The Prime Minister’s working group has asked the ministries of Finance and Planning and Investment to swiftly lift the foreign ownership limit of 49 per cent at enterprises where foreign investment is not restricted.

The request for removing the foreign ownership restriction at certain businesses is mentioned in a PM’s working group report on the implementation of the assignments given by the Government to ministries and agencies and on results of inspections last month.

From January 1 last year to April 30, the Government assigned ministries, agencies, cities and provinces more than 26,700 tasks, of which nearly 15,900 have been completed.

Particularly, ministries of Finance, Industry and Trade, and Agriculture and Rural Development have so far cut numerous business conditions.

The PM’s working group said it conducted inspections at the Ministry of Finance and Viet Nam Cement Industry Corporation (VICEM) in April.

Accordingly, the group concluded that the Ministry of Finance has accomplished 1,340 out of nearly 1,600 assigned tasks. However, many business conditions for enterprises under its management still overlap and are unreasonable, so the ministry plans to simplify or abolish 188 of 370 conditions.

In addition, the ministry is told to impose strict sanctions on officials found to harass businesses, and direct the General Department of Taxation and the General Department of Customs to lower tax debts to below 5 per cent of State budget revenue.

The ministry must also complete the drafting of a law amending tax regulations to support enterprises, ensure sufficient tax collections and propose new tax policy for small enterprises, especially those converted from household businesses.

Meanwhile, the inspection at VICEM found that the corporation has grown strongly, and secured a domestic market share of 35-36 per cent. It has created jobs for a huge number of workers, and contributed significantly to the country’s socio-economic development.

However, VICEM must handle its shortcomings in some investment projects, the shift to advanced technology, land and property management and cooperation with other firms to make use of by-products of the sector. — VNS