Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has issued a Directive on continuing speeding up the implementation of Resolution No. 35/NQ-CP dated May 16, 2016 on supporting and developing businesses to 2020 and Instruction 26/CT-TTg dated June 6, 2017 on effectively conducting the Resolution, realizing the Government’s effort to accompany businesses in 2018.

The Directive clarifies that the implementation of Resolution 35 and Instruction 26 has been fruitful, contributing to socio-economic development of the country. Ministries, sectors and localities have shown their own efforts in realising these instructions, creating positive changes in the awareness of public servants and improving their attitude and service quality for people and businesses. Ministries and sectors have paid greater attention to the support and development of businesses as well as investment attraction, administrative reform and business environment improvement. The work has also received the enthusiastic engagement of the business community.

However, shortcomings have still been found in the implementation of tasks mentioned in these documents, thus a breakthrough in boosting business growth has yet to be made, while there have been incoherent regulations among laws on environment protection, land, construction and bidding. Inspection work is still overlapped, while enterprises’ access to resources has still been limited.

In order to continue effectively these instructions, the PM requested ministries, sectors, and localities to make double effort to implement the designed measures and solutions comprehensively. The Government leader assigned the Ministry of Planning and Investment to continue organising training courses on assisting small and medium-sized enterprises to increase their governance capacity and financial transparency for better access to credits. He also asked for better training for officials of ministries, sectors, localities and business associations so they can efficiently assist small- and medium-sized enterprises.

At the same time, he requested the review and amendment of Decree 78/2015/ND-CP issued on September 14, 2015 by the Government on business registration to reduce cost for launching a business. A draft on the revisions and adjustments must be submitted to the Government in line with the 2018 working schedule.

Addressing difficulties facing enterprises in taxation

The Prime Minister assigned the Finance Minister to promptly develop and submit draft laws on revisions to the laws on taxation to immediately address difficulties facing enterprises; continue to strictly manage and collect taxes in a right, full, and timely manner for big family businesses; avoid tax loss for those with quota; research and propose policies on taxation and a simple accounting system for small-sized enterprises, particularly those started as family businesses.

The Ministry of Finance was tasked with building a decree on the use of e-invoices and e-documents to be used in the national economy in 2018; research and pilot e-invoices, e-invoices with series supplied by tax bodies, a data system to manage retail revenue of family-based businesses in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City in 2018.

The ministry was told to publish the list of 1,000 biggest corporate tax payers of Vietnam on its website, and research revisions to the Securities Law to facilitate indirect foreign investment; complete the revised Law on Securities and submit it to the Government for approval on schedule.

The PM requested the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment to review and make revision proposal for all regulations on land revocation, ground clearance, land renting, land-use change, land pricing, and land access for small- and medium-sized enterprises; review planning on land-use in a concrete and transparent manner.

The ministry was told to research and make proposals for zoning off lands for enterprises for production purpose, address difficulties in land reclamation among those using land for the purposes of selling land together with assets on the land.

The Ministry of Justice was instructed to enhance the quality of its appraisal of legal documents in line with the Law on Promulgation of Legal Documents 2015 to ensure that the promulgation of regulations on business investment conditions and administrative procedures is in line with authority, and the regulations are truly necessary, rational, transparent and feasible.

It was asked to continue reviewing and completing the legal framework on registering safeguard measures, giving instructions on registering safeguard measures for assets, including land-use right, assets enclosed to land, airplanes, ships, and real estate, thus facilitating access to loans for enterprises and individuals.

Supporting enterprises in applying new technologies and promoting science research

The Ministry of Science and Technology implements measures to support enterprises in innovating technologies.

The Ministry of Transport will be in charge of issuing documents guiding the revision of the investment costs for Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) projects, directing the supervision of revenue of the toll from BOT projects to determine the time for and the rate of toll fares.

It will also work to overcome shortcomings in the management and location of toll stations, publicise the flow of  transport means, turnover, management expenses, investors' profits, loan interest rates, and expenses for construction and direct the implementation of the roadmap for applying interconnected non-stop electronic fee collection service in toll stations.

The Ministry of Science and Technology has been asked to devise measures to help enterprises innovate technologies and apply science-technology through conducting national programmes on science and technology. The ministry will also accelerate the implementation of the Intellectual Property Development Programme for 2016-2020, which aims to promote the registration of intellectual property and the recognition and publication of standards for innovative products.

The Ministry of Education and Training shall be responsible for examining and simplifying administrative procedures in granting investment licenses in education and training to encourage enterprises to invest in opening universities.

Establishing hotlines for supporting enterprises in addressing difficulties

The People’s Committees of the provinces of Binh Duong, Binh Dinh, Binh Thuan, Cao Bang, Dak Lak, Long An, Nam Dinh and Tra Vinh, and those of Ho Chi Minh City and Hai Phong city will work to set up hotlines on their electronic information portals to receive and settle difficulties facing enterprises.

Ministries, sectors and localities have been asked to fine-tune the quality of dialogues with the business community, publicise the monitor and supervision of the post-dialogue settlement and make recommendations to authorities on inadequacies in legal regulations.

The Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry will be responsible for calling on businesses to say “no” to negative acts.

International Cooperation Department