August 30, 2014
– Different government agencies have agreed on a proposal by the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) to axe around 15% of conditional business sectors.
The planning ministry, who was assigned to coordinate with other ministries and agencies to draw up a list of banned and conditional business sectors, reported at a meeting to review prohibited and conditional business sectors last week that there are 386 conditional business areas overseen by 16 ministries and sectors and regulated in 391 legal documents, including 56 laws, eight ordinances, 115 decrees, 176 circulars, 26 decisions of ministers and two documents of ministries.
The ministry’s preliminary reviews indicated that around 56 out of the 386 conditional business areas can be eliminated. Therefore, the ministry proposed abolishing the business sectors which no longer need controls; removing or amending unnecessary, unreasonable and unclear conditions; and changing some business conditions from license issuance to self-registration. It also suggested a reduction in the number of prohibited business sectors from the current 51 to only eight, and the number of conditional business sectors from 386 to 330.
Speaking at the meeting, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung urged government agencies to make a thorough review of the list to create the best business environment for people and enterprises. Dung stressed that any limitation on people’s rights to doing business as stipulated in the Constitution must be regulated and stated clearly in the law. “People and enterprises have the right to invest and do business, in all sectors not prohibited by law,” he said.
Dung noted that the list and relevant regulations must help improve the effectiveness of State management and administration reform by ensuring transparency in implementation to prevent wrongdoing and corruption. “State management dose not mean we create favorable conditions for ourselves but instead, create the most favorable conditions for people and enterprises to invest and do business,” he said.
The list of conditional and banned business sectors will be a necessary part of draft amendments to the Enterprise Law which are expected to get legislative approval at the upcoming sitting of the National Assembly later this year. Draft amendments to the Investment Law are also expected to be passed at this biannual sitting.
(The Saigon Times)