Regulatory compliance costs will be reduced?

According to the World Economic Forum, in 2018, Vietnam's competitiveness is slightly above average as compared to other countries in the world (ranked 69/190 on the ease of doing business and 77/140 in terms of competitiveness). Besides a number of indicators that have improved drastically, there are still many that stay stagnant, especially the index of regulatory compliance costs (referred to as B1). B1 index measures the ease of complying with law and regulations from the perspectives of enterprises (through answering survey questions).

In 2018, Vietnam's B1 index is relatively low, ranking 96 out of 140 countries. Therefore, recently, the Ministry of Justice has issued an initial guideline to all ministries, agencies and localities to reduce the regulatory compliance costs in 2019. According to this guideline, Government agencies at all levels need to assess properly the costs associated with adhering to regulations that businesses have been facing and will continue to face, and then propose amendments to unclear and/or non-feasible regulations that hinder economic development.

In particular, the Ministry called for the abolishment of unnecessary regulations that cause compliance costs in market entry, building factories and business premises. In addition, professional training must be provided for officials, public servants and employees involved. Government agencies also need to publicize and regularly update all information on administrative procedures online to ensure that businesses have access to all the information they need. The Government's objective is to raise the B1 index ranking by 5-10 steps in the next three years, in particular: by 2019 improving by at least 2 steps, by 2020 improving by from 3 to 5 steps, and by 2021 increasing by 5 - 10 steps.

PCI Team

Source: Translation from Bao Cong Thuong