improving procedures related to specialized inspections.

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Continue the spirit of Resolution No. 19-2018, and list more than 400 relevant documents to review. Some indicators are also quantified, such as step by step to reduce logistics costs in the economy to the level of about 18% of GDP (now more than 20% of GDP); improving the logistics efficiency index by about 10 ranks (ranked No. 64); improving the contract dispute resolution index by 10 ranks; improving the bankruptcy rate of enterprises by 10 ranks. It means that the targets will be clearer, more comprehensive and more effective.