Ministry of Finance worked with US-ASEAN Business Council

The scene of meeting. Photo: Thùy Linh

Speaking at the meeting, Minister Dinh Tien Dung said that Vietnam's economy continued to achieve impressive growth in 2018, estimated to be about 7% - the growth of the highest group in the region. It also was Vietnam’s highest growth rate in the past 10 years since the world economic crisis in 2008.

Total trade turnover in 2018 is estimated at $US 475 billion, equivalent to 200% of the economy, attracting foreign investment of over $US 30 billion. Besides high growth rate, Vietnam still prioritizes maintaining and achieving macroeconomic stability, controlled inflation in accordance with the target, budget deficit and public debt decline, balance of payments achieved double surplus, interest rates and exchange rates were maintained stably.

Also in the past year, Vietnam's business environment has been constantly improved. The Global Competitiveness Index of Vietnam in 2018 was ranked at 77/137 countries. Vietnam is an ideal destination for many large transnational corporations providing competitive products and services in the region and globally.

“The presence of many world's leading corporations in Vietnam is proof for the quality of investment environment and growth prospects of Vietnam. After summing up 30 years of foreign investment in Vietnam, there have been over 27 thousand foreign investment projects with a total investment of over $US 335 billion,” the Minister affirmed.

Also, according to the Minister, in 2019, Vietnam’s Government identified a number of economic priorities to strengthen macroeconomic stability, control inflation, ensure major balances of the economy, improve the business investment environment, promoting rapid and sustainable economic growth, striving to increase the gross domestic product (GDP) to 6.6-6.8%, controlling consumer price growth (CPI) at the average of 4%.

Along with that, Vietnam would focus on implementing drastically and synchronously 3 strategic breakthroughs, including: Promoting the improvement of the law associated with law enforcement in the spirit of supreme law; Completing the institution on the development and application of science and technology, information and communication technology, education and training, to reach the fourth industrial revolution, improve productivity, quality and competitive strength of the economy; improving the quality of human resources, focusing on developing high quality human resources.

In particular, Vietnam will boost the economic restructuring in association with the growth model innovation, improve the growth quality, labor productivity and competitiveness of the economy.

At the meeting, Mr. Alexander Feldman said, USABC appreciated and recognized the impressive results in maintaining the macro economy as well as controlling inflation in Vietnam. In particular, the Ministry of Finance plays a significant role in this whole process.

According to Alexander Feldman, the world is changing very rapidly, the digital economy emerges with the important role of technology. “USABC would always go hand in hand with the Government, businesses and specialized agencies of Vietnam. I expect that the resources of US businesses will be utilized by Vietnam and exploited in all cooperation activities, while improving the competitiveness of Vietnam," said Mr. Alexander Feldman.

At the meeting, many representatives of US businesses in Vietnam attended such as: AIG Vietnam, Amazon, Agoda, Citi Bank, Coca Cola, FedEx Express, Mastercard, Kimberly Clark,...

Representatives of enterprises stated a number of proposals related to the draft revised Law on Tax Administration; draft revised Law on Securities; regulations related to the Draft amending Decree 68/2016/ND-CP on conditions for dealing in duty-free goods, warehouses, locations for customs procedures, customs inspection and supervision; petition on export tax on goods "import and export on the spot"; discussed about improving the legal framework for Vietnam Insurance market.

In response to suggestions and proposal of businesses' representatives, Minister Dinh Tien Dung fully and specifically answered each enterprise.

According to the Minister, the Ministry of Finance is focusing on completing the revised Law on Tax Administration, ensuring to submit to the National Assembly for consideration and approval at the 7th session (5/2019); The revised Securities Law submitted to the National Assembly for comments at the 7th session (5/2019) and adopted at the 8th session (10/2019).

“The Ministry of Finance is continuing to administer prudent fiscal policy; working closely with monetary policy to support production-business development, macro-economic stability, inflation control, economic growth promotion. At the same time strictly controlling the state budget deficit (including central budget overspending and local budget overspending) at the rate of not more than 3.6% of GDP; strictly striving and controlling the public debt balance in the scope of the National Assembly which is estimated at about 61.3% of GDP to the end of 2019,”said Minister Dinh Tien Dung.

Furthermore, the Minister also said that the Ministry of Finance is stepping up the reform of administrative procedures and modernization in the financial sector, with a focus on tax, customs and state treasuries, contributing to further improving the business environment, business development, encouraging entrepreneurship, improving the competitiveness of the economy.

At the same time, continue to review, reduce and simplify administrative procedures; continue to expand the application of information technology and electronics in the field of tax and customs; linking electronic tax payment information between tax authorities, customs, treasury and commercial banks; improve the quality of electronic tax declaration, electronic tax payment, expand the implementation of electronic tax refund to facilitate, reduce the time and cost of tax administrative transactions for businesses.