Workers at Vietnam Post loading up parcels at a distribution centre in HCM City. — VNA Photo

Over 400 business conditions were cut in the recently passed Law on Investment last year, according to the deputy minister of planning and investment (MPI) Tran Duy Dong.

Dong said his ministry's focus during 2020 was to support business activities and firms. The ministry has also been working on some 17 proposals, which aimed to improve ease of doing business in Viet Nam with a number of policy breakthroughs.

The deputy-minister said MPI will continue to review the 2020 Law on Investment to further remove additional conditions for businesses that specialise in work safety equipment, postal offices, publishing and pay television.

Meanwhile, MPI has been at the forefront of administrative reform with concerted efforts across all of its departments to simplify and shorten the required time to process business applications and procedures.

The ministry has introduced a portal allowing businesses to submit forms and applications online to save time and expenses. The portal also helps the MPI to shorten its processing time and improve accountability and transparency across its departments.

Dong said the MPI has been pushing for faster digitalisation with the establishment of a national business register, a key component in a future e-government system. The register has been well-received and widely accessed by the business community (with nearly 220 million searches performed in 2020 alone, more than 12 times the number of searches recorded in 2015). It has helped thousands of businesses connect with each other and proved to be a valuable management tool for the MPI.

He said the ministry's key objectives in 2021 include extensive reviews on current policies and legal frameworks on investment and global integration. The MPI will also launch a number of initiatives with a focus on helping localities and businesses improve productivity, quality of products and services as well as business competitiveness. — VNS