A staff member reads documents on granting business establishment licences. — Photo ndh.vn

At a seminar on improving business environment to raise competitiveness held in Can Tho City on Tuesday, Cung told participants that improving the business climate was vital to ensure businesses remained competitive.

Cung said currently over 50 per cent of legal document dealing with financial aspects were no longer suitable and must be scrapped or amended immediately. For instance, some legal documents required ID number of people who carry out money transaction on behalf of two companies. This regulation was not suitable with international rules and only annoys foreign investors.

He said apart from overlapping of administrative formalities, investors also had to wait long for paperwork from local authorities.

Specifically, setting up a business in Viet Nam needs 34 days for a licence while it is just one day in New Zealand. Similarly, cargo clearance in Viet Nam takes 21 days, while Singapore only takes six days.

Nguyen Minh Thao from CIEM worried that businesses were now suffering from a heavy burden of costs and fees. Apart from regulated taxes and fees, businesses also pay additional ‘underground' fee to Government employees.

According to Thao, to minimise the problem, the business environment should be made transparent at the earliest while Government employees are in need of better education about professional ethics and should be paid higher salary.

Experts said administrative reforms should envisage application of information technology to improve the business environment and make it effective.

According to reports, over 90 per cent of the administrative bodies have applied information technology. Actually, the lack of linkages between the bodies remains problematic in certain localities, experts said. — VNS