Resolution 19: further confidence and growth expected

The businesses and investors have placed much hope on the efforts of the Government. Photo: H.Diu.

This is the fourth consecutive year that the Government issued resolutions with the same number and the same great goal. This has been adding confidence and motivation for the companies to grow in the near future.

The goal has been very close

This year, Resolution 19 aims that by the end of 2017, Vietnam will have achieved at least the average indicators of ASEAN 4 on the business environment; shortening the duration of procedures, including: paying taxes and social insurance not exceeding 168 hours/year (including 119 hours of taxes and 49 hours of insurance) … According to companies, the implementation of the Resolution in 2016 created many positive changes, so that, objectives of Resolution 19 in this year will not be difficult to implement.

Sharing this issue, Mr. Mac Kingdom, the Vice President of the Small and Medium Enterprises Association said that reducing the time and costs under the State regulations in the production and business processes such as: Tax, Customs, and social insurance deployed actively by Government agencies, to facilitate businesses. Thus, the number of newly established enterprises registered is increasingly. Specifically, since June 2016, the businesses in Hanoi registered to establish online within 2 working days (more than 1 day less against the requirements of the Law on Enterprises). By the end of May 2016, more than 110,000 enterprises registered to pay electronic taxes, accounting for 95.7% of operating enterprises, exceeding targets set by Resolution 19.

Also on this issue, according to Mr. Chu Dinh Long, the Director of the Cat Loi Trading & Services Company, the recent business environment has major changes, many enterprise supporting policies were deployed such as facilitating for businesses on accessing to capital and decreasing borrowing interest rates. Not only that, businesses reduced “unofficial” costs.

Take the example about the implementation of electronic tax payment through the banks, Mr. Long said that previously, company bookkeepers had difficulty with document procedures and records, they had to wait in line for hours to pay taxes, but now, companies can pay taxes at any time, it has reduced the working time for employees and the managers, also controlling the tax payment of companies easily.

Shortening the gap between legal documents and enforcement

For each resolution, the action plans were issued, the most wanted of the business community was that the performance was done thoroughly from the central to local levels, from the leaders to employees. Report on the implementation of Resolution No. 19-2016/NQ-CP of the Ministry of Planning and Investment admitted that there was still a big gap between the objectives and the implementation results of the Resolution; still many barriers obstructing the production and business of enterprises, especially the provisions on specialized management.

Remarkably, specialized inspections were always mentioned as one of the key tasks of Resolution 19. But the above report said that the specialized management and inspection for imported goods had not improved yet, there were still obstacles, difficulties, which caused lost time and cost for companies. Therefore, companies put more expectations on the change of Resolution 19 of the Government in this year, they have desired the unification of ministries and branches and one item was inspected by a lot of State agencies.

Besides, in 2016, many targets have not been achieved yet as expected, business registration still took up to 5 working days because it was related to various levels. Moreover, although the new rules allowed companies to seal themselves, the Ministry of Planning and Investment required the companies register seal specimens, thus, it still takes 1 or 2 working days. The issue construction license has been reformed but it still takes 166 days because of involving many ministries, branches and localities, even the evaluation and approval of projects at the Ministry of Construction takes up to 30 days.

Talking about the difficulties of businesses, Mr. Truong Ngoc Toan, the Chairman of the Board, the General Director of the Joint Stock Companies 22 said that although State agencies have launched a number of policies to help enterprises take further advantage of investment and production, many documents have overlapped, changed continuously or new regulations had been launched but the guidelines of these regulations were launched a long time after. Therefore, when making new legal documents, the State departments and agencies should issue guidance documents simultaneously for the enterprises to implement immediately and effectively.

Of the same point of view, Mr. Chu Dinh Long petitioned that programs for supporting and improving the business environment should care about the small and tiny businesses more properly and adequately. The Government should not set up the business conditions with high demands on infrastructure which are not suitable for market requirements, make difficulties and huge barriers for small businesses.

In a recent government meeting, the Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said that in order to implement Resolution 19, the total political system should take part, especially, the localities with the lead role. Therefore, for the new Resolution 19, with a new spirit, businesses and investors have placed much hope on the efforts of the Government. It is the motivation for enterprises to add excitement for the upcoming business journey.