The success of Resolution 02 on improving the business environment this year will be measured by the return of stronger businesses.
Businesses Return to Market: A New Measure of the Business Environment
The success of Resolution 02 on improving the business environment this year will be measured by the return of stronger businesses.
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| Businesses are in dire need of removing obstacles in production and business activities. Photo: d.t |
Business difficulties are present in Resolution 02
Resolution 02/2025/NQ-CP, recently signed by the Prime Minister, has become the 11th version of the annual resolution on key tasks and solutions to improve the business environment and enhance national competitiveness.
In the third year, from 2022 (except 2023), rapidly increasing the number of newly established enterprises and reducing the rate of enterprises withdrawing from the market is one of the specific goals of this resolution.
Specifically, Resolution 02 sets the target that the number of enterprises entering the market (newly established and returning to operation) in 2025 will increase by at least 10% compared to 2024; the number of enterprises withdrawing from the market in 2025 will increase by less than 10% compared to 2024.
In terms of ratio, there is no difference compared to 2024, but compared to the results achieved in 2024, this target is not easy.
According to the General Statistics Office, the number of newly established and returning enterprises in 2024 is 233,400, an increase of 7.1% compared to 2023. The number of enterprises withdrawing is 197,900, an increase of 14.7% compared to 2023. This rate in 2023 compared to the previous year is 4.5% and 20.6%.
- Removing legal and enforcement problems in implementing investment projects.
- Improve the quality of the list of conditional investment and business sectors and business conditions.
- Innovate specialized management and inspection of goods and effectively deploy the National Single Window Portal.
- Reduce and simplify administrative procedures. Increase the application of information technology, interconnection and data sharing among state agencies to improve the efficiency of administrative procedure settlement. Timely announce and publicize administrative procedures, including internal administrative procedures. Increase accountability and improve the efficiency of administrative procedure settlement to serve people and businesses.
- Improve the quality of business development services.
- Review and reduce the number of business inspection activities.
The average capital size of a newly registered enterprise in 2024 also tends to decrease, reaching 9.8 billion VND, compared to the average of 13.7 billion VND in the period 2018-2023. The situation is similar with the average number of employees in a newly registered enterprise, in 2024 it was 6 people, while the average in the period 2018-2023 was about 8 people.
“Obviously, businesses are still facing many difficulties. In 2024, the number of new businesses will increase by only about 35,500, only one-third compared to 2017, lower than the years when the economy was affected by the pandemic,” Nguyen Dinh Cung, former Director of the Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM), analyzed.
In particular, Mr. Cung said that this current situation is sending a message that recent improvements in the business environment are not enough to overcome difficulties in production and business activities, making businesses more cautious.
It should also be added that, in addition to the increase and decrease in the rate of enterprises not meeting the target, in 2024, some of Vietnam's rankings also decreased. For example, Tourism Development Capacity ranked 59th, down 3 places compared to the previous ranking year (2021); Property Rights ranked 85th, down 1 place compared to 2023, not meeting the target set by the Government.
In Resolution 02/2025/NQ-CP, these are the issues identified as needing strong reform in the coming time.
The solution for the return of business
Sharing with reporters of Investment Newspaper right after the Prime Minister signed Resolution 02/2025, Ms. Nguyen Thi Minh Thao, Head of the Department of Business Environment and Competitiveness (CIEM, Ministry of Planning and Investment) admitted that there is pressure to achieve the goal of increasing the number of enterprises.
“But the measure of efforts to improve the business environment and the quality of the business environment is nothing better than the increase in the number and efficiency of businesses. Choosing a high target also helps promote the implementation of this year's solutions, many of which are not easy,” Ms. Thao expressed her opinion.
However, the foundation for this year's difficult solutions is clearer and more solid than ever.
In the guiding viewpoint of Resolution 02/2025/ND-CP, the implementation requirements are listed in detail. These include promptly establishing and perfecting institutions and policies to remove barriers; creating a favorable, safe, low-cost business environment to unlock non-state investment capital, especially private investment, and promoting public-private partnership; encouraging innovation activities, etc.
Notably, in the requirement to focus on removing institutional bottlenecks, in addition to the usual directives, such as synchronously amending the system of legal documents; ensuring simple regulations and administrative procedures, reducing the compliance burden for people and businesses, etc., Resolution 02/2025/NQ-CP emphasizes the directives of the General Secretary and Prime Minister, which is to strictly implement the requirement to transform the mindset of law-making, abandon the mindset of "if you can't manage, then ban", and eliminate the mechanism of asking and giving.
More specifically, the consultation process needs to be substantive; consult widely with affected subjects; organize public dialogues. Improve the quality of legal document enforcement; resolve administrative procedures in a timely manner and without placing additional requirements or conditions on businesses. Promote decentralization and delegation of authority along with resource allocation and strengthen supervision and inspection; further decentralize to agencies, units, and localities in the spirit of "locality decides, locality acts, locality takes responsibility"...
A clear mechanism to protect officials when handling investment and business procedures in case of inconsistencies or differences in regulations between legal documents... will also be a solution this year.
“I believe that the new approach will create truly positive results,” Ms. Thao hopes.
According to the plan, before January 20, 2025, ministries, branches and localities will have to complete the development, promulgation and submission of programs and action plans to the Ministry of Planning and Investment and the Government Office for reporting to the Prime Minister. In particular, the objectives, tasks, implementation progress, expected results for each task and the implementing unit must be clearly defined.
Source: https://baodautu.vn/doanh-nghiep-tro-lai-thi-truong-thuoc-do-moi-cua-moi-truong-kinh-doanh-d240374.html
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